Proficy Historian

TM

ALARMS AND EVENTS

Version 3.1
Jan. 2006

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Proficy Historian Alarms and Events

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 Table Of Contents

Table Of Contents
Historian Alarms and Events .........................................................................................................................................1
Alarm and Event Archive Configuration ..................................................................................................................2
OPC Alarm and Event Collector ...............................................................................................................................3
Working with Alarm and Event Data......................................................................................................................12

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Historian includes Alarm and Event archiving, to provide the ability to retrieve and store Alarm and Event Data
from any OPC-compliant A&E server through the OPC Alarm and Event collector. Additions have also been
made to the Excel Add-In and OLE DB Provider to support alarm and event data.
Alarms are generally defined as tags going into an abnormal condition. For example, an alarm could be set on a
boiler when it reaches a specified temperature. Alarms usually have a well-defined life cycle, which is defined
by the individual data sources the alarms are collected from (iFIX, for example). They enter an alarm state, are
generally acknowledged, then return to normal.
Historian handles alarm data in two ways. You can view the entire Alarm as a single record that contains all
information about the alarm, or you can view the Alarm History, which shows the transitions of the alarm as
individual records.
Events are generally defined as activities in a system that occur once only. For example, a user logging on to a
device is an event. When viewing this data in Historian, each event is returned as a record.
Historian's OPC Alarm and Event Collector offers the ability to link alarm data with associated process data.
This allows you to quickly perform queries, through either the Excel Add-In or OLE DB Provider, that join
process data with alarm and event data, giving you a full picture of what may have caused an alarm to occur.
For more information, refer to the following topics:
Alarm and Event Requirements

Configuring Alarm and Event Archiving

Alarm and Event Collection

Working with Alarm and Event Data

Reference Documents
For related information about Historian, refer to the following documents:
Using the Historian Administrator

Historian Data Collectors

Using the Historian Excel Add-In

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Migrating Advanced and Classic Historian Data

Using the Historian OLE DB Provider

Historian Software Development Kit (SDK) Online Help System

The following are required to make use of the alarm and event support in Historian
An OPC-compliant Alarm & Events Server. This is included with GE Fanuc products such as
CIMPLICITY PE, ME and iFIX.

A Microsoft SQL server, such as MSDE or Microsoft SQL Server. (An MSDE SQL Server is installed
by Historian)

NOTE: Historian installs MSDE if the Alarm and Event collector is selected, and will use MSDE by
default. MSDE has a 2GB limit on the size of its databases. If your alarm and event database will
exceed this limit, you may wish to use SQL Server instead of MSDE. Refer to Historian Alarm and
Event SQL Configuration for more information.

iFIX users must install the iFIX OPC Alarm and Event Server.

Crystal Reports users must have Crystal Reports 11 or higher installed.

Alarm and Event Archive Configuration

For more information about configuring Alarm and Event Archiving, refer to the following topics:
Historian Alarm and Event SQL Configuration

Alarm and Event Archive Management

By default, Historian's Alarm and Event archive is configured to use an integrated MSDE SQL database. This
MSDE database is installed with Historian, and is preconfigured for use with Historian's Alarm and Events
archive. However, you may want to configure Historian to make use of an existing Microsoft SQL Server.
Historian's database configuration is determined at install time. As part of the installation process, Historian
will prompt you to install and configure a local instance of MSDE (Microsoft's embedded database engine) or
make use of an existing SQL Server. If you wish to use an existing SQL Server or an existing MSDE
installation to store the Alarm and Event archive, select Use existing SQL Server instance, and enter values
for the Server Name, Database Name, Admin User, and Admin Password fields.
Alarm and Event archive management is handled transparently by the Historian Administration utility through
the Archives screen. Alarm and event data is archived alongside process data in Historian for the same time

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period. For more information, refer to Adding, Backing Up, or Restoring an Archive.
NOTE: If you have configured Historian Alarms and Events to use SQL Server, you must ensure that both
Historian and SQL Server have write access to the remote folder used for data backup.

