Factory Talk SE Alarmas y Eventos

FactoryTalk View Site Edition: Implementing
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events
For Classroom Use Only!
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FactoryTalk View Site Edition: Implementing FactoryTalk Alarms and Events
Contents
Before you begin ........................................................................................................................................... 5
About this lab .................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Tools & prerequisites ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Document conventions ..................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Overview of FactoryTalk Alarms and Events ................................................................................................ 7
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events components ................................................................................................................................... 8
System Architectures ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Section 1: Getting started with FactoryTalk Alarms and Events ................................................................. 12
Subscribing to Device-based Alarms and Events ........................................................................................................................... 12
Working with Device-based Alarms and Events (Digital) ................................................................................................................ 20
Working with Device-based Alarms and Events (Analog)............................................................................................................... 29
Working with Tag-based Alarms and Events .................................................................................................................................. 39
Section 2: Setting up historical alarm and event logging ............................................................................ 61
Add a database definition to the FactoryTalk system ..................................................................................................................... 61
Associate database definition with alarm servers ........................................................................................................................... 64
Test run using Log Viewer object.................................................................................................................................................... 66
View the Alarm History database in Excel ...................................................................................................................................... 70
Querying Alarm History using VBA and FactoryTalk View SE........................................................................................................ 82
Section 3: Using FactoryTalk Alarm and Event Objects ............................................................................. 88
Alarm and Event Summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 88
Alarm and Event Banner ................................................................................................................................................................. 94
Alarm and Event Log Viewer .......................................................................................................................................................... 98
Alarm and Event Status Explorer .................................................................................................................................................. 100
Section 4: Configuring Redundancy ......................................................................................................... 107
Configuring Redundancy .............................................................................................................................................................. 107
Determining the Active and Standby Server ................................................................................................................................. 112
Server Switchover ......................................................................................................................................................................... 115
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Section 5: Filtering and Subscriptions ....................................................................................................... 122

Filtering with the Alarm and Event Summary Object .................................................................................................................... 122
Subscriptions ................................................................................................................................................................................ 126
Section 6: Advanced Topics (Optional) ..................................................................................................... 129
Multi-Language Alarms ................................................................................................................................................................. 129
Converting HMI Alarms to Tag Alarms and Events ...................................................................................................................... 143
Alarm Annunciation using Win-911 ............................................................................................................................................... 152
Section 7: Supplemental Reading ............................................................................................................. 160
Alarms and Events Considerations ............................................................................................................................................... 161
ALMA and ALMD Configuration Options ...................................................................................................................................... 163
Specific ALMD Configuration Options........................................................................................................................................... 167
Specific ALMA Configuration Options ........................................................................................................................................... 167
Controller Status Alarms ............................................................................................................................................................... 170
Tag-Based Alarm Configuration Options ...................................................................................................................................... 171
Alarm Backing Tags ...................................................................................................................................................................... 173
Where to get more information ..................................................................................................................................................... 175
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Before you begin

This lab will allow users to explore a system that takes advantage of FactoryTalk Alarms and Events features. The beginning
sections review the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events foundation, its configuration and the ability to log and access historical alarm
and event information. You will also explore the use of redundancy with FactoryTalk Alarms and Events and how filters and
subscriptions can be used to refine your data.
Optional topics include using multiple languages, converting from FactoryTalk View HMI alarming and using Win-911 to
annunciate information from the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events component.
About this lab

In this lab, you will be working with a redundant network application containing an HMI Server, a data server with device-based
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events, a tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events server and a single HMI Client.
For this lab, these server and client components will be provided by two virtual machines. You will work solely with the Primary
machine, however, redundancy is provided by the availability of the Secondary machine. FactoryTalk View Studio, the
development environment, is also on the Primary computer.
In a deployed system however, these components could actually be on separate computers, and additional HMI clients could be
used, since FactoryTalk View SE scales easily from small to large systems.
It is recommended that users complete the lab procedures in the order they are presented. An optional topic section is provided
at the end of the manual and can be completed in any order, time permitting.
This lab takes approximately 2 hours to complete.
Tools & prerequisites

The following software has been installed and configured on the Primary virtual machine:
FactoryTalk Activation Manager v3.60.00
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events v2.60.00
FactoryTalk Diagnostics v2.60.00
FactoryTalk Services Platform v2.60.00
FactoryTalk View SE v7.00.00
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express
RSLinx Classic 3.60.00
RSLinx Enterprise v5.60.00000
RSLogix 5000 v20.01.00
SoftLogix5800 v20.01.00
Specter Instruments WIN-911 v7.13
The following software has been installed and configured on the Secondary virtual machine:
FactoryTalk Activation Manager v3.60.00
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FactoryTalk Alarms and Events v2.60.00

FactoryTalk Diagnostics v2.60.00
FactoryTalk Services Platform v2.60.00
FactoryTalk View SE v7.00.00
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express
RSLinx Enterprise v5.60.00
The following application files have been pre-configured and set up on the virtual machines:
A FactoryTalk View SE Network application named InstantFizz.
FactoryTalk View SE Client configuration file: IF_Client_1280x1024.cli
RSLogix 5000 project file: IF2_DEMO.acd
Document conventions
Throughout this workbook, we have used the following conventions to help guide you through the lab materials.
This style or symbol:
Indicates:
Words shown in bold italics

(e.g., RSLogix 5000 or OK)
Any item or button that you must select, click on, or a menu name from
which you must choose an option or command. This will be an actual
name of an item that you see on your screen or in an example.
Words shown bolded, underlined and

enclosed in single quotes
(e.g., 'Controller1')
An entry that you must type in the specified field. This is information
that you must supply based on your application (e.g., a variable).
Note: When you type the text in the field, remember that you do not
need to type the quotes; simply type the words that are contained within
them (e.g., Controller1).
The lab topics marked by this icon indicate important features of the
software or tools that can make it easier for you to use this product.
Text that appears beside this icon is supplemental information
regarding the software or lab materials; the information is not required
for you to complete the lab exercises. The supplemental text may
provide you with helpful hints that can make it easier for you to use this
product.
Note: If the mouse button is not specified in the text, you should click on the left mouse button.
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Overview of FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

FactoryTalk Alarms and Events allows multiple FactoryTalk products to participate together in a common, consistent view of
alarms and events throughout a FactoryTalk application.
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events supports two types of alarm monitoring:
Device-based alarm monitoring. Built-in alarm instructions that are available in RSLogix 5000 v. 16 or later, are programmed
in a logic project and then downloaded to a Logix5000 controller. The controller detects alarm conditions and publishes event
information, which can be displayed and logged.
Tag-based alarm monitoring. If you are not using Logix5000 controllers, or if you do not want to use the built-in alarm
instructions that are available with RSLogix 5000, tag-based alarm monitoring offers the equivalent of HMI tag alarm
monitoring, but with an expanded feature set. Software-based Tag Alarm and Event servers monitor controllers for alarm
conditions through data servers and publish event information that can be displayed and logged. Tag-based alarm monitoring
is supported for Logix5000 controllers, PLC-5, and SLC 500 devices communicating through Rockwell Automation device
servers (RSLinx Enterprise), or for third-party controllers communicating through OPC Data Servers.
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events:
Provides a single, integrated set of alarm information. All participating FactoryTalk products work together to provide a
consistent way to define, manage, log, and view alarm and event information across a FactoryTalk application.
Streamlines alarm programming and eliminates polling with device-based alarm monitoring. If your automation system
includes Logix5000 controllers, you can use pre-built alarm instructions, available in RSLogix 5000 v. 16 or later, to simplify
coding, and then download them to the controller. Device-based alarm monitoring eliminates the need for duplicating alarm
tags in an HMI server and requires fewer controller communication resources by eliminating polling.
Supports other controllers in the integrated system with tag-based alarm monitoring. If your automation system includes other
Rockwell Automation controllers, such as PLC-5s or SLC 500s, or if you prefer not to use the new alarm instructions with
Logix5000 controllers, software-based tag servers monitor controllers for alarm conditions and publish event information.
Monitors alarms and events from third-party controllers. Tag-based alarm monitoring also makes it possible to monitor alarm
conditions from third-party controllers, which communicate through OPC Data Servers.
Provides accurate time stamps on alarm conditions that are generated from Logix5000 controllers using device-based alarm
monitoring. When you use device-based alarm monitoring, timestamps are applied immediately in the controller and are not
delayed until alarms reach an HMI server. To make sure that the timestamps on device-based alarms are accurate,
synchronize the clocks of all controllers that produce alarms. The event time is propagated throughout the FactoryTalk
Alarms and Events system, so inaccurate timestamps can affect where alarms are displayed in the Alarm and Event
Summary or the Alarm and Event Banner as well as reports about the alarm and event history.
Sends process data with events and messages. You can associate up to four tags with each alarm to include process data
with event information and alarm messages.
Secures access to alarm and event operations through integration with FactoryTalk Security.
Generates messages for logging, including audit messages that track operator actions, system-related diagnostic messages,
and historical alarm and event messages.
Displays alarm messages and status information at run time, from FactoryTalk View graphic displays.
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FactoryTalk Alarms and Events components

The diagram below shows a high-level view of the components of the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system.
1. Device-based alarm monitoring

To do device-based alarm monitoring, you program alarm instructions, that are available with RSLogix 5000 v. 16 or later, and
then download them to Logix5000 controllers. The controller detects alarm conditions and notifies RSLinx Enterprise of alarm
states. A Rockwell Automation Device Server (RSLinx Enterprise) extracts the alarm information and publishes it to FactoryTalk
Alarms and Events services.
Use device-based alarm monitoring with:
Logix5000 controllers, that you have programmed with RSLogix 5000 v. 16 or later software, and Rockwell Automation
device servers (RSLinx Enterprise).
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2. Tag-based alarm monitoring

