The OCS360 platforms provides the ability to create and manage alarms related to your entities, devices, assets, customers, etc. Alarms assist in promptly addressing issues, preventing potential negative consequences, and ensuring efficient system operation.
For example, the user can configure the OCS360 platform to automatically create an alarm when the temperature sensor reading is above a certain threshold.
• Originator: The Alarm Originator is an entity that causes the alarm. For example, “Device A” is the initiator of an alarm if the OCS360 platform receives a temperature reading from it that exceeds the threshold value specified in the alarm rule, and it creates a “High Temperature” alarm.
• Type: The Alarm Type helps to identify the root cause of the alarm. It is set when creating an alarm rule. For example, “High Temperature” and “Low Humidity” are two different alarms.
Severity
Each alarm has severity assigned, which is either Critical, Major, Minor, Warning, or Indeterminate (sorted by priority in descending order). Also set when creating an alarm rule.
Status
Alarms in OCS360 platform can be active or cleared. The system can automatically clear an alarm if a predefined condition is met, though setting such an Alarm clear condition is optional. Additionally, users have the option to manually clear alarms.
Apart from the active and cleared states, OCS360 platform also monitors whether an alarm has been acknowledged by a user.
There are four alarm statuses:
• Active unacknowledged (ACTIVE_UNACK) - alarm is not cleared and not acknowledged yet;
• Active acknowledged (ACTIVE_ACK) - alarm is not cleared but already acknowledged;
• Cleared unacknowledged (CLEARED_UNACK) - alarm was already cleared but not yet acknowledged;
• Cleared acknowledged (CLEARED_ACK) - alarm was already cleared and acknowledged.
Managing Alarms can be done through the “Alarms” page, via a dashboard widget or within an entity’s details tab.
The OCS360 platform identifies alarms using a combination of originator, type, and start time. Thus, at a single point in time, there is only one active alarm with the same originator, type, and start time.
For example, the user has provisioned alarm rules to create a “HighTemperature” alarm when the temperature is greater than 20. And also provisioned alarm rules to clear the “HighTemperature” alarm when the temperature is less than or equal to 20.
Using the following sequence of events:
• 12:00 - temperature equals 18
• 12:30 - temperature equals 22
• 13:00 - temperature equals 25
• 13:30 - temperature equals 18
A single “High Temperature” alarm will be generated with start time = 12:30 and end time = 13:00.
The alarm has a start time and a creation time. The alarm start time is determined by the moment the set threshold is exceeded (i.e., when the conditions for triggering the alarm first occurred), while the alarm creation time refers to the moment when the OCS360platform received telemetry from the device and processed it. By default, start time and creation time are the same.
However, a device may send telemetry with a timestamp from the past, for example, if it was offline or ifit is transmitting data for a specific time period with a delay. If the processing of this telemetry reveals that a threshold has been exceeded, the OCS360 platform will generate an alarm. The alarm start time will be the timestamp of the message with the threshold value exceeded, and the alarm creation time will be the time that the OCS360 platform processed messages from the device. In this case, the start time and alarm creation time will be different.
For example, an air quality monitoring system that tracks pollution levels. The threshold for triggering an alarm is set at 100 pollution units.
• At 12:00, the sensor measures the pollution level, and it is 95 units — the alarm threshold is not exceeded.
• At 12:05, the next measurement shows 105 pollution units - the alarm threshold is exceeded.
• At 12:08, the OCS360 platform receives data from the device, analyzes it, and registers the alarm. The alarm created time is 12:08, as that is the moment when the OCS360 platform received and processed the device message. The alarm start time is 12:05 because that is the exact moment when the conditions for triggering the alarm were first met.
Thus, the alarm start time and the alarm creation time can differ, which is important to consider when analyzing the system’s response to emerging events.
Also, within the alarm rule settings, the user can define specific conditions under which the alarm is created:
• Simple - if the threshold value is exceeded, an alarm is created immediately
• Duration - an alarm will be created if the duration of exceeding the threshold value exceeds the specified value. For example, the user can configure it to allow a short-term increase in temperature in the room.
• But if the temperature remains elevated for more than 5 minutes, an alarm is created
• Repeating - an alarm will be created if the threshold value is exceeded a specified number of times. For example, the user can configure it to allow the room temperature to rise above the threshold value four times. On the fifth occurrence, an alarm will be created.
When the OCS360 platform creates an alarm, in addition to the creation and start time, it also stores the end time of the alarm. By default, the start time and the end time are the same. If the alarm trigger condition repeats, the platform updates the end time.
User can assign an alarm to a specific user so that, for example, the assignee can respond to the elevated temperature in the room and take appropriate action.
Assignee for an alarm can be configured from “Alarms” page, in the “Alarm Table” widget, or on the “Alarms” tab in the details window of the selected entity.
Note: To assign an alarm to specific user, this user must be the owner of the device from which the alarm triggers.
Once the alarm is assigned, the user will receive a notification about it.
The easiest way to create an alarm is to use the alarm rules in the device profile. The user must define parameters and rules according to which the alarm will be triggered.
Notifications for Alarms
In OCS360 the Notification Center is available to send notifications, including alarms, to all users. By default, the user will receive notifications about all associated alarms and alarms of their customers. The Notification Center allows users to flexibly configure rules for sending notifications for alarms to end users through the OCS360 web interface, email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or SMS.