OPC Alarm and Event Collector

The OPC Alarm & Event Collector collects alarm and event data from an OPC Alarm & Event compliant
server, and stores it alongside Historian process data. Like other collectors, the OPC Alarm & Event Collector
is created when Historian is installed, based on the OPC Alarm & Event servers available.
For more information about configuring the OPC Alarm & Event Collector, refer to the following topics:
Configuring the OPC Alarm and Event Collector

Configuration of OPC Alarm and Event Collector-specific fields

Alarm Filtering

Event Types, Event Categories, and Conditions

Event Attributes

To configure the OPC Alarm and Event Collector:

1. Open the Historian Administrator.

2. Select the Collectors screen.

3. Select the OPC Alarm and Event collector instance you wish to configure.

4. Configure the OPC Alarm and Event Collector's General options. Refer to Modifying General
Collector Options for more information.

5. Configure the OPC Alarm and Event Collector-specific options. Refer to Configuration of OPC Alarm
and Event Collector-specific fields for more information.

a. Click the Configuration tab.

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b. In the OPC Server PROGID field, enter the PROGID of your OPC Alarm and Event server.

c. In the Link to Data Collector list box, select a data collector to link the Alarm and Events
collector to. Alternately, you can enter the name of the collector to link to manually by typing
it in the field.

WARNING: Although the collector will function properly with no associated data collector, alarm
and event data will not be associated with tag data from the data collector if it is not specified in this
field. As a result, queries through the Excel Add-in or the OLE DB Provider will not be able to join
tag and alarm data.

d. If you want to filter your events, enable the Filtering option and click on the Filters... button.
Refer to Alarm Filtering for more information.

6. Click Update to save your configuration.

NOTE: To install additional OPC Alarm and Event collectors, you must re-run the Historian install.

The following table outlines the OPC Alarm and Event Collector-specific configuration fields.

Field Description

OPC Server PROGID The PROGID of the OPC Alarm and

Events Server.

Link to Data Collector The data collector to link the alarm

and events to. This allows you to
join alarm and event data with tag
data when querying the Historian
database for data. This is usually
located on the same server as the
OPC alarm and event server.

Filtering Enables or disables filtering of OPC

Alarm and Event data. See Alarm
Filtering for more information.

Show Last Alarms Clicking on this button will display

the last 10 collected alarms and

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events.

Close Alarms Opens the Close Alarm Dialog.

The Historian alarm and event collector captures all event types, categories, sub-categories and conditions
supplied to it by the OPC Alarm and Event Server. Consult your OPC server documentation for more detail as
to which categories, sub-categories and conditions it provides.

Event Types

Three basic types of events are supplied by an OPC alarm and event server: Condition, Simple, and Tracking.
Each of these types has its own categories, sub-categories and conditions. For example, a Condition event may
have a Level category, which itself may have several conditions, such as LO LO, LO, HI, and HI HI.
Condition events record the transition of states in an alarm. For example, a condition event could be recorded
for an alarm when the level changes from LO to HI HI.
Tracking events are not associated with conditions, but rather track activity between the OPC Alarm and
Events Server and an OPC client. For example, if an operator acknowledges an alarm, a tracking event would
be recorded.
Simple events record everything not covered by Condition or Tracking events. For example, if a device were to
fail, a simple event would be recorded.

Event Categories

Event categories are used to group similar event types and are configured on the OPC alarm and events server.
For example, you might set up categories for "System Events", "Process Events", and "Batch Events". You
might likewise set up categories for different areas of your process, such as "Premix", "Dry Mix" or "Bake".
Categories can hold multiple event types, and a given source can generate events for multiple categories.
NOTE: Category names must be unique within the OPC alarm and event server.

Event Conditions

Conditions are named states of alarms and events within the OPC alarm and event server. Conditions could
include LO LO, LO, HI, and HI HI, as well as SYSTEM_FAILURE, LIMIT EXCEEDED, NORMAL STATE,
and others. Conditions may also contain sub-conditions, which help to further granularize. Consult your OPC
Server's documentation for a complete listing of its conditions.