The Tag Alarm and Event Server uses tags to monitor programmable controllers for alarm conditions. When an alarm condition
is detected, the server publishes the information to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events services.
Use tag-based alarm monitoring with:
PLC-5 or SLC 500 controllers, and Rockwell Automation device servers (RSLinx Enterprise).
RSLinx Classic and RSLinx Gateway.
Third-party controllers and OPC Data Servers.
Logix5000 controllers.
3. FactoryTalk Alarms and Events services
Both device-based and tag-based alarms and events are published to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events services, which then
routes the information to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events objects hosted in FactoryTalk View, the alarm and event history log,
and to diagnostic logs and audit logs.
4. Alarm and Event Historian Log
The Alarm and Event Historian is a logging component that installs silently as part of the alarms and events software. It manages
connections between alarm servers and databases and logs data from each alarm server to an alarm history database. You can
use the Alarm and Event Log Viewer to view and print data from alarm history databases. Third-party database tools can also
retrieve, view, analyze, and print alarm history information. To use alarm and event logging, install Microsoft SQL Server
separately, or use an existing Microsoft SQL Server database.
5. Diagnostic and audit logs
FactoryTalk Diagnostics routes messages generated by FactoryTalk Alarms and Events to local logs on the computers hosting
FactoryTalk components, and optionally to a centralized database log. Audit messages are routed to the local log and to the
FactoryTalk Audit Log if FactoryTalk AssetCentre is installed.
6. Alarm and event setup and monitoring
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events includes a number of software components that allow engineers and operators to define alarm
conditions, set up alarm servers, view and interact with alarm conditions, and view historical alarm and event information.
Alarm and Event Summary
Use the Alarm and Event Summary object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to acknowledge, disable, suppress,
shelve, filter, and sort alarms at run time.
Alarm and Event Banner
Use the Alarm and Event Banner object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to monitor and respond to the most
serious alarms that require immediate attention.
Alarm Status Explorer
Use the Alarm Status Explorer object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to enable or disable alarms, suppress or
unsuppress alarms, shelve or unshelve alarms and view operator comments.
Database definitions
Use database definitions to define logging options from an alarm server to a Microsoft SQL Server database.
Alarm and Event Log Viewer
Use the Alarm and Event Log Viewer object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to view and filter historical alarm
information stored in Microsoft SQL Server databases.
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Diagnostics Viewer
Use the Diagnostics Viewer to view, filter, and export system-generated diagnostic messages. Run the Diagnostics Viewer from
either FactoryTalk View Studio or FactoryTalk Administration Console.
FactoryTalk Audit Log
Use the FactoryTalk Audit Log to view and manage audit messages routed by FactoryTalk Diagnostics. To access the Audit Log,
use FactoryTalk AssetCentre software.
System Architectures
Local application on a single computer
The diagram below shows an example system architecture using a Local application as part of a stand-alone FactoryTalk
system.
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Network application on distributed computers

The diagram below shows an example system architecture using a Network application as part of a distributed FactoryTalk
system.
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Section 1: Getting started with FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

In this section you will be introduced to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events in a practical, hands-on way. This section will cover the
basics of both device-based alarms and tag-based alarms, with more detailed information included in the back of this manual for
you to read later.
Heres a breakdown of what youll be doing:
Subscribing to Alarms and Events
Enabling Alarms and Events on an existing data server
Testing the Alarms and Events connection using the default alarm summary object in FactoryTalk View Studio.
Exploring RSLogix 5000 alarm instructions: ALMD and ALMA
Acknowledging an alarm from RSLogix 5000
Learning about Associated Tags
Embedding variables in alarm messages
Exploring Tag-based Alarms and Events
Viewing alarms as tags
Changing tag update rates
Acknowledging alarms from the alarm summary object
Acknowledging alarms remotely
Shelving alarms remotely
The estimated time to complete this section is 40 minutes. Have fun!
Subscribing to Device-based Alarms and Events

In this part of the lab, you will:
Enable Alarms and Events on an existing data server
Enable Alarms and Events for an existing controller shortcut
Test the Alarms and Events connection using the default alarm summary object in FactoryTalk View Studio
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1. Run FactoryTalk View Studio. On the Windows Start menu, click Start > All Programs > Rockwell Software >
FactoryTalk View > FactoryTalk View Studio. (For convenience, a shortcut to FactoryTalk View Studio has also
been added to the Start menu.)
2. In the Application Type Selection window, select Site Edition (Network Distributed) and then click Continue.
3. In the New/Open Site Edition (Network Distributed) Application dialog box, select the InstantFizz
application, and then click Open.
(Now sit back and relax because it takes about a minute for the application to open.)
4. In the FactoryTalk View Studio Explorer window of FactoryTalk View Studio, open the application node
Data_Area. Right-click RSLinx Enterprise and select
( InstantFizz). Open the area named
Properties.
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5. In the RSLinx Enterprise Server Properties dialog box, click the Alarms and Events tab and then:
Select the Enable alarm and event support check box
Clear the Enable history check box (You will set up historical logging later in the lab.)
Check this box
Un-check this box

(for now!)
6. Click Apply
7. Click OK
to apply changes.
to close the RSLinx Enterprise Server Properties dialog box.
8. In the FactoryTalk View Studio Explorer window, double-click the RSLinx Enterprise server to expand it, and
then double-click Communication Setup. Resize the dialog (if needed) so that you can see everything.
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9. In the Communication Setup dialog box, under Device Shortcuts, select the shortcut named Shortcut.
10. Under Alarms & Events, change the Enable setting to Yes.
11. Click OK to save the shortcut configuration and close the Communication Setup dialog box.
12. Click Yes to confirm the changes.
Congratulations! You have just configured a Rockwell Automation Device Server (RSLinx Enterprise) to subscribe to alarms
and events from the SoftLogix controller running on this computer.
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13. If you have not already done so, maximize
the FactoryTalk View Studio window.
14. In the Explorer window, right-click the Displays node (located under the HMI server node in the Graphics
folder), and then click New.
A blank display appears in the workspace.
15. On the Objects menu, point to Alarm and Event, and then click Summary or on the toolbar, click the Summary
button
The mouse pointer changes to the Object drawing cursor.
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16. Using the mouse, drag the rectangle to fill the display. Start in the upper left corner, drag down to the lower right
and then release the left mouse button.
The Alarm and Event Summary object will appear in the display as follows:
TThe
Alarm and Event Summary Property page will also open.
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17. Press OK
to close the Property page as we will use the default settings.
18. On the Graphics toolbar, click Test Display button
You will see alarms!
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You are looking at the default configuration of alarm summary object. This control is highly configurable, so if you dont like
the display choices, dont worry! Later in the lab, youll be learning how to configure this control and work with one that has
already been modified.
19. On the Graphics toolbar, stop testing the display by clicking the Edit Display button
20. Save the display by clicking the Save button

on the toolbar. In the Save dialog box, type
My Alarm Summary for the name of the display and then click OK.
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21. You can leave this display open and just minimize FactoryTalk View SE Studio. Youll come back to it in the
next part.
Congratulations!! You have successfully been introduced to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events. Lets quickly review what youve
just done:
Enabled a subscription to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events on the RSLinx Enterprise Server.
Enabled Alarms and Events for an existing controller shortcut.
Saw active alarms in a FactoryTalk View SE test display.
Now we will explore in more detail device-based alarm instructions.
Working with Device-based Alarms and Events (Digital)

You will now explore device-based digital alarms with the RSLogix 5000 instruction named ALMD.
A digital alarm (ALMD instruction) is configured to monitor its input for one of the following alarm conditions:
the input value equal to one
the input value equal to zero
When the alarm condition is true, the alarm enters the In Alarm state. When the alarm condition is false, the alarm enters the
Normal or Out of Alarm state.
Trigger a digital alarm within RSLogix 5000.
Change an alarms severity level and message while online.
Acknowledge an alarm within RSLogix 5000.
View the alarm status in a FactoryTalk View SE test display.
1. Double-click on the IF2_DEMO.ACD shortcut

from the Desktop to open the project that is used in
this lab. (For convenience, a shortcut to IF2_DEMO.ACD has also been added to the Start menu.)
2. Go online with the controller by clicking the pull down next to the Controller Status display and selecting Go
Online
If you are prompted with the Connected To Go Online dialog, choose Upload.
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3. In the left pane, expand the MainTask > Main folder under Tasks, and then double-click the Alarms routine.
4. Look at Rung 0 and notice that the ALMD alarm instruction named CIPValve1 is active. You can tell by looking
at the instructions output parameter InAlarm. Notice that it is highlighted green.
The InAlarm parameter is active because the input conditions are true. In this case, the input conditions are the BOOLEAN
tags named CIPAlarmTrigger[1] and CIPAlarm_Start. You can tell the conditions are true because they are also
highlighted in green.
5. Return to FactoryTalk View SE Studio you should have it minimized in your Windows task bar from the
previous section.
6. Select the My Alarm Summary screen you created earlier and click the Test Display button
Graphics toolbar.
from the
Notice that the alarm in the list, with the Alarm Name of CIPValve1, corresponds to the ALMD instruction we had just
observed on Rung 0 of RSLogix 5000. The Alarm and Event Summary object is indicating that the alarm is active just as
we would expect.
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7. Return to RSLogix 5000. In Rung 0, select the Examine On

instruction for CIPAlarmTrigger[1]. Rightclick and select Toggle Bit or select Control+T to turn the bit to off.
Notice now that the input condition of CIPAlarmTrigger[1] is off and the InAlarm parameter of the CIPValve1 ALMD
instruction is no longer active.
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8. Return to FactoryTalk View SE Studio and select the My Alarm Summary screen you created earlier. If it is
not still running in test mode, on the Graphics toolbar, click Test Display button
You will see in your test display that the CIPValve1 alarm is still in the alarm list, but it is no longer active. (Tip: You may
have to scroll down your alarm list to find it.)
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9. Return to RSLogix 5000. Now we will see how the ALMD instruction is configured.
Inside the alarm instruction, click the Browse button
to open the ALMD Properties dialog box.
10. Change the Severity to 500.
11. Change the Message from Water Valve Jammed. Open Valve. to Water Valve Jammed. Call Maintenance
Staff. or to whatever message you want. Feel free to be creative!
There are many properties of an ALMD instruction that you can configure within this dialog box. If youd like more
information about them and what they do, see the Supplemental Reading section at the end of this lab or click Help
on this dialog box.
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12. Click Apply

13. Click OK
to apply changes.
to close the ALMD Properties dialog box.
14. Select again the Examine On

instruction for CIPAlarmTrigger[1]. Right-click and select Toggle Bit or
select Control+T to turn the bit to on.
Notice now that the input condition of CIPAlarmTrigger[1] is on, the InAlarm parameter of the CIPValve1 ALMD
instruction is active.
Scroll down to about the middle of your alarm list and you will see the CIPValve1 alarm active, but with different colors than
previously seen and your new message.
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The color change occurs because we changed the Severity of the alarm. Also notice that the severity icon has changed
from
(Urgent) to
(Medium).
16. Return to RSLogix 5000. Inside the alarm instruction, click the Browse button
Configuration Dialog box.
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to open the ALMD
17. In the ALMD Properties dialog box, select the Status tab and then observe the In Alarm Time and Return To
Normal Time.
18. To acknowledge the alarm from RSLogix 5000, click the Acknowledge button near the bottom of the dialog
window.
The Acknowledge Time will update on the Status tab.
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You will also see the Acked output of the alarm instruction becomes active (green highlight).
19. Click OK
to close the ALMD Properties dialog box.
20. Return again to FactoryTalk View SE Studio and select the My Alarm Summary screen you created earlier. If
it is not still running in test mode, on the Graphics toolbar, click Test Display button
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21. Find the CIPValve1 alarm in your list.
(In Alarm and Unacknowledged) to

