For Geo SCADA Expert to make use of the pager/mobile telephone messaging features, you need to configure:
- Pager Services—Geo SCADA Expert uses Pager Services to determine which protocol to use when sending messages (see Configuring a Pager Service)
- Pager Channels—Geo SCADA Expert uses these to determine which physical connections (ports and so on) are to be used when sending a message (see Configuring a Pager Channel)
- User Accounts—Geo SCADA Expert uses the User accounts of system users to determine which pager device or mobile telephone is to receive a message (see Configuring a User Account's Pager Properties).
- Pager Settings at the Server—Typically, you would only need to consider adjusting the Multipage SMS Message Timeout setting if there are alarms on your system relating to the delivery of incomplete multipage messages (see Configuring Pager Server Settings).
Before you can configure these items, you need to have access to, or an understanding of, the settings of the pagers and mobile telephones that are going to be used with your system. This is because many of the settings you need to define in the Geo SCADA Expert database have to correspond to the settings of the relevant pager equipment. For example, when you configure a User account, you will need to enter a Pager ID that corresponds to the pager number or mobile telephone number of the device owned by the user of the account.
You also need to know which of the optional features are required for your pager items. The optional features include alarm views, alarm redirections, and User methods.
When you have the pager settings information and you understand which optional features are required, you can proceed with configuring the pager items on your system:
- Install the Pager Driver on each of the Geo SCADA Expert servers in your system and check that it is running. To install the Pager Driver, simply re-install Geo SCADA Expert and set the installation to include the Pager Driver.
- Check that appropriate Pager settings are in place on the Geo SCADA Expert server (see Configuring Pager Server Settings).
- Configure a Pager Service for each protocol that is required (see Configuring a Pager Service). You will need to configure additional Pager Services for each variation in the protocol settings, for example, if you need SMS Pager Services with different timeout settings, you will need an SMS Pager Service item for each variation.
- Configure a Pager Channel to represent each connection between the Pager Driver and the Service Provider (see Configuring a Pager Channel).
- Configure the User accounts for those members of staff that are going to need to receive messages on their pager devices or mobile telephones. Each of these User accounts has to:
- Have a Pager ID number so that the system can send a message to the correct pager or mobile phone
- Be associated with the relevant Pager Service.
For more information on defining the Pager ID and the Pager Service, see Configuring a User Account's Pager Properties.
When you have configured the properties described above, you can send messages manually to those system users that have a pager device/mobile telephone. For further information, see Sending a Message Manually.
If automatic messaging is required, some further configuration is needed:
- If pager and SMS messages are to be sent automatically when certain alarm conditions occur, you will also need to configure Alarm Redirections (see Redirecting Alarm Messages to Pagers or Mobile Phones Automatically).
- If pager messages are to be sent automatically at regular time intervals, you will need to configure a schedule. You will also need to associate the recipient's User account with the schedule and set up the Send Message or Send Pager Message action. For more information, see Scheduling Automatic Pager and SMS Messages.
When you have successfully configured the pager items, they will be available for use in the Geo SCADA Expert database. You can use the pager items with the core Geo SCADA Expert features, including Lists, Actions and Mimics. For example, it is possible for operators to filter the Alarms and Events Lists so that they only display those entries that are associated with the state of Pager Comms. For further information:
- see Welcome to the ViewX and Virtual ViewX Clients Guide in the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to ViewX and Virtual ViewX Clients.
- see Welcome to the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to Lists in the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to Lists
- see Introduction to the Pager Driver in the Geo SCADA Expert Guide to Alarms.
The configuration Forms for Pager items contain a series of tabs. Some of these tabs are common to many types of database item and have no Pager-specific properties (see Tabs on Configuration Forms). In this guide, we explain how to configure those properties that are specific to Pager items.