Alarm and Event Management

Owned by Nina Cardillo
Last updated: 04-Jan-2024
2 min read
Prior to SMartServer 3.5, the alarms and events widget was called alarms.

You can view and clear alarms for pre-defined alarm conditions as well as define custom alarm conditions based on datapoint value thresholds. Possible SmartServer alarm and events are as follows:

  • Device not communicating
  • Firmware update failed
  • Type mismatch
  • Provisioning failure
  • Unknown Type
  • CMS Warning
  • CMS Error
  • Successful logon
  • Logoff
  • Unsuccessful logon
  • Permission changes
  • User account changes
  • Power cycling
  • Export process started
  • Export process completed
  • Import process started
  • Import process completed
  • Firmware update
  • Cleared alarms
  • Deleted logged data
  • Deleted events
  • Initiated discovery
  • Created device
  • Deleted device
  • Modified device
  • Created device type
  • Deleted device type
  • Modified device type
  • SmartServer IAP – all events received from ev/warning and ev/error MQTT topics
  • Password not updated
  • MQTT configuration not updated
  • Alarms that are configured in the Datapoint Properties widget and received from ev/alarm topic are also logged.

You can view alarm notifications and setup email notifications using the SmartServer CMS Alarms and Events widget. You can also use the Alarms and Events widget to monitor certain auditable events, such as user login and logout events. 

With SmartServer 3.2 and higher, errors detected with BACnet or Modbus device interface (XIF) files imports will be displayed in the CMS Alarms and Events widget. The messages will include the file name, line number, and column number for the first character of the string causing the error. The enhanced error reporting for XIF imports includes:

  • Errors detected by the CMS, (e.g., unrecognized file types)
  • Errors detected by the BACnet or Modbus driver (e.g., invalid characters in any fields and duplicate names in fields that do not support duplicate names)

Once an alarm occurs, it will appear in the Alarms and Events widget for a specific target (device or datapoint) as shown below. 

Once an alarm condition is reported in the Alarms and Events widget, any additional occurrences of the same alarm will not appear in the widget until you clear the alarm.  If you configure email notification for an alarm condition, the CMS will send an email message for every occurrence of the alarm.

The following table describes the available configurations for alarm condition categories and alarm notification types:

Alarm ConditionAlarm NotificationConfiguration Requirements
Pre-defined alarm conditionCMS Alarms and Events widget notificationDoes not require any configuration in the Datapoint Properties or Alarms and Events widgets
Pre-defined alarm conditionAlarm email notificationRequires definition of email notifications in the Alarms and Events widget.
Datapoint value alarm conditionCMS Alarms and Events widget notification

Requires definition of the datapoint value alarm conditions in the Datapoint Properties widget (or DLA file).

Datapoint value alarm conditionAlarm email notificationRequires definition of the datapoint value alarm conditions in the Datapoint Properties widget (or DLA file), and email notifications in the Alarms and Events widget.

See Setting up Alarm Email Notifications for more information about setting up email notifications for alarm conditions.

See Monitoring System Audit Events for more information about how to monitor SmartServer user login / logout events.

See Defining Datapoint Properties for more information about alarms settings in the Datapoint Properties widget.