Notice that the alarm status icon has changed from
Acknowledged) indicating that the alarm has been acknowledged.
(In Alarm and
Congratulations!! You have just:

Observed and manipulated an ALMD instruction online while the program is running.
Acknowledged an alarm within RSLogix 5000.
Viewed the alarm status in a FactoryTalk View SE test display.
Whether you realize it or not, you have also witnessed that online changes to alarm instructions take effect without having to
reboot your PC or restart your client. If an active alarm has a pending edit, the update takes affect whenever the alarm changes
state next.
In the next section, you will explore ALMA instructions in a similar way.
Working with Device-based Alarms and Events (Analog)

Now we will explore analog device-based alarms using the RSLogix 5000 instruction named ALMD.
An analog alarm can be configured to monitor for two types of alarm conditions: Level and Rate of Change.
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A Level alarm monitors an input for alarm conditions that go In Alarm when the input value goes above or below predefined
limits. When defining a level alarm, you can configure up to four alarm level conditions each with limits (sometimes called
thresholds), a severity and alarm message. The supported alarm conditions are:
High High (HIHI)
High (HI)
Low (LO)
Low Low (LOLO)
A Rate of Change alarm monitors an input for alarm conditions that go In Alarm when the input value changes faster or slower
than predefined limits. When defining a level alarm, you can configure up to two rate of change conditions each with limits, a
severity, and an alarm message. The supported alarm conditions are:
Rate of Change Positive (ROC_POS)
Rate of Change Negative (ROC_NEG)
Trigger different levels of an analog alarm within RSLogix 5000.
Learn about associated tags.
Learn how to embed a variable in an alarm message.
View the alarm status in a FactoryTalk View SE test display.
1. Return to RSLogix 5000.

2. If the Alarms subroutine is not open, then in the left pane, expand the Main folder under Tasks, and then
double-click the Alarms routine.
3. If not already online with the controller, click the pull down next to the Controller Status display and select Go
Online
4. Scroll down to Rung 4 to see an ALMA alarm instruction named MotorOverheatAlarm. Notice that no alarm
levels are active you can tell because none of the alarm condition parameters are highlighted in green.
Input
tag value
Alarm
threshold
limits.
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The In input for this alarm is the tag named MotorTemp. The value of this tag will trigger this alarm if it crosses any of the
defined threshold limits.
5. Double-click the 35 value below MotorTemp and change the value to 501.
Notice how the HInAlarm condition is now true and the HAcked condition is now false.
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Notice now that both the HInAlarm and HHInAlarm conditions are true, while both the HAcked and HHAcked conditions
have turned false.
If a High High (HIHI) alarm level condition is met, the High (HI) alarm level condition is always true as well. Therefore,
whenever a HH alarm is active the H alarm is as well. The same case applies to the two low level alarms. If the Low Low
(LOLO) alarm condition is met, the Low (LO) alarm is also triggered.
7. Return to FactoryTalk View SE Studio and select the My Alarm Summary screen you created earlier. If it is not
still running in test mode, on the Graphics toolbar, click Test Display button
Find the 2 entries (HI, HIHI) for the MotorOverheatAlarm. You may need to scroll down the list.
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While both conditions are active, they each have a different severity level as designated by the different display colors and
the different severity icons:
(Urgent) and
(High).
You can see on the alarm summary screen that the alarm message for the HI condition is The Motor is overheating. The
current temperature of the motor is 501. Recall that 501 is the first value we set to MotorTemp to trigger the HI
condition.
In many cases it is useful to have additional process information associated with an alarm. When an alarm is defined, you
can associate up to four tags with the alarm. At run time, the tag values are recorded in the alarm and event history log and
can also be displayed in the Alarm and Event Summary or Alarm and Event Log Viewer. The values of associated tags can
also be embedded in alarm messages and the contents of the Alarm and Event Summary or Alarm and Event Log Viewer
can also be filtered based on the value of an associated tag.
8. Notice how the alarm message for the HIHI condition is too long to be properly displayed on the summary
screen. Fear not, however, the complete alarm message is not lost!
Use the mouse to click on the HIHI alarm in the summary display. The alarm details will appear in the Details Pane below
the summary display. Use the scrollbar on the right to scroll to the end of the Details Pane where you will see the complete
message: The Motor has overheated. Motor has stopped. The current temperature of the motor is 1001.
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Recall that 1001 is the second value we set to MotorTemp to trigger the HIHI condition.
9. Return to RSLogix 5000. Inside the alarm instruction, click the Browse button
Configuration Dialog box.
to open the ALMA
Notice on the Configuration tab the three levels that are enabled: High High, High, and Low. The Low Low limit is not
enabled, as indicated by the unchecked check box.
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10. Select the Messages tab to see the messages defined for each level, as well the Associated Tag (MotorTemp)
that we observed was included in each of the messages.
11. In the Low level field, type The Motor is cooling down. The current temperature of the motor is: then click
the Browse button
to open the Alarm Message Editor.
12. Select the variable to add to the alarm message by selecting Tag 1 (Motor Temp) from the Add Variable pull
down menu.
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13. Click <- Add

14. Click OK
to add the variable to the message.

to close the Alarm Message Editor and add your changes.
The resulting message will look like this:
Notice the Messages tab now says Messages* which indicates there are unsaved configuration changes to the instruction.
Like the ALMD instruction, there are many properties of an ALMA instruction that you can configure within this dialog box.
If youd like more information about them and what they do, see the Supplemental Reading section at the end of this lab or
click Help
on this dialog box.
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15. Click Apply

16. Click OK
to apply changes.
to close the ALMA Properties dialog box.
The LInAlarm condition will now be true and LAcked parameter will turn false.
19. Find the MotorOverheatAlarm entries on the alarm summary list.
The LO alarm condition is now active
and the HIHI, HI conditions are now normal
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(but unacknowledged).
By defining the Associated tag (MotorTemp) and using it in the LO alarm message, not only is the current temperature of
the motor embedded in the alarm message and displayed but its value will be recorded in the alarm history (when
configured) anytime the LO alarm is triggered.
Notice also the alarm messages displayed for the HIHI and HI conditions. Both say The current temperature of the motor
is: 25. What happened to the tag values 501 and 1001?
The messages now display the current temperature of the motor since it was that tag input value that cleared the alarm
state for that condition. The original messages containing 501 and 1001 would have already been saved in the historical
database. (Well configure our historical database later.)
21. Close the My Alarm Summary display by clicking the
in the corner. Select no if you are prompted to save.
22. Return to RSLogix 5000 and save the program by clicking the Save button
Yes on the confirmation dialog.
Observed and made online edits to an ALMA instruction.
Learned about Associated Tags and how to embed variables in alarm messages.
In the next part, we will explore Tag-Based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events.
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on the toolbar and then click
Working with Tag-based Alarms and Events

Observe tag-based FactoryTalk alarms that have already been configured
View the alarm status in a FactoryTalk View SE test display
Learn about the new Shelve / Unshelve feature that aligns with ISA Standard 18.2
Configure remote commands for tag-based alarms allowing operators to interact with alarms from faceplates or pushbuttons.
What is the shelving state?
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events 2.60 introduces a new state, Shelved, to the alarm state model. The Shelved state is similar to
Suppress but with an expiration time.
What is the remote command for FactoryTalk Alarms and Events?
When the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system was introduced, the Tag based alarms capability forced you to interface with
alarms from the Alarm Summary. In the 2.40 release of FactoryTalk Alarms and Events, a remote acknowledge was provided. A
user could configure a Tag based alarm Control and Status tag with Logix tags that corresponded to acknowledging the alarm. In
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events 2.60, the rest of the commands are now available to remotely use and not force you to go to the
Alarm Summary to interface with alarms.
With tag-based alarm detection, a Tag Alarm and Event Server uses tags to monitor programmable controllers for alarm
conditions. When an alarm condition is detected, the server generates an alarm to the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system.
Use tag-based alarm monitoring with:
PLC-5 or SLC 500 controllers, communicating through RSLinx Classic or RSLinx Gateway.
Third-party controllers, communicating through OPC-DA servers (e.g., KEPWare).
Logix5000 controllers that have not been programmed with pre-built alarm instructions available in RSLogix 5000 v.16 or
later. Tag-based alarms are also useful for monitoring alarm conditions in instructions that do not currently produce devicebased alarms (e.g., PIDE).
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1. Switch back to FactoryTalk View Studio.

