is a Windows service (“”) that replaced the “Alarm Server” program that was available in and earlier (the legacy alarmsrv.exe program is still functional and available in the ...\system\bin folder).

resides on a workstation, where it receives and processes incoming alarms from a remote meter’s Alert module.

With the implementation of the , alarm notification is improved and simplified:

Since runs as a Windows service, a user is no longer required to log in to the product in order to start monitoring the system for alarm conditions.

can handle incoming calls from multiple communications ports.

When alarms are received, uses the to establish a modem connection, rather than using the legacy command line executable “conman.exe”.

allows you to set up specific modem connection request properties, such as Minimum/Maximum Connection Time, Disconnect on Caught-up, etc. These properties are set up in the ’s configuration file — see "Setting Up the " on page 1.

How it works

The responds to alarm messages originating from the Alert module in an meter. For example, an alarm message is initiated as a result of a power quality event:

An alarm condition prompts the ION module (for example, Setpoint module) to send a pulse signal to the Trigger input of the meter’s Alert module. Refer to the description of the Alert Module in the ION Reference for more information.

The Alert module initiates modem communication, and calls the phone number specified in the Alert module’s Destination setup register.

The workstation answers the modem call from the meter and completes the communication connection. The meter then sends the following information to : a timestamp indicating when the alarm condition occurred, the node name, and the message (i.e., contents of the Alert module’s Message setup register).

receives the alarm data and places it in the queue for processing. When the alarm is processed, the commands specified in the COM port configuration settings are executed. At the same time, a connection request is sent to the node specified in the alarm data.

The new connection request is received and placed in the queue. If other connection requests to the same site already exist, the new request is merged with the others.

establishes a connection to the meter that originated the alarm, then downloads all outstanding event and data logs.

disconnects after the has finished downloading all outstanding logs. When this has been completed, the status of the site is considered “Caught-up”.

Setting up the

The configuration settings for are stored in a config file that follows the file naming convention “{MachineName}.AlertMonitor.config“. An example config file with this name is provided in the ...\\config\AlertMonitor folder. An XML schema file named “AlertMonitor-Schema.xml” is also provided in the same folder, for your reference. You can use this schema to validate the config file using available XML validation tools.

Use a text editor or XML authoring tool to create and edit the configuration file. Remember to rename the config file to match the machine name (for example, if the primary server is named “ComputerOne”, rename the config file to “ComputerOne.AlertMonitor.config”).

Configuration file components

Channels define the communication port and modem that the uses, while Actions define the commands to be carried out in response to an alarm.

A Channel contains the modem definition and configuration settings for the port.

The following table lists the attributes you can assign for a Channel:

Actions are grouped inside ActionSet elements, which contain connection requests and/or commands to execute when alarms are received. Specify “ConnectionRequest” to set up an ActionSet to send a connection request; specify “Command” to set up an ActionSet to execute an operating system command when the alert is received. You can specify attributes for ActionSets:

If the Channel attribute is used in the ActionSet (for example, <ActionSet Channel="COM1">), then the actions (commands) listed in the ActionSet are executed for all alarms coming through the communications port and modem specified for that Channel (that is, “COM1”).

If the Location attribute is used in the ActionSet, then the actions (commands) listed in the ActionSet are executed for all alarms originating from the specified Location (regardless of Channel).

If no attribute is specified, then the actions (commands) listed in the ActionSet are executed for all alarms originating from any communication port or location.

If there are two ActionSets (one specifying a Channel attribute, the other specifying Location attribute), then the one that specifies the Location attribute takes priority.

Commands (i.e., command lines that run separate applications such as “net send”) contained in the ActionSet can include parameters that return data values, as described in the following table:

The “ConnectionRequest” element contained in the ActionSet has attributes that you can define, as described in the following table:

Multi-station setup

It is possible to run the on more than one machine in the system. However, the configuration files must be stored in the primary server, following the convention “ComputerName.AlertMonitor.config”.

For example, the running on a secondary server named “ComputerTwo” uses the configuration file named “ComputerTwo.AlertMonitor.config” located in the primary server.

Diagnostics

Diagnostic and error messages are logged in the system log, with the source “Alert Monitor”.

Starting the

By default, the is stopped, and set to “Manual” startup type. To automatically start on Windows startup, change the startup properties of this Windows service to “Automatic”, then start the service. Refer to your Windows documentation for details.