User manual

Managing Alarms
53
13.0 MANAGING ALARMS
This section describes how to view a listing of alarms, silence the default beep, change the status of
alarms, add notes about an alarm, and change the colors that denote alarm status in the listing.
Nform assists in managing alarms by displaying their status, denoting each type with a different
color of text. This enables the user, either the Administrator or Power User, to see at a glance
whether a new alarm has been received and if action is required.
The example below shows a device with an active alarm and its event history on the right.
Alarms can proceed through the following states: Active, Acknowledged and Deleted.
• When an alarm is received, it is Active (default text color: red).
• During or after instituting measures to resolve the alarm’s underlying cause, the user may
change the alarm’s status to Acknowledged (default text color: green).
• The final alarm management step is to Delete the alarm, removing it from the list of alarms in
the Net Event Manager. An alarm must be acknowledged before it can be deleted.
In addition, deleting an alarm from the viewer permanently removes it from the alarm log file.
The alarm log file (alarmlog.fil) is stored in the Nform directory in comma-delimited format for
viewing in third-party applications.
Nform displays an alarm history, including current, active alarms and acknowledged alarms that
have not been deleted, for each monitored, managed device in the Net Event Manager. New alarms
are added at the top of the list. This history is displayed when:
• Nform is opened (before logging in)
• When OpenComms Nform Alarm Logging is selected in the Navigate tab
• When Event History is selected for any device in the Navigate tab
Alarms remain in this display until they are deleted, the final step in responding to alarms.
The user may add notes about any alarm in the Net Event Manager display. These notes remain only
as long as the alarm is displayed in the Net Event Manager.
In addition to the Net Event Manager alarm listing, Nform records pertinent alarm data in an alarm
log that Nform creates in its Data folder. This log is limited to 5,000 records by default. The number of
records retained may be changed by the user (see 9.6.1 - Alarm Service - Configuration).
Icon denotes device
with active alarm
Acknowledged
alarms
(green)
Active alarms
from GXT 2U
(red)
Icon denotes loss of communication—not an alarm
(see 7.2.2 - Informational Icons in the Navigation Tree)
Silence default beep
button