2. In the Explorer window, under the application node ( Instant Fizz), expand the
the
FTAETag_Server, then double-click the Alarm and Event Setup.
FTAETag_Area, expand
3. Notice in the Alarm and Event Setup, there are 5 alarms pre-configured one Level alarm and four Digital
alarms.
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4. Select and double-click the first alarm in the list, which is a Level alarm, named ChemValveFlow.
Notice that the configuration of the tag-based Level alarm is very similar to the device-based ALMA
with the following exceptions:
Input Tag This is the tag that is monitored for the alarm condition.
Show Alarm as Tag This option allows you to monitor the status and operate on alarms
programmatically at run time using tags that are exposed by the Tag Alarm and Event server.
Live Data clients can read and write to the alarm tags to monitor and change alarm states.
Status Tags Status tags allow you to keep alarm state changes synchronized with a
programmable controller. For example, if you assign a tag to the Acknowledged status tag, when
an operator acknowledges the alarm from the Alarm Summary, the status tag is set to 1.
Control Tags Control tags allow you monitor and control alarms by using tags in the controller.
For example, if you assign a tag to the Suppress control tag, when the value of the tag changes
to positive, the Tag Alarms and Events Server automatically Suppresses alarms associated with
the control tag.
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Like the device-based alarms, there are many properties of a Level Alarm that you can configure within Level Alarm
Properties dialog box.
click Help
5. Click OK
on this dialog box.
to close the Level Alarm Properties dialog box.
6. Select and double-click the Digital alarm in the list named PaperOut.
Notice that the configuration of the tag-based Digital alarm is very similar to the device-based ALMD
with the following exceptions:
Input Tag This is the tag that is monitored for the alarm condition.
Show Alarm as Tag This option allows you to monitor the status and operate on alarms
programmatically at run time using tags that are exposed by the Tag Alarm and Event server.
Live Data clients can read and write to the alarm tags to monitor and change alarm states.
Status Tags Status tags allow you to keep alarm state changes synchronized with a
programmable controller. For example, if you assign a tag to the Acknowledged status tag, when
an operator acknowledges the alarm from the Alarm Summary, the status tag is set to 1
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Control Tags Control tags allow you monitor and control alarms by using tags in the controller.
For example, if you assign a tag to the Suppress control tag, when the value of the tag changes
to positive, the Tag Alarms and Events Server automatically Suppresses alarms associated with
the control tag.
Like the device-based alarms, there are many properties of a Digital Alarm that you can configure within the Digital Alarm
click Help
on this dialog box.
7. Select and enable the Show Alarm as a Tag checkbox.
This will allow us to browse the alarm parameters in the tag browser later on in the section.
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8. Click OK
to close the Digital Alarm Properties dialog box.
9. In the Alarm and Event Setup window select and double-click the Digital alarm in the list named Tank1Jam
and select the Status Tags tab.
Notice the tag assigned to the Acknowledged Tag is a Controller tag. Well be monitoring this tag on
the Alarms display later on
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10. Click OK
11. In the Alarm and Event Setup window, select and double-click the Digital alarm in the list named Tank2Jam
and select the Control Tags tab.
.
Alarm control tags allow you to monitor alarms by using tags in the controller. If you assign a tag as
the control tag, when the value of the tag changes to positive, the Tag Alarms and Events Server
automatically acknowledges, disables, enables, suppresses, unsuppresses, shelves or unshelves all
alarms associated with the control tag.
When using Shelve Control tags, you must also define the Shelve Duration tag and set it to the
amount of time in minutes for the alarms to be shelved. For this example, the ShelveTime tag is set
to 2 as shown in the Logix controller tags below.
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12. Click OK
The global default max shelve time for all tag-based alarms is 480 minutes. This value can be set from 1 to 2147483647.
Youll be interacting with the shelve time a litter later.
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13. In the Alarm and Event Setup window, select the Tag Update Rates tab.
The default update rate for the tag-based alarms is 2 seconds. This means that tag values are polled and evaluated for
alarm status every 2 seconds. The default rate can be modified to a value between .10s 120s and will affect all new
alarms defined afterwards. The update rate for alarms already configured can be changed individually as desired.
14. Select the AlarmPaperOut alarm and right-click. Select Change Update Rate and select 1.
Instead of being polled every 2 seconds, we will poll for this tag value every second.
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Be cautious when selecting higher-speed tag update rates such as 0.10 and 0.25. It does not mean that new alarms will
appear on the alarm summary screen faster. Alarms can only be polled as fast as the data server allows, depending on its
load with the rest of the application. Additionally, the alarm summary screen refreshes at its own update rate; tag-based
alarm server Tag Update Rates affect only the time stamp of the alarm.
15. Save the changes to the Alarm and Event Setup by clicking the Save button
on the toolbar.
Clicking Save immediately loads any alarm edits or new alarms to the Alarms and Events server.
16. Click the X
button in the corner to close the Alarm and Event Setup.
17. In the Explorer window of Factory Talk View Studio, double-click the B91_Alarms screen located under the HMI
server node in the Graphics > Displays folder.
The pre-configured alarm summary screen for the InstantFizz demo application will open.
You may want to maximize
Factory Talk View Studio to see the entire screen, if you havent done so already.
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18. On the alarms screen, select and double-click the Acknowledge button below the Tank 1 Discharge Valve
button. We are going to configure this button to acknowledge the Tank1Jam alarm.
19. On the Button Properties dialog, select the Action tab. Beside the Release Action field click on the Browse
button
to open the Command Wizard.
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20. Choose the Set command and click Next.
21. Click the Browse button
next to the Tag field to open the FactoryTalk Tag Browser.
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22. Right-click on the InstantFizz application name and select Refresh All Folders.
23. Browse under the FTAETag_Area folder to select Tank1Jam and select OperAck from the Contents panel.
Take a moment to note that all tags appearing in the Tag Browser under FTAETag_Area are all of the tag-based alarms
that have Show Alarm as Tag enabled.
24. Set Value or Label to 1.
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25. Click Finish
to exit the Command Wizard.
26. The resulting Button Properties window will look like this:
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27. Click OK
to close the Button Properties dialog box.
28. On the alarms screen, right-click the Tank 1 is Acknowledged text below the Tank 1 Discharge Valve button.
29. Select Animation > Visibility.

Note this is the same tag used as a Status Tag for Tank1Jam digital alarm in the Alarm and Event Setup. This text will
be visible when Tank 1 is acknowledged and the Status tag associated with Tank1Jam alarm is set to 1.
30. Click the Close button to close the Animation dialog.

Next, we are going to configure a new Alarms and Events feature, Shelving.
31. On the alarms screen, select and double-click the Shelve button below the Tank 2 Discharge Valve button. We
are going to configure this button to shelve the Tank2Jam alarm from the Control tag we observed in the Alarm
and Events setup
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32. On the Button Properties dialog, select the Action tab. Beside the Release Action field click on the Browse
button
to open the Command Wizard.
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33. Choose the Set command and click Next.
next to the Tag field to open the FactoryTalk Tag Browser.
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35. Right-click on the InstantFizz application name and select Refresh All Folders.
36. Browse under the Data_Area folder to select Online and select AlarmTank2Jam_Shelve from the Contents
panel.
37. Set Value or Label to 1.
38. Click Finish
to exit the Command Wizard.
The resulting Button Properties window will look like this:
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39. Click OK
to close the Button Properties dialog box.
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40. Save the display by clicking the Save button
on the toolbar.

be filled with alarms!
. Since a simulation program is running, the display will
from the Alarm Summary toolbar and select Acknowledge on the

42. Select the Acknowledge All icon
following Acknowledge Alarm with Comment confirmation dialog.
The resulting display will probably look something like this:
Note: The simulation is still running so more alarms will keep appearing, but with the majority of the alarms already
acknowledged, it will make it easier to search the list to find the alarms we will trigger in the following steps.
43. To simulate some tag-based Digital alarms, click the 3 buttons shown below once, rapidly in succession.
Notice that the new alarms will appear in the alarm summary list after 3-4 seconds.
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FactoryTalk Alarms and Events capture the time of the event on the alarm server (for tag-based alarms) or in the controller
(for device-based alarms) at the moment when the alarm condition was observed. It is this time stamp that is sent with the
alarm data and populated in any of the alarm objects. Although there may be a delay in displaying the alarm data, the time
and date at which it is being reported is accurate.
44. Select the PaperOut alarm and acknowledge by clicking the Acknowledge icon
toolbar.
The alarm will change state from Active
to Acknowledged
on the Alarm Summary
. (The blue highlight is because the alarm is still selected.
The Alarm Summary object and its toolbar is typically how operators will interact with alarms. In some cases, however, it is
desired that operators be able to Acknowledge, Disable, or Suppress alarms from a custom screen or a faceplate.
45. Select the Acknowledge button that you configured earlier, under the Tank 1 Discharge Valve button.
Notice that the Tank1Jam alarm has been acknowledged
, requiring no interaction with the Alarm Summary object.
Also, notice that the text you configured with Visibility animation is now shown. Status tags allow Tag based alarm states to
be recognized by the controller!
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46. Select the Shelve button that you configured earlier, under the Tank 2 Discharge Valve button.
Notice that the Tank2Jam alarm now has the Shelved symbol
47. Click the Turn off buttons for each of the three alarms to return the alarm conditions to normal.
Observe that the 2 acknowledged alarms (PaperOut and Tank1Jam) will be removed from the
alarm list, while Tank2Jam will change from Active Shelved
to Normal Shelved
49. Close the Alarms display by selecting File > Close from the FactoryTalk View Studio menu. Select Yes to save
changes if prompted.
Congratulations!! You have just

Observed and made online edits to tag-based alarms.
Enabled a tag-based alarm to be seen as a tag in the tag browser.
Changed the update rate for a tag-based alarm.
Configured buttons to remotely acknowledge and remotely shelve a tag-based alarm
Acknowledged alarms at runtime via the alarm summary object and remotely via a button.
In the next section, we will enable Alarm History and explore ways to query the historical database.
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Section 2: Setting up historical alarm and event logging

FactoryTalk Alarms and Events can log alarm and event information to a database so that the information can be viewed or
reported on at a later date.
The Alarm and Event Log Viewer object is used to view the historical alarm and event information in a simple grid view.
In this section of the lab you will:
Set up historical alarm and event logging.
View historical events using the Log Viewer object.
View historical events in Excel
View historical events by querying the database with VBA.
Add a database definition to the FactoryTalk system

1. In the FactoryTalk View Studio Explorer window, expand the folders System > Connections, and then rightclick the Databases folder. On the context menu, click New Database.
2. In the Alarm and Event Historian Database Properties dialog box:
For the Definition name, type AlarmEventHistory.
For the Computer name, type SERVER01.
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For the Database user name, type Labuser.
For the Database password, type rockwell.
For the Database name, type FTAEHistory.
When you are finished, the Alarm and Event Historian Database Properties dialog box should look as follows:
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3. Click on the Advanced tab. The system will attempt to create the database and the user account. On the
Database does not exist dialog box, click the Yes button.
4. In the Advanced tab, change the Log events to database every setting from 100 to 1.
(If the Alarm and Event Historian Database Properties close, re-open it by double-clicking on
AlarmEventHistory under Databases.)
This change is just for testing purposes so that we do not have to wait for information to be logged to the database.
Change from 100 to 1.
The Log events to database every settings control how many events are cached before sending
them to the database. This makes writing to the database more efficient. The events are cached to a
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file located on the computer hosting the alarm server that is generating the alarm and event
information.
If the connection to the database is lost, alarm and event information will continue to be cached to
files. Once the connection is restored, the cached information will be sent to the database.
The Limit database buffering to settings control how much information will be cached if the
database connection is lost for a long period of time. Once the limits are reached the oldest
information is overwritten.
5. Click OK to save the Database Definition.

Associate database definition with alarm servers
For device-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events servers:
1. Right-click the alarm server named RSLinx Enterprise. On the context menu, click Properties
2. In the RSLinx Enterprise Server Properties dialog box, click the Alarms and Events tab.
3. Under Alarm and Event History, select the Enable history check box.
4. In the Database definition list, select AlarmEventHistory.
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5. Click OK to save the changes.

For tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events servers:
1. Right-click the alarm server named FTAETag_Server. On the context menu, click Properties
2. In the FTAETag_Server Properties dialog box, click the Priorities and History tab.
3. Under Alarm and Event History, select the Enable history check box.
4. In the Database definition list, select AlarmEventHistory.
5. From the Log Language definition list, select English (United States), en-US.
6. Click OK to save the changes.

