Alarm and Event Categories that are Specific to the MQTT Sparkplug™ B Driver

Each alarm and event on a Geo SCADA Expert system has a Category that indicates the type of alarm or event. The Category is included by default in the Events List and, if applicable, the Alarms List and the Alarm Banner.

You can optionally filter the entries in either List by category—the entries from which you can choose comprise various ‘core’ categories, along with any categories that are specific to the drivers that are installed on your system.

On systems on which this driver is installed, in addition to the ‘core’ alarm and event categories, these driver-specific categories are available:

Sparkplug B Configuration Error—During initial configuration or later expansion of your system, you can use the Create Points from Birth Metrics pick action to trigger Geo SCADA Expert to automatically create the required Sparkplug B Points in the database. Alarms and events in this category indicate whether Geo SCADA Expert has detected an issue and has therefore been unable to completely fulfill this request. An alarm is raised to indicate such an issue, and an event is logged which provides further information about that issue. Typically an issue might occur due to one of the following:
- Geo SCADA Expert's attempt to create a database point from a metric has failed.
- Geo SCADA Expert has detected that a metric already has a corresponding point in the database, however the attempt to modify the configuration of that point to align it with that of the metric has failed. This could occur, for example, if the Sparkplug B data type has changed so significantly that it is not compatible with the point's current type.
Sparkplug B Online State—These comprise entries that indicate the connection status of MQTT Sparkplug B EoN Nodes and MQTT Sparkplug B Devices. An alarm is raised whenever an EoN Node or Device goes offline. The alarm clears and an event is logged when the EoN Node or Device goes online.
For information about the current connection status of a specific EoN Node or Device, look at the Online State and Online State Alarm attributes on the item's Status display.

Sparkplug B Sequence Number Error—Each EoN node and Sparkplug B device includes a sequence number in each message that it transmits. These start at zero (0) with NBIRTH messages and increment for other messages up to 255, at which stage the numbering restarts again from zero.

Alarms and events in this category indicate whether Geo SCADA Expert has received any messages that are out of sequence, or if the EoN node's NBIRTH sequence number is unexpectedly not zero. This latter issue might occur if the equipment with which Geo SCADA Expert is communicating does not adhere to the Sparkplug™ Specification and does not start its sequence numbers at zero. An alarm subcondition indicates whether Geo SCADA Expert is still able to communicate with such equipment, or whether the sequence numbers that it transmits are out of range.

Geo SCADA Expert raises a Fleeting Alarm on the relevant Sparkplug B EoN Node if such a sequence number issue is detected. The fleeting alarm is assigned the Severity level that is configured for alarms and events on that EoN Node (see Configure the Properties on the EoN Node Tab). The table below provides more information:

Alarm	Subcondition	Comments
Sequence number alarm	Sequence number missing	The sequence number in the message that Geo SCADA Expert received was not the number that was expected. This indicates that messages from the EoN node or Sparkplug B device might have been lost.
Initial sequence number alarm	Initial sequence number non-zero	The NBIRTH message that Geo SCADA Expert received had a sequence number that was greater than zero. The number was between 1 and 255, therefore Geo SCADA Expert is still able to communicate with that EoN node and any associated Sparkplug B device.
Initial sequence number alarm	Initial sequence number out-of-range	The NBIRTH message that Geo SCADA Expert received had a sequence number that was greater than 255. The equipment does not appear to adhere to the Sparkplug™ specification, therefore Geo SCADA Expert is unable to communicate with that EoN node and any associated Sparkplug B device.