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Events usually also include attributes, which give greater detail to the status of the event. Attributes vary from
server to server; user-defined attributes as well as vendor-defined attributes may be configured on your OPC
alarm and event server.
Some common attributes are:
Start time

End time

Acknowledgement status

Acknowledgement time

Operator name

Data Source

Quality

Severity

Historian archives all event attributes sent to it by the OPC alarm and event server. Consult your OPC alarm
and event server documentation for more information.
By default, the OPC Alarm and Event collector will collect all alarm and event data sent to it, and
archive it. This ensures that all your alarm and event data will be archived, without any special
configuration required. If you archive all of your alarm and event data, however, it can have an impact
on the amount of storage required for Historian to operate. As a result, you may wish to specify
which alarms and events you want the OPC Alarm and Event collector to collect.

Alarm and Event filtering works on an inclusive model. If filtering is not enabled, all alarm and event
data is collected. If filtering is enabled, then only the selected alarms and events will be collected.

The following filter options are available:

Filter option Description

Severity Range Includes alarms between a low and high filter

range.
For example, filter alarms whose severity range is

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between 100 and 200.

Event Type Filters by event type. See Event Types, Event

Categories, and Conditions for more information

Area Filters by a user-defined process area. This is useful if

you only want to collect alarms from specific process
areas. This filter option is only useful if you have
defined areas in the alarm and event server.

Source Filters by the alarm source. This is useful if you only

want to collect alarms from specific parts of your
process.

Category Filters by event category. See Event Types, Event

Categories, and Conditions for more information

To filter alarm and event data:

1. Start the Historian Administrator.

2. Select the Collectors screen.

3. Select the OPC Alarm and Event Collector instance you want to configure.

4. Select the Configuration tab.

5. In the Filtering section, click Enabled.

6. Click the Filters... button.

7. Select your filter criteria.

To filter by severity range

To filter by event type

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To filter by area
To filter by source

To filter by category

8. Click Update to save your changes.

To filter by severity range:

1. Select the Filter by Severity Range checkbox.

2. Enter a range of values into the Collect From and To boxes.

3. Return to configuring the filter criteria.

To filter by event type:

1. Select the Filter by Event Type checkbox.

2. Select the type of event or events you want to filter by.

3. Return to configuring the filter criteria.

To filter by area:

1. Select the Filter by Area checkbox.

2. Click the Edit... button.

3. Navigate to the area you want to filter by.

4. Select the area you want to filter by and click Copy.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to filter by additional areas.

6. To add an area manually, enter the area you want to filter by in the Area box and click Copy.

7. To remove areas from the Areas to Add list, select the area you want to delete and click Remove
Selected.

8. Return to configuring the filter criteria.

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To filter by source:

1. Select the Filter by Source checkbox.

2. Click the Edit... button.

3. Navigate to the Area the source is found in.

4. Select the source you want to filter by and click Copy.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to filter by additional sources.

6. To add a source manually, enter the source you want to filter by in the Source box and click Copy.

7. To remove sources from the Sources to Add list, select the source you want to delete and click
Remove Selected.

8. Return to configuring the filter criteria.

To filter by event category:

1. Select the Filter by Event Category checkbox.

2. Click the Edit... button.

3. In the Choose Event Category field, select an event category.

4. In the Categories Available field, select the category you want to filter by.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to filter by additional categories.

6. To add a category manually, enter the category you want to filter by in the Category box and click
Copy.

7. To remove categories from the Categories to Add list, select the category you want to delete and click
Remove Selected.

8. Return to configuring the filter criteria.

The Close Alarms dialog provides the ability to close open alarms through the Historian Administrator.
The Close Alarms dialog contains the following fields:

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Field Description

End Date/Time Shows alarms that are open with an end date before the
time specified.

Show Alarms button Click to show alarms for the specified time period.

Alarm table Displays any open alarms.

Close Alarms button Closes selected alarms.