The Log language setting is related to the Language Switching feature which allows you to configure
multiple languages for user defined strings that can be switched between at runtime. The combo box
allows you to select the language to log alarm messages in (only one language is supported for the
alarm and event log).
Congratulations!! You have just configured the both FactoryTalk Alarms and Events servers to send their alarm and event
information to the database.
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Test run using Log Viewer object

1. In the Explorer window of Factory Talk View Studio, double-click the A911_AlarmLogViewer screen located
under the HMI server node in the Graphics > Displays folder).
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3. The screen will automatically populate with the last 2000 events from the alarm history database.
Since we have just added a historical database, we wont have 2000 events. These events are alarms that are occurring in
the simulation program thats running. The actual number of events is listed in the corner of the display.
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4. Click the Refresh button

on the Log Viewer toolbar. The event count will increase since our simulation
program is continuously triggering and clearing alarms.
5. Select an alarm (any alarm) from the list to see details in the Details pane of the Log Viewer object.
The detailed information documents information about that particular event such as: Alarm State, Priority, Severity,
Current Value (triggering condition), any User Comment, and much more.
The events that are captured for each alarm are described in the following Alarm state table:
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An icon may represent different alarm states. This is because the states Disabled, Suppressed, and Shelved take different
orders of precedence:
Disabled takes precedence over Suppressed
Suppressed takes precedence over Shelved.
in the corner.
the display by clicking the
Added a history database to the application.
Linked the history database to both the device-based and tag-based Alarms and Events servers.
Verified the database connection by viewing events in the standard Log Viewer control.
In the next section, we will query the history database using Excel.
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. You may also close
View the Alarm History database in Excel

In this part of the lab, you will learn how to view the alarm history database in Excel.
The steps to do this include:
Configuring an ODBC data source
Opening the data source in Excel
1. Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator from Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
ODBC, which stands for Open Database Connectivity, offers a framework for database engines to communicate with
client applications. ODBC drivers work as a bridge between a database and a client application, coordinating transactions
and translating between the client and the database
You can make data sources available to clients by creating a Data Source Name (DSN). There are three types of DSNs.
They are as follows:
User: A user DSN is visible only to the user who is logged on when the DSN is created.
System: A system DSN is visible to all local services on a computer and all users who log on locally to the computer.
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File: A file DSN can be shared by all users who have the same drivers installed and who have the necessary
permissions to access the DSN. Unlike user and system DSNs, file DSNs are stored in text files, rather than the registry.
The DSN recognizes the data source, the driver related with a data source, and other properties that define the interaction
between the client and the data source, such as timeout, read-only mode, and so on. You can use the same process to
create a DSN for most database types. The exception is SQL Server, which gives a wizard for setting up a data source.
2. Choose File DSN and click Add
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3. In the Create New Data Source dialog, scroll to the end of the list. Select the SQL Server driver and click Next.
4. Type FTAEHistory.dsn as the name for the file data source.
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5. Select Next then Finish.
6. When prompted, enter a description for the connection, as well as the name of the PC hosting the database,
which in our case is SERVER01\SQLExpress. Click Next.
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7. When asked for the authentication type, choose Windows NT (also known as mixed mode). This allows the
Windows login to open this data source. Click Next.
The system will now try to connect to the database. This may take a few seconds.
8. Check the Change the default database to: checkbox and use the drop down menu to change the option from
master to FTAEHistory. Click Next if your configuration looks like the following:
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9. No changes are necessary on the next screen, just click Finish.
10. Server setup is finished! You should see a happy confirmation window like this.
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11. Choose the option to Test Data Source which should complete successfully! Click OK to the three ODBC
windows that remain open.
12. Open Microsoft Excel using the shortcut on the Start menu.
13. In the blank spreadsheet, select the Data tab. Select Connections.
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14. In the Workbook Connections dialog, click Add
15. If the FTAEHistory.dsn does not appear in the Existing Connections dialog list, select Browse for More
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16. In the Select Data Source dialog, click My Documents under Desktop > Libraries > Documents to be
redirected to the Labusers Documents folder. Then select FTAEHistory.dsn.
17. Click Open. You will be prompted to select a table. In the Select Table dialog, scroll down to the bottom of the
list and choose ConditionEvent where the Owner is Labuser.
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18. Click OK and then close the Workbook Connections dialog.

19. Select Existing Connections from the Excel toolbar.
20. Choose FTAEHistory from the Connections in this Workbook then click Open.
21. Click OK on the Import Data dialog. The data will start to populate starting at cell A1.
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22. The spreadsheet will fill automatically with the all events from the alarm history database.
Use the scroll bars to browse through the data.

In our exercise, we are viewing ALL the events from the database. If you want to customize the query, you may do so by
selecting Properties in the Workbook Connections definition which you launched earlier from Data > Connections.
The SQL statement can be found on the Definition tab of the Connection Properties.
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23. Close Excel when you are finished. You may save the workbook if you would like but it is not necessary.
Created an ODBC source linked to the alarm database.
Added an ODBC source to an Excel workbook.
Viewed the contents of the database in Excel.
In the next section, we will query the same history database using VBA in FactoryTalk View SE.
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Querying Alarm History using VBA and FactoryTalk View SE

In this part of the lab, you will learn how to query the alarm history database using VBA inside a View SE client. In the interest of
time, a screen has been pre-configured with the VBA and necessary controls. Your job will be to observe the code and watch it
work!
Prerequisite: We will be using the same ODBC database connection that you created in the previous section: View the Alarm
History database in Excel. If you have skipped ahead to this section, then please go back to the previous section and follow
steps 1-9 to create an ODBC connection. Dont worry; it will only take a few minutes!
1. In the Explorer window of Factory Talk View Studio, double-click the Alarm History Event Results screen
located under the HMI server node in the Graphics > Displays folder).
The pre-configured alarm summary screen for the Instant Fizz demo application will open.
Factory Talk View Studio and the display to see as much of the screen as possible.
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3. You will see 2 windows in the screen: one is empty, while the other is an alarm summary object showing
currently active alarms.
Buttons to generate
some alarm activity
for demonstration.
These buttons are used

to query the alarm
database by time.
Event Listing display
Alarm Summary display
button to get all the events from the alarm
4. Lets begin by clicking the Last 15 min

database that has occurred in the last 15 minutes.
Notice that the events will populate in the Event listing display, sorted first by alarm name, then by alarm time (including
milliseconds) in descending order.
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5.
For the purposes of creating some alarm activity, click the button to Turn off digital device-based CIP Valve alarms.
.
6.
Now turn them on once more so they are again present in the summary list.
The alarms will look like this: You may have to scroll to the bottom of the Alarm Summary
7. Select the CIPValve0 alarm from the summary list.
The selected alarm name will appear in the Selected Alarm display.
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8.
Enter 5 in the text box, then click the Selected Minutes button.
9. In the Event listing display, you will see the event where the alarm was triggered in Step 6 above and perhaps
more if other events occurred during the past 5 minutes.
Now all this functionality is great, but how much VBA code is behind it?
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11. Select Alt+F11 on the keyboard to open the Visual Basic Editor.
12. Notice in the VBA Project Explorer window, there are 4 modules present. One titled ThisDisplay which is
present for each screen that is using VBA enabled. There are three additional modules added to the code of this
display: DBConnect, SQLModule, and SystemLogModule.
Module DBConnect handles the connection to the database using an ODBC connection
Module SQLModule creates the SQL statement to query the database
Module SystemLogModule compiles the error string to be logged to FactoryTalk Diagnostics.
13. Double-click DBConnect to open it.
In the beginning of the module, you will find the definition of the ODBC connection that code is using. This line is the only
line that a user would need to change if using this code for a different application.
The rest of the module handles the database connection, such as initialization, opening, reading, and closing.
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14. Now double-click SQLModule to open it.
In the beginning of the module, you will find the definition of the SQL table wed like to query. This line is the only line that a
user would need to change if using this code for a different application.
[FTAEHistory] is the name of the database as defined in the FactoryTalk database definition.
[Labuser] is the name of the administrator/owner of the database.
For this exercise, we are querying the SQL table named [ConditionEvent] since it contains all the alarm transitions.
The rest of the module defines the entire SQL statement used to query the database.
15. Now double-click SystemLogModule to open it. This module creates a wrapper around the standard
Application.LogDiagnosticsMessage method so that all messages logged to the FactoryTalk Diagnostics
contain the same format. This will help to debug if there are ever problems.
When using VBA, proper error handling is essential! If your VBA code crashes due to unhandled errors, it can halt your View SE
client completely and require a reboot.
16. If you are done exploring the VBA code, you may close the Visual Basic Editor by clicking the
in the corner.
to continue exploring the functionality of this

17. If desired, you may once again use the Test Display button
screen. Otherwise you may close the Alarm History Event Results display by selecting File > Close from the
FactoryTalk View Studio menu. No need to save the display changes if prompted.
Queried the alarm history database using VBA gathering results for a specific period of time.
Queried the alarm history database using VBA gathering results for a specific alarm within a specific period of time
Explored the VBA code used to perform this functionality.
You may find this screen with VBA code on the Rockwell Automation Knowledgebase in AID 51768 - Sample VBA: Query the
A&E History database and display results in ViewSE
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Section 3: Using FactoryTalk Alarm and Event Objects

To monitor and respond to FactoryTalk device-based and tag-based alarms at run time, the following FactoryTalk Alarm and
Event objects are available and can be embedded into FactoryTalk View SE graphic displays.
Alarm and Event Status Explorer
HMI tag alarm monitoring and FactoryTalk Alarms and Events are two separate alarm monitoring systems that do not share
alarm information with each other. FactoryTalk tag-based and device-based alarm information can only be displayed in the
FactoryTalk Alarm and Event objects. FactoryTalk View HMI tag alarm information cannot be displayed in FactoryTalk Alarm and
Event objects and the HMI tag alarm monitoring objects remain available for compatibility with existing applications.
In this section, you will observe all of the FactoryTalk Alarm and Event objects in both runtime via the SE client and design time
via FactoryTalk View Studio. You should have both FactoryTalk View Studio and the Client opened.

