Where the severity type (alarm or event) is fixed within ClearSCADA, a single Severity field is displayed on a Form. Use the Severity combo box to select the severity level that is appropriate to the events and/or alarms associated with that particular item.
(In some instances, separate Severity fields are available for specific alarms or events—see the relevant configuration documentation for details. With Alarm Redirections, two Severity combo boxes are displayed. Use the combo boxes to specify the lowest and highest severity levels that are to trigger an alarm redirection (see Define the Severity Range).
The default options are:
- None
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Critical.
Where ‘None’ indicates that no alarms will be raised, and no events will be logged for an item. The other four options indicate rising levels of severity, with ‘Low’ being the lowest priority and ‘Critical’ being the highest priority.
The default Severity settings can be overwritten by a custom range of priorities. If the default settings have been replaced by a customized range—select the appropriate level of importance. (For information on changing the default settings, see Alarm and Event Severities.)
In either case, a system administrator should define the meaning of each Severity—for instance, the level of importance, or urgency of action that is to be associated with each severity level on a system (see the example below).
If the Dictionary feature is used on your system, Severity strings might be prefixed with @, in order for those strings to be replaced with other terms, when displayed in a List or on a Mimic, in ViewX. For more information, see Introduction to the ClearSCADA Translation Dictionary in the ClearSCADA Guide to the Translation Dictionary.
Example:
A ClearSCADA system uses the default Severity settings. Users could consider the severities to have the following levels of importance and urgency:
- None—No alarms or events are raised or logged for this item.
- Low—A low level of importance, usually associated with states that indicate minor abnormal conditions that should not affect the running of the system or safety of staff. Operators should only acknowledge or resolve Low priority alarms and events once they have responded to other priorities of alarm and event.
- Medium—A medium level of importance, usually associated with states that indicate that ClearSCADA has detected a significant problem. Typically, the problem that ClearSCADA has detected may affect the running of the system, but should not pose a danger to staff or equipment.
- High—A high level of importance, usually associated with states that indicate that ClearSCADA has detected a major problem. High priority alarms and events typically require a fast user response. Operators should respond to High alarms and events before responding to Medium and Low alarms and events.
- Critical—The highest level of importance, associated with states that indicate that ClearSCADA has detected a major problem or an emergency situation. Critical alarms and events typically require an immediate response, as they relate may relate to major problems or system events that affect the performance of the system or the safety of the staff.