To close an alarm:

1. Open the Historian Administrator

2. Click the Collectors tab.

3. From the list of collectors, select the alarm and event collector you wish to close alarms on.

4. Click the Close Alarms button. The Close Alarms dialog appears.

5. In the End Date/Time field, enter a date/time value. Clicking on the browse button brings up a
calendar.

6. Click the Show Alarms button. A list of open alarms will appear.

7. Select the alarms you wish to close, and click the Close Alarms button.

At the moment no OPC Alarm & Event Server exists for use with FIX32 SCADA systems. To accomodate
Alarm Collection from these systems, alarms can be proxied through an iFIX node with an OPC AE Server that
the Proficy Historian OPC Alarm Collector can then receive them from.
There are two different configurations that can occur in this instance.
The first would be a simple proxy in which only one FIX32 system forwards its alarms through a particular
iFIX node. In this situation (see Figure 1), the OPC AE Collector can be linked to the FIX32 Data collector
(see Configuration of OPC Alarm and Event Collector-specific fields). With the link created, any Queries
created with the Excel Add-In which compare Tag & Alarm data will function correctly.

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Figure 1: OPC Collector linked to FIX32 Data collector

The second configuration (see Figure 2) consists of more than one FIX32 system proxying alarms through a
single iFIX node. In this situation, the 'Link To Data Collector' property cannot be set to both FIX32 data
collectors. As a result the area of the Alarm Archive responsible for creating the relationship between the alarm
and tag data will not be populated and in turn the Excel Add-In will be unable to link the data.

Figure 2: FIX32 SCADA proxying through iFIX

To link alarm and tag data in this situation, an OLE DB query can be performed with a join between the
"ItemID" column of the ihAlarms database and the "TagName" column of the ihRawData database. This join
can only be performed if No Prefix has been added to the tagname. Below is an example of a parameterized
query that uses the AlarmID property to find all values read from the corresponding tag for that alarm during
the duration of the alarm.

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SELECT ihRawData.'Value', ihRawData.Tagname, ihRawData.'TimeStamp'

FROM ihRawData, ihAlarms

WHERE ihRawData.Tagname = ihAlarms.ItemID

AND ( ihRawData.'TimeStamp' >= ihAlarms.Starttime )

AND ( ihRawData.'TimeStamp' <= ihAlarms.'Timestamp' )

AND ( ihAlarms.AlarmID = 13240 )

AND ( ihRawData.SamplingMode = 'RawByTime' )

Working with Alarm and Event Data

For more information about working with Alarm & Event data, refer to the following topics:
Alarms and Events and the Excel Add-in

Alarms and Events and the OLEDB Provider

Alarm and Event Calculations

Excel Add-In and Historian Alarms and Events

For more information on using Alarm & Event data with the Excel Add-in, refer to the following topics:
Alarm and Event Queries in the Excel Add-In

Alarm Query Types

Query Criteria

Output Display and Sorting

Example

Querying Alarm and Event data in the Excel Add-In retrieves alarm and event data according to your query
criteria. Three query types are available: alarm, alarm history, and events. For more detail refer to the Alarm
Query Types topic.

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NOTE: At the moment Alarm & Event data from FIX32 SCADA systems is not available through the Excel Add-
In. To retrieve this data, you must use OLE DB. For more information, refer to Using the OPC AE Collector
with FIX32 SCADA collectors.

To query Alarm and Event data in the Excel Add-In:

1. From the Historian menu, choose Query Alarms & Events. The Query Alarms & Events dialog
appears.

2. Select a Server. Your default server should be selected. To set the selected server as default, ensure
the Set Server to Default option is enabled.

3. Select a Query Type.

4. Select a Query Criteria.

5. Select your Output settings.

6. Click OK.

IMPORTANT: Excel limits the amount of data that can be entered into a formula or returned into a worksheet.
The following are guidelines for formula and result limits in various versions of Excel:

Formulas are limited to 255 characters.

Output is limited to:

Excel XP: 32767 cells

Excel 2003 32767 rows

Three query types are provided by the Excel Add-In. These types are described in the following table.

Query Type Description

Alarms In Historian, an alarm's entire life cycle is stored as a

single record in the alarm archive. Thus, when
retrieving from the archive, the entire life cycle of an
alarm will be returned in a single record.