(display: B91_Alarms)
Use the Alarm and Event Summary object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to acknowledge, disable, suppress,
shelve, unshelve all shelved alarms, filter, and sort alarms during run time. You must use the Alarm Status Explorer to
unsuppress an alarm that has already been suppressed or unshelve a single alarm that has been shelved.
Run Time: Alarm Summary Object
1. Double-click on the FactoryTalk View SE Client file, IF_Client_1280x1024.cli

, from the Desktop
to launch the InstantFizz application. (For convenience, a shortcut to IF_Client_1280x1024.cli has also been
added to the Start menu.)
the client in order to see the objects clearly.
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2. From the FactoryTalk View SE client, click the
button in the navigation display.
3. The B91_Alarms display is opened containing an Alarm and Event Summary object.
4. Click on the HIHI Limit button to trigger some alarms. (It may take a few seconds to generate the alarms.)
5. Select a row in the summary list to see details about the alarm in the details pane. Scroll down if necessary.
6. Mouse over the toolbar on the Summary to see what the configured buttons do (read the tool tips).
Observe also the Status Bar at the bottom of the Summary. Mouse over those icons to see what information it is telling you
(read the tool tips).
7. Select a row in the Summary and click on the run alarm command
button or double-click on the row in
the Summary. The FactoryTalk View Command defined in the alarm configuration is then executed.
Note: If the button is gray
there is no FactoryTalk View command associated with that alarm or a row is not
selected. Select another row and try it again. For example, the CIPValve1 alarm properties use the FactoryTalk View
Command field to define Display commands and pass parameters as shown in the example below.
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When you double-click on the CIPValve1 alarm, you will then have the CIP Valves popup and the Logix_ALMD displays
since both were defined in the FactoryTalk View command of the alarm property.
Feel free to experiment by clicking more of the buttons in the tool bar to see what they do. Next well move on to using the
Summary object in design time.
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8. Close the two pop-up displays in order to view the Alarm and Event Summary once again.
Design Time: Alarm Summary Object
1. From the Studio Explorer, double-click on the B91_Alarms display to open it.
2. Double-click on the Alarm and Event Summary Design View object in the display and the Alarm and Event
Summary Properties will open.
3. Click on each tab to look at all the properties.
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A few key points are:

Appearance
Button sizes and text fonts can be configured
Columns
Hide and show columns
Resize columns
Reorder columns
Toolbar and Status Bar
Hide and show buttons/panes
Reorder buttons/panes
Event Subscriptions
This object, by default, will subscribe to all events with any priority
Display Filters
This object has four pre-configured filters. Each filter uses the Alarm Name field for the criteria.
Sort
Configure sort order
States
Configure text and background colors for the alarm states and priorities
Behavior
The Run Alarm Command will be invoked when the operator double-clicks on an alarm in the Alarm Summary
object.
4. Feel free to make configuration changes to the Alarm and Event Summary properties and click OK. Skip to
Step 7 if there are no changes made. Event Subscriptions and Display Filters are also covered in Section 5:
Filtering and Subscriptions on page 122.
Alarms
changes.
. Alternately, you can save your changes and use the
button on the navigation display of the Client to open the display again to see your
7. Close the B91_Alarms display in FactoryTalk View Studio when you are done.
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(display: B1_TopNavBar)
The Alarm and Event Banner displays only the highest priority, most severe, most recent alarms in the following order:
Alarms whose alarm condition is In Alarm and Unacknowledged.
Alarms whose alarm condition is In Alarm and Acknowledged.
Alarms whose alarm condition has returned to Normal but remain Unacknowledged. (Not displayed by default.)
Use the Alarm and Event Banner object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to monitor and respond to the most
current alarms requiring immediate attention.
Run Time: Alarm Banner Object
In this section, we are going to use the Alarm Summary object described in the previous section to demonstrate the features of
the Alarm Banner object. So just as in the previous section
1. Switch to the FactoryTalk View SE Client. The Alarm and Event Summary display should already open but if
not click the Alarms

button in the navigation display. Observe that alarms appear both in the
Alarm Banner located on the header of your client, as well as in the Alarm Summary.
Note: The text and background colors have been pre-defined in this application. You may note that these colors differ from
the default settings used in the Subscribing to Device-based Alarms and Events topic of Section 1.
2. Now click the

the alarms.
and
buttons to programmatically turn off some of
Observe how the device-based and tag-based alarms have been replaced by a higher priority, more severe or more recent
alarm in the Alarm Banner but stay visible in the Alarm Summary until they are acknowledged by the operator.
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3. For the next step, click the
button to enable alarms again.
4. Navigate to another display other than Alarms.

5.
Now, select a row in the Alarm Banner in the header display and double-click.
6. Observe that the Alarm and Event Summary display is automatically launched. Note that this behavior is
configurable and will be discussed on the next section.
Design Time: Alarm Banner Object
1. From the Studio Explorer, double-click on the B1_TopNavBar display to open it.
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2. Double-click on the Alarm and Event Banner Design View object in the display and the Alarm and Event Banner
Properties will open.
Similar to double-clicking on an alarm in the Alarm and Event Summary object, the Alarm and Event Banner can be
configured to perform different actions when double-clicking on an item. From the properties dialog above, we see that the
Row double-click action is set to Alarm and Event Summary command which is defined in the field as Display Alarms.
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Therefore, any double-click action on an item in the Alarm and Event Banner will open the Alarms display. Take a look at
the other options available for the Row double-click action.

General
The double-click action was configured as the Alarm and Event Summary command. This is why the Alarm and
Event Summary display appeared when you double-clicked on the row in the Alarm Banner
Button sizes and text fonts can be configured
Columns
Resize columns
Reorder columns
Status Bar
Hide and show panes
Reorder panes
Event Subscriptions
This object, by default, will subscribe to all events with any priority
States
Configure text and background colors for the alarm states and priorities
Normal and unacknowledged alarms will not appear in the banner.
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4. Feel free to make configuration changes to the Alarm Banner properties, click OK and save any changes. Skip
to Step 7 if there are no changes made.
7. Close the B1_TopNavBardisplay in FactoryTalk View Studio when you are done.
(display: A911_AlarmLogViewer)
Use the Alarm and Event Log Viewer object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to view and filter historical alarm
information stored in Microsoft SQL Server databases.
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Run Time: Alarm Log Viewer Object
1. Switch to the FactoryTalk View SE Client. The Alarm and Event Summary display should already open but if not
click the Alarms
2. Click the Alarm and Event Log Viewer button
from the Alarm Summary display.
3. Select a row in the list to see details about the alarm in the Details Pane.
4. Explore the use of the toolbar buttons: Refresh
5. Use the X
, Find
and Show/Hide Details Pane
to close the Alarm and Event Log Viewer display when finished.
Design Time: Alarm Log Viewer Object
1. Switch back to Studio. From the Explorer, double-click on the A911_AlarmLogViewer display to open it.
2. Double-click on the Alarm and Event Log Viewer Design View object in the display and the Alarm and Event Log
Viewer Properties will open.
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General
The log must be selected
Text fonts can be configured
Columns
Resize columns
Reorder columns
Toolbar
Hide and show buttons
Reorder buttons
Display Filters
This Log Viewer object can have pre-configured filters.
Notice that there is not an Event Subscription tab. This is strictly a historical view of what is in the log or database.
4. Feel free to make configuration changes to the Alarm and Event Log Viewer properties and click OK. Skip to
Step 7 if there are no changes made.
to see your changes.
button on the Alarm and Event Summary display of the Client to open the display again
7. Close the A911_AlarmLogViewer display in FactoryTalk View Studio when you are done.
Alarm and Event Status Explorer
(display: A912_AlarmStatusExplorer)
Use the Alarm Status Explorer object, embedded in a FactoryTalk View graphic display, to enable or disable alarms and
suppress or unsuppress alarms and shelve or unshelve alarms.
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Run Time: Alarm Status Explorer
1. Switch to the FactoryTalk View SE Client. The Alarm and Event Summary display should already open but if
not click the Alarms
2. Click the
Alarm Status Explorer icon from the Alarm Summary
toolbar to launch a default Alarm Status Explorer object.
To configure the default Alarm and Event Status Explorer object launched from the Alarm Summary toolbar, use the
Alarm and Event Summary Properties dialog to access the Toolbar configuration settings from the Appearance
tab.
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3. Click the Close
button to the display.
4. Click the Alarm and Event Status Explorer
button.
This time a display contained within the InstantFizz application was opened. The display was developed like any other
display and contains an Alarm Status Explorer object within it. A separate display is not needed to use the Alarm
Status Explorer object, as seen in Step 2, but it does allow you to incorporate other common features of your
application if you choose.
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5. Mouse over the icons on the Status Explorer to see what the toolbar buttons do.
6. Select a row in the list and select the show details for selected alarm
details window then close.
7. Select a couple of rows and then click the Suppress
Suppress button to confirm the action.
button from the toolbar. Review the
button. On the Suppress Alarm pop up press the
8. Click on a column header to see the list sort by that column. You may need to resize the columns to fully see
text.
9. Click the Suppress column until the suppressed alarms appear at the top of the list.
10. Select all the suppressed alarms and then click the Unsuppress
press Unsuppress button to confirm the action.
button. On the Unsuppress Alarm pop up
11. Type *Valve2* in the name field for the Alarm source filter and click the Apply Filter
12. Observe the list is filtered to show only the alarms that contain Valve2 in the name.
13. Click the Cancel Filter
button.
14. Observe the list shows all alarms once again.

15. Select FTAETag_Area folder in the left window to view Tag based alarms only.
16. Select an alarm that is in alarm, such as ChemValveFlow and click the Shelve
Notice the Shelve duration: field. Well leave the default shelve duration at 1 minute.
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button.
button.
17. Click the Shelve
button to shelve the alarm.
Notice the shelve symbol
17. Use the X
button to close the Alarm and Event Status Explorer display when finished.
18. Scroll the alarm summary object on the Alarms display to locate the alarm you shelved. The alarm state column
symbol. Wait until the minute duration has passed and observe the alarm
should show the Shelved
returning to the unshelved state.
Design time: Alarm Status Explorer
1. In the Explorer window of Factory Talk View Studio, double-click on the A912_AlarmStatusExplorer
display to open it.
2. Right-click on the Alarm Status Explorer object in the display and then select the Properties
context menu item to open the Alarm Status Explorer Properties:.
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3. Feel free to make configuration changes to the Alarm Status Explorer Properties and click OK. Skip to Step 6
if there are no changes made.
see your changes.
button on the Alarm and Event Summary display of the Client to open the display again to
6. Close the A912_AlarmStatusExplorer display in FactoryTalk View Studio when you are done.
Congratulations!! You have completed the section on the available FactoryTalk Alarms and Events graphical objects. Lets
quickly review:
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Alarm and Event Summary object: Use to acknowledge, disable, suppress, filter, and sort alarms and shelve Tagbase alarms during run time
Alarm and Event Banner object: Use to monitor and respond to the most current alarms requiring immediate
attention
Alarm and Event Log Viewer object: Use to view and filter historical alarm information stored in Microsoft SQL
Server databases
Alarm Status Explorer object: Use to enable or disable alarms and suppress or unsuppress alarms and shelve or
unshelve Tag-based alarms.
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Section 4: Configuring Redundancy

