Alarm Notification System - Alerts by Phone, Email or SMS-Text
The Alarm Notification System will send alarm notifications to off-site operators by any of phone, email, pager message or SMS-text. Operators will see or hear the details of active alarms and (optionally) may acknowledge those alarms using the same format with which the alarm was sent.
This feature is an optional part of your VTScada license. Contact a representative of Trihedral Engineering Limited for further details. It is not available to VTScada Light installations.
Customers using the modem dialer feature of the Alarm Notification System must ensure that they apply Windows updates on a regular basis.
Updates to VTScada will often include modem drivers that have been patched to work with the latest Microsoft updates for your version of the Windows operating system. They may not work if you have not applied those updates to your system.
If using a voice modem, the workstation name configured in the modem tag must have fewer than 15 characters.
If running multiple applications (for example, hosted systems) then you cannot share modems, SMS devices, or Twilio accounts between applications. You must have independent modems or Twilio accounts for each application.
Only alarms with priority Critical (1) or High (2) are sent, and those only after they have gone unacknowledged for a configured length of time. The Alarm Notification System will continue to cycle through the roster in sequence until the alarm is acknowledged, or until an email, text message or pager message that is not flagged "continue sequence" is sent.
If a new alarm should occur while operators are being notified of existing alarms, or the first person in the active roster has already been informed of an existing alarm when the new alarm occurs, the Alarm Notification System will initiate a new contact to the first person on the active roster.
Having an operator sign in remotely through the Alarm Notification System does not affect the status of any operator who is logged on at the site.
The Alarms Tab of the Edit Properties Page contains several settings that control alarm notification behavior. See: Alarm Notification Options These should be reviewed before proceeding. Note that many properties can be overridden for Rosters or Alarm Databases on a case-by-case basis. See: Roster Control Using Properties
Hardware and Software Requirements:
Hardware requirements vary according to the form in which notifications are sent.
- For spoken alarms and pager notifications, the Alarm Notification System uses either a modem or the Twilio service to make outgoing calls.
- For email notifications, configure an email server or provide access to a commercial server such as G-Mail™ or HotMail™.
- For SMS-text notifications, you will need a SMS appliance. Many customers find it easier to send an SMS-ready email. SMS hardware is not covered in this guide.
For the SMS text option: While VTScada will always attempt to send the text message, there is no guarantee that your the cellular provider will deliver all messages. Use the SMS option with caution.
The Roster tag will not allow you to configure a contact method that does not exist on your system. Ensure that you have at least one of the above before proceeding.
VTScada Tag Requirements:
You will need to configure some or all of the following tags in your VTScada system:
Modem Tags - A Modem tag, if using a voice modem.
SMS Appliance Tags - A SMS Appliance tag, if sending and receiving text messages.
Roster Tags - One or more Roster tags, to control who is contacted, and how the notification is sent.
Trigger Tags - Trigger tags to automatically activate Rosters on schedule. Manual switching is done with a Make Active widget.
Other Configuration:
In addition to hardware and tag configuration, you may want to use the following:
Using Twilio for Alarm Notifications - Configure VTScada to send notifications using your Twilio account.
Alarm Area Filtering - Alarm Area Filtering or ...
Realm Filtering - Realm Filtering, to control which alarms an operator may view.
Speech Lexicon Configuration - Voice Lexicon configuration to control how words are pronounced.
Make Active Widget - Draw the Rosters as Make Active buttons, to enable manual switching from one roster to another. Automatic switching is done with a Trigger tag.
Alarm Notification Options - Configure which alarm priorities trigger a notification and the delay before sending. Also, which menu or sub-menu to read first in Alarm Notification System calls.
Alarm Message Templates - Template configuration to control what is sent in the alarm message.
Allow Acknowledgment by Email or SMS Text - Configuration requirements to allow acknowledgment.
Accounts and Roles - Configure security accounts to control who may acknowledge alarms, and to associate a user name with each alarm acknowledgment.
Alarm Notification System Properties - Related settings and properties.
Alarm Data Logging - Alarm System Event Logging
Roster Selection Hierarchy - Rules governing which roster to use for an alarm.
Activate a Roster - Covers manual and automatic activation.
- Verify that a modem is compatible and install it correctly for use by the Alarm Notification System.
The Alarm Page - Operator instructions for using the alarm page and alarms sent from the Alarm Notification System.
