System-Wide Alarm and Alarms List Preferences
This section summarizes those Alarm and Alarms List options that a system administrator can configure on a system-wide basis. Such options, if required to differ from the defaults, should be specified on each server when a ClearSCADA system is first installed. The options are specified using the ClearSCADA Server Configuration Tool.
You can use the ClearSCADA Server Configuration Tool to:
Specify the Alarms Settings
These settings include:
- Whether alarms are actually enabled on your system
- Whether the ‘Area of Interest’ feature is enabled on your system. (For more information on this feature, see Restrict Alarm and Event Access to Specific Areas of Interest.)
- Whether an alarm’s ‘visible’ time is used as its alarm active time in Alarms Lists and the Alarm Banner. (For more information, see Understand the Information that is Displayed on an Alarms List or Alarm Banner.)
- Whether any ‘standard comments’ are available to users that can redirect or acknowledge alarms and associate such actions with a comment.
For more information, see Alarms Settings.
Enable the Exclusive Control feature
You can specify whether the Exclusive Control feature is enabled on your system, and if so, whether a person who has exclusive control can, for example, remove, acknowledge, and/or disable alarms (see Exclusive Control Settings).
Define system-wide Permissions
Specify any system-wide, ViewX user, WebX user, or standard pick action menu Permission Restrictions, including whether all users are denied the permission to Acknowledge Alarms, or Remove Alarms. For more information, see Define whether any Permissions are Restricted.
Define WebX settings
This allows you to define a range of settings for WebX including the order in which columns are sorted on the Alarms List whenever it is viewed from a WebX client (see WebX Server Settings).
Define Alarm Limits Sets for Points
Specify whether points have two sets of Alarm Limits, and whether analog points can have separate master station alarm limits (see Alarm Limits). For more information on using this feature, see Multiple Alarm Limits.
Define additional Point State Alarms
Specify whether any point types have additional Point State Alarms. For information on configuring additional alarm states, see Point State Alarms. For more information on using this feature, see Multiple Point State Alarms.
Define Alarm and Event Severities
You can specify the alarm and event Severities settings, including:
- The colors used to indicate, for example, unacknowledged alarms on the Alarms List.
- The Alarms List and Alarm Banner background colors (such as the background color used for any alarms that a user can acknowledge)
- Which user-initiated alarm actions (such as ‘Remove Alarm’ and ‘Unacknowledge Alarm’) are allowed on the system.
We recommend that you add a separate Severity range, for example, if the points on your system are configured to raise an alarm whenever a change in a point's value results in the point reverting to its Normal state (see Return to Normal Alarm). By using a different color scheme for that Severity you help users to differentiate between these alarms (which indicate a point's transition back to its normal operating state) and alarms that indicate an abnormal condition.
For more information, see Alarm and Event Severities.
To access a ClearSCADA system, users typically log on via a User Account. Anyone who accesses the system without logging on, is logged on automatically via the Guest or Web User accounts.
Use the Root or System Group Form to define the system-wide settings for the Guest User, including:
- Whether the Allow Group Alarm Operations feature is made available to the Guest User.
- The Default Alarm Filter that defines the alarms to which the Guest User has access.
- If the Area of Interest feature is used on your system, any Area of Interest Filters. This can also affect which alarms are visible to the Guest User.
For information on configuring any of the above, see Define the Global Settings for All Guest and Web User Accounts.
If required, the ability to acknowledge specific alarms can optionally be restricted to a particular User, User Group, or ViewX workstation. Such a restriction is configured on a per-item or per-Group basis. For information, see Set Responsibility Action.
You can optionally use Alarm Banner scripts to add ‘custom’ actions to the Alarm Banner’s context-sensitive menu (see Alarm Banner Scripts).