RSView Supervisory Edition Installation Guide

• • • • •RSVIEW SUPERVISORY EDITION USER’S GUIDEIf you export alarm log data to an external, ODBC-compliant database, you can use thirdpartyapplications to view the records in the database. The application must be ODBCcompliant, for example, you can use Microsoft ® Excel, or Microsoft Visual Basic ®Alarm displaysAlarm information can be displayed in:• the alarm log viewer.• graphic displays containing graphic objects such as the alarm summary.When alarms are generated, they are recorded in two places: the alarm log file, and on theHMI server computer where the alarms are generated. The alarm log viewer displays therecords in the alarm log file. The alarm summary displays the records in the HMI servercomputer’s memory.Alarm log viewerThe alarm log viewer displays the contents of the alarm log file. The contents of this filedepend on the severities set up in the Alarm Setup editor. By default, the log file will havea record for each of the following alarm incidents:• when a tag goes into alarm• when a tag goes out of alarm• when an alarm is acknowledged• when a tag with an alarm is suppressed• when an alarm fault is generatedSet up an application so that only essential alarm information is logged. Alarm logging usessystem resources and can slow overall system performance.Alarm summaryThe alarm summary is a graphic object, created in the Graphics editor, that displays thealarm information recorded in the computer’s memory. Use the alarm summary todetermine which alarm information is displayed and how it is displayed.The alarm summary can display alarms from more than one HMI server. Each HMIserver maintains a list of up to 2,000 alarms. As new alarms occur, they appear at the topof the list.When the list of alarms at the HMI server is full and a new alarm is generated, the alarmat the bottom of the list (the oldest alarm) is acknowledged automatically by the system,and then dropped from the list. Alarms that are acknowledged automatically by the system11-8