Client Access

Clients access the Hyper Alarm Server through ICONICS FrameWorX interface. OPC DA, OPC AE, OPC UA or other standardized interfaces are not implemented by the Hyper Alarm Server specifically, but some (OPC DA for example) are implemented at the FrameWorX server level and encompass all Point Managers.

Address Space

The following image illustrates all important points exposed by the Hyper Alarm Server Point Manager and the following sections describe them.

Exposed Points

AssetWorX Integration Area

When the Hyper Alarm Server configuration is installed into the same database as AssetWorX, then this Area will appear. Functionally, it is a regular Area as the other Areas defined directly in the Hyper Alarm Server configuration database, and the content mirrors the address space of AssetWorX. Each AssetWorX Equipment is represented by another Area, and each Equipment Property with an alarm configured will be visible as an Alarm source.

Areas

Areas are configured in the Hyper Alarm Server section of Workbench. The AlarmWorX64 Viewer can subscribe to an individual Area instead to the whole Hyper Alarm Server root to receive alarm notifications for that Area and any nested Areas only.

Alarm Counters

Alarm counters appear under each Area and directly in the root. More detailed description of these counters can be found in the Configuring Counters topic.

Alarm Sources

Each Alarm source is represented by a point. The AlarmWorX64 Viewer can subscribe to an individual Alarm source to receive alarm notifications for that source only.

Field Points

Field points appear under each Alarm source and the provide the current value for each individual alarm field. The Field points send a new value to the client every time the value changes, ignoring any scan rate requested by the client.

If the alarm is in the Inactive Acknowledged state, the value of the Field points will be empty. This alarm state is considered the default state and is the state where the alarm disappears from the alarm viewer.

There are two kind of fields exposed. The standard fields defined by the FrameWorX Server and by Hyper Alarm Server is the first kind. Their point names use the at character (@) in front of the field name, for example alms:/Plant Area A.Ash Content@Message. A list of these fields can be found in the section, "Standard fields processed by the Hyper Alarm Server".

The second kind are the user-defined fields. Their point names use the hash mark (#) in front of the field name, for example alms:/Plant Area A.Ash Content#Related Value1.

State Operation Methods

As an alternative to the context menu of the AlarmWorX64 Viewer, it is possible to acknowledge an alarm or to move an alarm in and out of the Suppressed states using the State operation methods. In order to move the alarm in and out of the Suppressed states through the methods here, this capability must be enabled through the ‘Enable User XXX’ setting. See the section "Settings Page" for details. By suppressed states, this documentation refers to any of the Out of Service, Shelved, or Suppressed by Design states.

Method Name + Parameters	Description
Acknowledge(String comment)	Acknowledges the alarm.
LatchReset(String comment)	Resets the alarm from a latch state.
OutOfServiceOn(String comment)	Transfers the alarm in or out one of the suppressed states.
OutOfServiceOff(String comment)
TimeSpan shelveTime)
ShelveOff(String comment)
SuppressedByDesignOn(String comment)
SuppressedByDesignOff(String comment)

All the methods have an optional comment parameter. The value will be included in the alarm update in the appropriate field.

User identification is not one of the parameters to any of the methods, the user information is extracted from FrameWorX Server security and included in the alarm update in the appropriate field also.

The shelveTime optional parameter on the ShelveOn method can contain a value in seconds after which the alarm will be automatically un-shelved. If this parameter is not specified or zero, the alarm will remain shelved until un-shelved manually.

Redundancy Folder

The Redundancy folder exposes basic redundancy related information. When no Redundancy is configured, only information about the local server instance is provided, with Redundancy enabled, both the local and remote servers appear under the Redundancy folder, as seen in the following image.

Redundancy Folder

The Remote folder tunnels to the Local folder of the other computer in the pair. It can be used to verify that communication is functioning between the two computers in the pair.

The MakeActive method can be used to manually switch a server from the standby mode to active. Individual real-time data points have the following meaning (listed in the following chart).

Point Name	Data Type	Description
Active	Boolean	True when the server is active in the redundant pair. ServerStateName is Active.
CanMakeActive	Boolean	True when the MakeActive method may succeed.
CurrentTime	DateTime	The current system time in UTC.
MachineName	String	The computer NETBIOS name.
Online	Boolean	True when server is ready to serve data. ServerStateName is Active or Standby.
RedundancyEnabled	Boolean	True when redundancy is enabled.
ServerStateName	String	The current state of redundancy, values are not localized. For possible values, see the following table.
StartTime	DateTime	The system time in UTC when the Hyper Alarm Server started.
Version	String	The Hyper Alarm Server DLL file version.

Individual states of the ServerStateName point:

Value	Description
Offline	Server doesn't have resources to run (license failure, logger severe error, etc.).
Startup	Server is pending for communication with peer server.
Active	Active server, main source of data.
Standby	Standby server, receives data from Active server.

Alarms & Events Subscriptions

Each Area and Alarm source exposed by the Hyper Alarm Server can be used by the AlarmWorX64 Viewer to subscribe to.

The server exposes the following Alarms & Events type hierarchy.

Alarms & Events Type Hierarchy

The BaseEventType and BaseConditionType together with their fields are defined by the FrameWorX server, but a list of supported fields will be given in the next section anyway.

The AlmsBaseType contains all the fields statically defined by the Hyper Alarm Server. These are described in the next section as well.

The AlmsCommonType contains all the user defined custom fields from all the alarm Types defined in Workbench. Individual alarm Types are not exposed separately from the Alarms & Evens type hierarchically. User defined custom fields are merged using culture invariant case insensitive comparison.

The BaseEventType and BaseConditionType together with their fields are defined by the FrameWorX server, but a list of supported fields will be given in the next section anyway.

The AlmsBaseType contains all the fields statically defined by the Hyper Alarm Server. These are described in the next section as well.

Standard Fields Processed by the Hyper Alarm Server

Type	Field Name	Data Type	Description
BaseEventType	EventId	Byte array	Uniquely identifies the event notification.
	EventTypeName	String	Always ‘AlmsCommonType’
	EventClass	UInt32	Always 2
	SourceName	String	Identifies the Alam source. E.g. “/Area1.Source1”
	Time	DateTime	The time of the event notification.
	Message	String	Alarm message.
	Severity	UInt16	Alarm severity.
BaseConditionType	AckRequired	Boolean	True, if the alarm will require acknowledging.
	ActiveTime	DateTime	The time when the alarm occurred. Any transitions between sub-states does not set a new time, as long as the alarm remains active.
	ActorId	String	The user that acknowledged the alarm.
	ConditionName	String	The name of the Alarm Type associated with the Alarm source.
	NewState	UInt32	A bit field that describe the current alarm state. Basic fields: 0 - Enabled, 1 - Active, 2 - Acknowledged. Extra fields: 4 - Shelved, 5 - Suppressed by Design, 6 - Out of Service, 7 - Latched.
	StatusCode	StatusCode	Quality of the value that triggered the alarm.
	SubConditionName	String	The name of the condition, as configured on the Conditions tab of the alarm type.
AlmsBaseType	AckComment	String	Comment for the acknowledge operation.
	AckTime	DateTime	Time of the acknowledge operation.
	SupActorId	String	The user that suppressed or un-suppressed the alarm.
	SupComment	String	Comment for the suppress or un-suppress operation.
	SupTime	DateTime	Time of the suppress or un-suppress operation.
	SupOffTime	DateTime	Time of the automatic un-suppress operation, or empty.
	ResActorId	String	The user that reset the alarm from the latch state.
	ResComment	String	Comment for the latch reset operation.
	ResTime	DateTime	Time of the latch reset operation.