Alternatively, the user can configure custom logic in the Rule Engine, using the Send Email and Send SMS rule nodes or others from the External Nodes to configure.
Alarms Page
The Alarm page available in the left pane of OCS360 is used to view and manage alarms. All alarms related to entities: devices, assets, customers, etc., and alarms of customers and users are listed here. The following information - creation time, source, alarm type, severity, to whom assigned, and status of the alarm are also available in this page.
By default, only active alarms for all time are displayed here. If desired, apply a filter and time interval to see other results. To view more information about an alarm, click on the ellipsis (…) in the “Details” column of the alarm to view.
Alarm Widgets
The OCS360 platform supports widgets for visualizing alarms on the dashboard.
The “Alarms Table” widget allows user to conveniently display and manage alarms for selected devices based on a defined time window and filters.
The “Alarm Count” widget displays the number of alarms based on the selected filter.
The filter setting allows the user to:
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Filter alarms by status using any combination of acknowledge/unacknowledge/active/clear
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Filter alarms by severity using any combination of severity levels
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Display a list of alarms by type
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Enable or disable search of the propagated alarms (only for “Alarms table” widget).
Acknowledge and/or Clear Alarms
Alarms have four statuspossibilities: Acknowledged / Unacknowledged / Active / Clear.
To acknowledge the alarm, click on the “Acknowledge” icon in the Alarms table widget or click on the “Acknowledge” button in the alarm details window on the “Alarms” page, or on the “Alarms” tab of the entity details window.
To clear the alarm, click on the “Clear” icon in the Alarms table widget or click on the “Clear” button in the alarm details window.
Alarm Comments
To find comments on a specific alarm, open the detailed information about the alarm by clicking on the ellipsis (…) in the “Details” column. System comments and comments from other users can be viewed in this section.
There are two types of comments: User and System. Authorized users may add, edit, and delete their comments. System comments are non-editable grey-colored comments that describe alarm events such as changes to severity, alarm assignee etc.
Alarm Rules
OCS360 Platform users can create Alarm Rules in Device Profiles that can trigger an alarm. Users can also use the Rule Engine (see Rule Engine Overview to configure alarms
Alarm Rules consist of the following properties:
• Alarm Type - a type of Alarm. Alarm type must be unique within the device profile alarm rules;
• Create Conditions - defines the criteria when the Alarm will be created/updated. The condition consists of the following properties:
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Severity - will be used to create/update an alarm. OCS360 verifies Create Conditions in the descending order of the severity. For example, if a condition with Critical severity is true, the platform will raise an alarm with Critical severity, and “Major”, “Minor” or “Warning” conditions will not be evaluated. Severity must be unique per alarm rule (e.g., two conditions created within the same alarm rule can’t have the same severity)
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Key Filters - a list of logical expressions against attributes or telemetry values. For example, “(temperature < 0 OR temperature > 20) AND softwareVersion = ‘2.5.5’“
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Condition Type - either Simple, Duration, or Repeating. For example, 3 times in a row or during 5 minutes. The simple condition will raise an alarm once the first matching event occurrs
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Schedule - defines the time interval during which the rule is active. Either “active all the time”, “active at specific time” or “custom”
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Additional info – provides the template that supports substitution of the telemetry and/or attribute values using ${attributeName} syntax
• Clear Condition - defines criteria when the Alarm will be cleared;
• Advanced Settings - defines alarm propagation to related assets, customers, tenant, or other entities.
Add Alarm Configuration (Alternate Configuration Method)
Alarm rules can also be configured using the Add Alarm Configuration icon available in the Alarm page.
Alarm Rule Examples
Below are some examples for creating Alarm Rules.
Example 1. Simple Alarm Conditions
Create a Critical Alarm when the temperature is greater than 10 degrees.
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Open the device profile and toggle edit m
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Click the "Add alarm rule" button.
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Input Alarm Type and click on the red "+" sign.
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Click the "Add Key Filter" button.
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Select the "Timeseries" key type. Input the "temperature" key name. Change "Value type" to "Numeric". Click the "Add" button.
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Select the "greater than" operation and input the threshold value. Click "Add".
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Click the "Save" button.
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Apply changes.
NOTE: The temperature key name is provided as an example, select the key name based on the telemetry data sent by device.
Example 2. Alarm Condition with a Duration
Modify Example 1 and raise alarms only if the temperature exceeds a certain threshold for 1 minute.
To do this edit the alarm condition and modify the condition type from “Simple” to “Duration”. Also specify the duration value and unit.
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Edit the alarm condition and change the condition type to "Duration". Specify duration value and unit. Save the condition.
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Apply changes.
Example 3. Repeating Alarm Condition
Modify Example 1 and raise alarms only if the sensor reports a temperature that exceeds the threshold 3 times in a row.
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Edit the alarm condition and change the condition type to "Repeating". Specify "3" as "Count of events" to trigger the alarm. Save the condition.
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Apply changes.
Example 4. Clear Alarm Rule
If you would like to automatically clear the alarm if the temperature goes back to normal.
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Open the device profile and toggle edit mode. Click the "Add clear condition" button.
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Click on the red "+" sign.
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Add Key Filter. Then click Add.
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Save the alarm rule condition and apply changes.
Example 5. Define Alarm Rule Schedule
To trigger an alarm only during a scheduled time
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Edit the schedule of the alarm rule.
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Select timezone, days, time interval, and click "Save".
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Apply changes.