The ideal redundant solution involves having at least two instances of everything hardware, software, and networks. In
practice, this is seldom necessary. Redundant FactoryTalk server components duplicate server information on a secondary
computer that is used if a primary server computer fails.
Server redundancy is typically used to maximize system availability in case of:
Computer hardware failure
Software failure on one server computer
Power failure on one server computer
In this Section you will:
Explore how FactoryTalk Alarms and Events redundancy is configured
Observe a manual Switchover
Use different tools to monitor a switchover
Configuring Redundancy
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events redundancy is available for both device-based and tag-based alarms to maximize the availability
of the alarms. To implement redundant servers, the steps depend on whether you are using a device-based alarm server and/or
a tag-based alarm server.
For each redundant server, a switchover option must be selected:
Continue using the secondary server, even when the primary server becomes available again. When a
redundant server pair is set to this option, the system does not automatically switch from an active secondary server
when the primary becomes ready. Instead, clients remain connected to the Active server until the server is manually
switched or until the Active server fails.
Choose this option to minimize server switches if you expect frequent network interruptions or when you want to
manually control the switch from Active and Standby server. For example, choose this option to perform
troubleshooting or maintenance tasks on a primary server before it becomes active.
Switch over (switchback) to the primary server when it becomes available. When a redundant server pair is set to
this option, clients switch over from a secondary server to the primary server as soon as the primary becomes
available again. The primary server is always considered to be the preferred server and always becomes active as
soon as it is ready. Manual control over switches between Active and Standby servers is not available with this option.
Choose this option if you expect your system will have few network interruptions, if you do not need to manually control
when a primary server becomes active, and you want to use the secondary server as a backup only in case of
emergencies.
Device-based Alarms and Events

The steps that need be performed to implement redundancy when using a Rockwell Automation Device Server (RSLinx
Enterprise) with device-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events enabled are listed below. The use of the term RSLinx Enterprise
or Data Server in this section implies RSLinx Enterprise with Device-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events enabled.
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1. In the Explorer window of FactoryTalk View Studio, expand the Data_Area folder by clicking the expander
once.
2. Right click on the RSLinx Enterprise data server and select Properties to open the Properties page.
3. Select the Redundancy tab to review the configuration of the secondary RSLinx Enterprise data server.
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4. The Provide redundancy using a secondary server checkbox is selected in order to enable
redundancy and the computer running the secondary server has been defined as SERVER02.
There is a second virtual machine also running in the VMWare Workstation session for this lab. This image has been
configured as SERVER02 and is available to be the secondary server.
5. Verify that the Switchover options setting is set to Continue using the secondary server even when the
primary server becomes available again.
The default Switchover option for RSLinx Enterprise servers is Continue using the secondary server... which means that
when your primary server fails or is shutdown, the secondary server will become the active server. When your primary server
comes back online, the secondary RSLinx Enterprise Server will continue to function as your active device-based FactoryTalk
Alarm and Event server and clients will remain connected to the secondary.
The secondary server must fail, be manually switched (from the Server Status dialog) or be shutdown to switch the active
server back to the primary.
6. Click Cancel to close the dialog.

7. In the Explorer window of FactoryTalk View Studio, expand the RSLinx Enterprise server once more. Doubleclick on Communication Setup to launch the Communication Setup dialog.
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8. The RSLinx Enterprise device shortcuts have been pre-configured for your Primary and Secondary
servers. Click between the Primary and Secondary tabs to review the configuration
Note that you are able to configure different communication paths on the Primary and Secondary tabs but for the purpose of
this lab we are using the same one.
9. Click Cancel to close the Communication Setup editor.

Tag-based Alarms and Events
The steps that should be performed to implement redundancy when using a tag-based FactoryTalk Alarm and Event server are
as follows:
1. In the Explorer window of FactoryTalk View Studio, expand the FTAETag_Area folder by clicking the expander
once.
2. Right click on the tag-based FactoryTalk Alarm and Event server named FTAETag_Server and select
Properties to open the Properties page.
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3. In the Tag Alarm and Event Server Properties dialog box, click the General tab. Verify that the Load when
operating system initializes radio button is selected.
4. Select the Redundancy tab to review the configuration of the secondary Tag Alarm and Event server.
5. Verify that the Switch back options setting is set to Continue using the secondary server even when the
primary becomes available again.
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The default Switch back option for FactoryTalk Tag Alarm and Event Server is Continue using the secondary server... which
means that when your primary server fails or is shutdown, the secondary server will become the active server. When your
primary server comes back online, the secondary Tag Alarm and Event Server will continue to function as your active
FactoryTalk Tag Alarm and Event server and clients will remain connected to the secondary.
The secondary server must fail, be manually switched (from the Server Status dialog) or be shutdown to switch the active Tag
Alarm and Event Server back to the primary.
6. Click Cancel to close the dialog.

With the secondary device and tag-based Alarm and Event servers configured, the next section will explore the different
ways to determine what state each server is in.
Determining the Active and Standby Server

The following methods can be used to determine the state of the Alarm and Event servers in a redundant configuration:
FactoryTalk View Administration Console
A display within a FactoryTalk View SE Client
FactoryTalk View Studio
FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer
Using FactoryTalk View Administration Console

To view FactoryTalk Alarms and Events Server status using the FactoryTalk View Administration Console:
1. Open the FactoryTalk View Administration Console from the Start > All Programs > Rockwell Software
menu.
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2. In the Select FactoryTalk Directory dialog, select Network and click OK.
3. Expand the InstantFizz application by clicking the expander
4. Expand the Data_Area folder by clicking the expander

Server Status
once.
and right click on RSLinx Enterprise to select
5. The top section of the Server Status display shows the Server status for both the primary and secondary RSLinx
Enterprise servers.
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6. Click Cancel to close the window.

and right click on your tag-based FactoryTalk
7. Expand the FTAETag_Area folder by clicking the expander
Alarm and Event Server named FTAETag_Server to select Server Status
8. The top section of the Server Status display shows the Server status for both the primary and secondary tagbased FactoryTalk Alarm and Event servers.
9. Click Cancel to close the window.

10. Close the FactoryTalk View Administration Console by clicking on the close
corner.
button in the upper right-hand
You have just used one method to determine the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events Server status. As you manually
switch the Active server in the following section, you will use the remaining three methods.
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Server Switchover
The active FactoryTalk Alarms and Events server can be changed manually by using the Switchover functionality available from
the Server Status window. The server that is currently on Standby will become the Active server while the currently Active server
will then become the Standby server.
Device-based Alarms and Events
Determine Server Status using a display within a FactoryTalk View SE Client
A display, named Network Health, has been created and incorporated into the InstantFizz application. To view FactoryTalk
Alarms and Events Server status using the FactoryTalk View SE Client:
1. Switch to the FactoryTalk View SE Client or launch IF_Client_1280x1024.cli from the Start menu if the
application is not running.
2. From the navigation bar, click on the Network Health navigation button
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to open the display.
The Network Health display used in this application was based upon two sample displays. The first provides status for the
FactoryTalk Directory, HMI, Data and FactoryTalk Alarms and Events Servers. It uses the Display Client Object Model to
display status on the FactoryTalk View SE Client during runtime. See Answer ID 44624 - Determining any Server's Current
Status and State in a Display Client for a copy of the sample display and instructions on its configuration.
The second sample display uses the RSLinx Enterprise predefined items to display data items for diagnostic purposes.
Predefined items are internal counters and strings that differ from regular data items in that they access internal information
contained in RSLinx Enterprise. See Answer ID 30148 - RSLinx Enterprise: using Diagnostic Counters - Predefined items for a
copy of the sample display and instructions on its configuration.
3. In the Server Status section, each panel represents a different server in your application: the FactoryTalk
Directory, HMI Server, Data Server and FactoryTalk Alarms and Events Servers. The status of the Primary and
Secondary of each is easily represented by text and color.
For example, the Data server with FactoryTalk Alarms and Events indicates that the Primary server is Active and that the
machine name is SERVER01.
Manual Switchover
To manually change the Active RSLinx Enterprise server using the FactoryTalk View Studio:
1. Switch to FactoryTalk View Studio and expand the Data_Area folder to right click on your RSLinx Enterprise to
select Server Status
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2. In the bottom section of the Server Status window is the Server switchover section which provides the
Switchover button.
This button will initiate a switchover of the Active server from SERVER01 to SERVER02.
3. Click on the Switchover

button to perform a switchover and select Yes to verify that the
switch be made. Watch in the Server Status display for the update as the switchover occurs.
The Server Status window now indicates that SERVER02 is the Active RSLinx Enterprise server.
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4. Click OK to close the window.

5. Switch back to the FactoryTalk View SE Client displaying the Network Health display and note that it has
updated with the new server status.
Tag-based Alarms and Events

Determine Server Status using FactoryTalk View Studio
We had used the FactoryTalk Administration Console earlier to launch the Server Status display. This same display can be
opened with FactoryTalk View Studio. To open the Server Status window using FactoryTalk View Studio:
1. Switch to FactoryTalk View Studio and expand the FTAETag_Area folder by clicking the expander
and right
click on your tag-based FactoryTalk Alarm and Event Server named FTAETag_Server to select Server
Status
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2. The top section of the Server Status display shows the Server status for both the primary and secondary tagbased FactoryTalk Alarm and Event servers.
Manual Switchover
To manually change the Active tag-based FactoryTalk Alarm and Event server using FactoryTalk View Studio:
1. In the Server Status dialog that is open, the Server switchover section provides the Switchover button.
This button will initiate a switchover of the Active server from SERVER01 to SERVER02.
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2. Click on the Switchover

button to perform a switchover and select Yes to verify that the
switch be made. Watch in the Server Status display for the update as the switchover occurs.
The Server Status window now indicates that SERVER02 is the Active tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events server.
3. Click OK to close the window.