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Alarm History If the Alarm History query type is chosen, each change
in the alarm's state will be returned in a single record.

Events One row per event is returned to the Excel

spreadsheet.

The Excel Add-In can be set up to filter by one or more of an alarm's attributes with the Query Criteria section
of the dialog. For example, you may want to include alarms where the Alarm ID is equal to a specific Alarm ID
occurring after a specific start time.
Several query criteria are provided by the Excel Add-In to retrieve alarm and event data from Historian. In
addition to specifying which criteria to use in your query, you can specify which attributes will be displayed,
and how the results are sorted in your Excel spreadsheet.

To filter alarm and event data:

1. Open the Query Alarms & Events dialog.

2. Select a Query Criteria.

3. From the Add query criteria where... listbox, select a query condition. Available query conditions
are:

is Less Than or Equal to

is Greater Than or Equal to

is Equal To

is Not Equal To

NOTE: Some conditions may not be available for some query criteria.

1. In the value or cell... field, enter a comparison value. This can be a specific value, or can be a cell
reference.

2. Click the Add to Query button. The query criteria will appear in the Retrieve alarms where... list.

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3. To add multiple query criteria, repeat steps 2-5. Each criteria will be added with an AND operator.

4. To remove a query criteria, select it from the list and click on Remove Selected.

Consult your OPC alarm and event server documentation for more information on which attributes it provides.

The Output Settings section of the Alarm Query dialog box is separated into five distinct sections. These
sections are:
Output Range

Output Orientation

Maximum Results

Output Display

Output Sorting

Output Range

Click in the Output Range field and select a range of cells in a single row or column to determine where the
returned data is placed.

Output Orientation

Select either Columns or Rows for the output display. Selecting Columns displays a table of values with
parameters arranged in columns with header labels at the top. Selecting Rows rotates the table 90 degrees.

Maximum Results

Enter a maximum number of results for the query to return.

NOTE: The Excel Add-In will not display more than 255 columns and 32,767 rows when displaying results.

Output Display

The Output Display section specifies which attributes the Excel Add-In should return to the spreadsheet.
Multiple selections can be made by holding the CTRL key and selecting.

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Output Sorting

Before displaying the returned alarm and event data in your Excel spreadsheet, the Excel Add-In can sort the
values according to the criteria you specify in the Output Sorting section. The following table describes how
the different sorting options sorts values:

This option... Displays the following

Alarm Time Sorts the returned alarms or events by the alarm or

event's Start Time attribute. The results will be sorted
in descending order.

Custom Sort Allows you to select which field(s) to sort the returned
alarms and events by. You can also specify whether to
sort in ascending or descending order. Multiple sort
conditions are supported.

None The returned alarms and events are not sorted at all.
They will be returned in the order they are received
from the alarm and event database.

To sort alarm and event data by specific attributes:

1. In the Sort By section, select Custom Sort.

2. Select a sortable attribute. Multiple selections can be made by holding the CTRL key and selecting.

3. Click on Sort-> to move the selected attribute(s) to the Attribute Sort list box.

4. Click in the Check for Descending check box to sort an individual attribute in descending order. The
default is to sort the attribute in ascending order.

5. Returned values are sorted from the top down. For example, if the Attribute Sort field contained the
values Start Time, Data Source Name, and Condition Name, the results would first be sorted by the
start time, then by the data source, then by the condition name. To change the order of sorting, select
an attribute in the Attribute Sort list box, and click Up or Down.

The Excel Add-In allows you to retrieve limited Alarm and Event data when you query tag data from the
Historian archive. The available Alarm and Event data appears as additional options in the Output Display list
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box in the Query Current Values, Query Raw Data, Query Calculated Data, and Query Filtered Data
dialog boxes.
Two options for alarm data appear:
Alarm Message

Alarm ID

The Historian OLE DB Provider has been extended to include alarm and event data. For more information refer
to the following topics:
OLEDB ihAlarms Table

Example Queries

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