Determine Server Status using FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer
To view FactoryTalk Alarms and Events Server status using the FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer:
1. Launch the tool from the Tools > Diagnostics Viewer menu from within FactoryTalk View Studio.
2. We had just completed a manual switchover of the Active tag-based FactoryTalk Alarm and Event server so lets
look at the bottom of the list to see these messages. You should see a group of messages similar to the
following (order may differ). The column headers can be expanded to view more information.
The messages indicate that the Active server has been switched and gives the status of each server machine. Select any
of the messages to see additional details in the preview pane.
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The default configuration of the Diagnostic Viewer is to locally log Error, Warning, Information and Audit messages sent to the
Operator and Engineer audience. This configuration can be modified from the Tools > Diagnostic Setup menu from within
FactoryTalk View Studio.
3. If you scroll up through the log, you can also verify when the Active RSLinx Enterprise server was switched.
These messages will look similar to:
You may also see an error:
This indicates that the RSLinx Enterprise Alarm Provider on SERVER01 has lost its connection to the controller. This is an
expected error since we had switched the Active RSLinx Enterprise server from SERVER01 to SERVER02. The same
diagnostic logs on SERVER02 will indicate a reconnection to the controller since it has now become the Active server.
4. Close the Diagnostic Viewer by clicking on the close
button and click No if asked to save changes.
Congratulations!! You have completed the section on redundancy for device-based and tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and
Events. Lets quickly review:
For device-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events redundancy, enable redundancy on your RSLinx Enterprise server
configured with FactoryTalk Alarms and Events.
For tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events redundancy, enable redundancy on your tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms
and Events server.
The state of the FactoryTalk Alarm and Event servers can be viewed from within the FactoryTalk View Administration
Console, a FactoryTalk View SE Client display, FactoryTalk View Studio and FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer.
Use the Server Status dialog, available from FactoryTalk View Studio and the FactoryTalk View Administration
Console, to manually switchover the active FactoryTalk Alarm and Event server.
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Section 5: Filtering and Subscriptions

Event subscriptions and display filters limit the information that is displayed in the Alarm and Event Summary. You can configure
event subscriptions, display filters, or both to refine the information displayed in the Alarm and Event Summary at run time.
Event subscriptions are used to control the events that are sent to an Alarm and Event Summary. The Summary default
subscription includes events of any priority from all areas and event sources. If you want to only display alarms from one area in
the Alarm and Event Summary, create an event subscription that only subscribes to events from that area.
A display filter does not limit the events the Alarm and Event Summary receives; it only limits the information that the Alarm and
Event Summary displays. If you remove a display filter, all of the alarms and events that were filtered out or hidden are
displayed.
Use display filters if you need to limit the information displayed by the alarm summary temporarily. For example, if you routinely
need to see alarms from all areas, but occasionally want to see alarms from only one area, create a display filter for the one
area, and apply it to the Alarm and Event Summary when you need to see data for that area alone.
In this section you will:
Create and apply a new filter to an alarm summary display.
Create a new subscription for an alarm summary display and compare the results.
Filtering with the Alarm and Event Summary Object

Rather than displaying all of the events, you can build a filter to display only those events which meet your specific criteria.
Events that do not meet your criteria are hidden.
There are filters which have been pre-configured in the InstantFizz application. Lets explore how they are configured and used
during runtime.
1. Switch to the FactoryTalk View SE Client or launch IF_Client_1280x1024.cli from the Start menu if the
application is not running.
2. The Alarm and Event Summary display should already open but if not click the Alarms
the navigation display.
3.
button in
From the filter drop down box on the Alarm and Event Summary object, select any of the existing filters.
As you select different filters, observe that the messages contained in the object will be updated to only display the filtered
alarms. Note also that the Status Bar updates its counts according to what is being displayed.
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4. Clear any selected filter by selecting (No filter).
5. Switch to FactoryTalk View Studio and expand the Displays folder in the Application Explorer window under
HMI_Area > InstantFizz_HMI > Graphics. Double-click on B91_Alarms to open the display.
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7. Click on the Display Filters tab to view the properties.
8. Select Valve 0 from the Display Filters field and view the configured criteria.
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9. Click the Add
button to create a new filter.
10. Type in the name CIP for your filter.
11. Select Alarm Name in the Event Fields and click Add Criteria
12. In the Filter Wizard dialog, change the condition to Contains and type in CIP to define the criteria where any
alarm name containing the text CIP will be displayed when this filter is used. Click OK.
13. Confirm that the defined criteria is:
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14. Click OK to accept the changes and close the properties window.
15. Save the changes by selecting Save
16. Switch back to the running FactoryTalk View SE client to navigate to another display and return to Alarms with
the
button in the navigation display. This will load the changes which we had just saved.
17. From the filter drop down box on the Alarm and Event Summary object, select your new CIP filter from the
existing filters.
18. The alarm messages become filtered so that any alarm name containing CIP will be displayed.
Note that the Status bar also updates with the number of filtered alarms and the name of the filter that has been applied.
19. Clear any selected filter by selecting (No filter) from the filter drop down box.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions, like filters, can be used to show only desired alarms with a certain name, prefix, from a specific application area or
severity level. The difference with a subscription is that the filtering is done from the subscription level in other words, of the
many alarms that may be happening in the system, only the desired subset reaches the alarm summary display, without the
need for additional filters.
1. Switch to FactoryTalk View Studio. Your Alarms display should already be open.
If it is not, expand the Displays folder in the Application Explorer window under HMI_Area > InstantFizz_HMI > Graphics.
Double-click on B91_Alarms to open the display.
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3. Click on the Event Subscriptions tab to view the properties.
4. Under the Event Subscriptions, click Add to add a new subscription. Type the name CIP Valves.
5. Under Event Sources, click Add. Type in *CIP* for the source name.
This means that on this alarm summary display, we will subscribe to any events that contain CIP anywhere in the name
and only those events.
You can add multiple Event Sources to an Alarm Summary object to customize a display based on several different tag
names or controller shortcut names. You can also subscribe to alarms by priority or application area.
6. Click OK to save changes and to exit the Alarm and Event Summary Properties.
Factory Talk View Studio to see the entire screen.
8. Notice that the alarms displayed in the list are similar to the results after the CIP filter from the previous section
was applied; however, in this case, there is no filter applied.
Contrary to the filtered display where the number of alarms is updated, but a filter is applied.
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10. Close the B91_Alarms display by selecting File > Close from the FactoryTalk View Studio menu.. Do not save
your changes.
Created and applied a filter to an alarm summary display.
Created a new subscription for an alarm summary display and saw similar results.
This completes the core portion of the lab on implementing FactoryTalk Alarms and Events with FactoryTalk View Site Edition.
Nice work!
If time permits, the next section covers a few advanced topics that can be done in any order. Simply choose the topics which are
of interest to you.
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Section 6: Advanced Topics (Optional)

This section of the lab is a collection of several smaller exercises designed to guide the user through additional functionality
when using FactoryTalk Alarms and Events. The format allows you to select the features you want to work with and you can
complete these sections in any order.
The following table lists the available sections and the page number each starts on.
This section
Starts on page
Multi-Language Alarms
129
Converting HMI Alarms to Tag Alarms and Events
143
Alarm Annunciation using Win-911
152
Multi-Language Alarms
Device-based alarm language switching
RSLogix 5000 allows you to maintain alarm messages in multiple languages. These messages can be entered in the associated
language versions of RSLogix 5000 programming software or in an import/export (.CSV or .TXT) file.
RSLogix 5000 will configure alarm messages in the language of the RSLogix 5000 software. For example, the German version of
RSLogix 5000 configures alarm messages in the German language. If you add another language, then when RSLinx Enterprise
connects to the controller, both languages are uploaded and available to FactoryTalk Alarms and Events clients.
Use the import/export utility to create and translate message strings into multiple languages. The .TXT import/export format
supports double-byte characters, so you can use this format for all languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The
.CSV import/export format does not support double-byte characters.
Once you have exported the alarm messages, you can then manually add all the messages in the languages you desire (limited
to the languages supported by FactoryTalk View) and then import the file when translation is complete. This simplifies sending
the work out to translators.
Editing alarm messages
1. Double-click on the IF2_DEMO.ACD shortcut

from the Desktop if RSLogix 5000 is not open
already with this project file. (For convenience, a shortcut to IF2_DEMO.ACD has also been added to the Start
menu.)
2. Choose Go Offline from the Controller Status drop down menu to ensure the project is offline.
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3. In the left pane, expand the Main folder under Tasks, and then double-click the Alarms routine.
4. We are currently viewing the project in the English (United States) language as indicated by the Documentation
Language drop down menu in the upper right hand corner. Click on the menu to view the other languages that
have been configured.
5. Look at Rung 1. Inside the CIPValve0 alarm instruction, click the Browse button
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to open the ALMD
6. Click your mouse in the Message: field and notice that a transparent dialog box appears.
7. Move your cursor over the transparent dialog to activate the pop up.
8. Select different languages from the drop down menu to see how the message was configured in the other
languages.
9. Select French (France) to view the message.
Although we want to edit the French message, we will not make the change at this point. It is important to note that
since we are still viewing the Properties window in the English (United States) language, as shown by the
Documentation Language drop down menu in the toolbar, saving changes will alter the message configuration for the
English (United States) properties and not what is shown in the pop up window.
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10. Click Cancel to close the properties window without saving any changes.
11. Change the Documentation Language to French (France).
12. Open the CIPValve0 alarm properties once again by clicking the Browse button
for the ALMD instruction.
13. Add Ouvrir la vanne. to the end of the Message field. Your configuration should look like the following:
14. Click OK to save changes.

15. Change the Documentation Language back to English (United States).
Using the Alarm Properties dialog along with the Documentation Language menu, is a quick and easy way to make small
edits to alarm messages in different languages without exporting to Microsoft Excel.
Exporting alarm messages
1. Look at Rung 2. Inside the CIPValve2 alarm instruction, click the Browse button
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to open the ALMD
2. Activate the language dialog by clicking in the Message: field and moving your cursor over the transparent
window.
3. Click on the drop down menu and notice that English (United States) is the only language listed. This indicates
that the CIPValve2 alarm does not have a message defined in other languages. Close the ALMD Properties
window
4. Select the Tools > Export > Tags and Logic Comments menu item.
5. When the Export dialog opens, navigate to C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Language Switching and keep the default
filename.
6. Notice the Save as type options for the export file.
This lab will demonstrate how to use both formats.
7. Keep the default of RSLogix 5000 Import/Export File (*.CSV) selected.

8. Click the Export button.
If your RSLogix 5000 project includes a large number of programs, and you want to translate alarm messages from only one of
them, you can make Tags and Logic Comments selections in the Export dialog box to limit the data that is exported.
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9. Go to the C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Language Switching folder. (For convenience, a shortcut to Lab Files has been
added to the Start menu and the desktop).
10. Double-click on the IF2_DEMO-Tags.CSV file to open it in Microsoft Excel.
11. Expand the width of columns A, B, C, and D. Scroll down in the worksheet to Row 137 where the CIPValve
configurations begin. For example ALMMSG:en-US.
The Language codes indicate that

only an English (en-US) alarm
message has been defined for
CIPValve2 which we had seen in the
ALMD properties window.
Verifies our changes

were made for the
CIPValve0 French
alarm message
configuration.
Unicode character sets, like

Japanese and Chinese, will not
display properly in an export
.CSV format.
12. Close Excel without saving any changes.

Translating alarm messages
It is possible to use Excel and the spreadsheet from the previous section to create or modify translations to multiple alarm
messages in multiple languages. However, the application includes message strings in Unicode character sets (Japanese and
Chinese) so we will be using the RSLogix 5000 Unicode Import/Export (*.TXT) format to import the alarm messages.
A previously exported .TXT file has been translated and can be found in the C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Language Switching folder.
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Importing alarm messages
1. Switch back to RSLogix 5000 and select the Tools > Import > Tags and Logic Comments menu item.
2. When the Import dialog opens navigate to C:\Lab Files\FTAE\LanguageSwitching.
3. Select the RSLogix 5000 Unicode Import/Export Files (*.TXT)file type.
4. Select the filename IF2_DEMO-Tags_translated.TXT and leave the default settings for the Collision Handling
options.
Importing and exporting messages always performs a merge. Deleting a message in a .CSV or .TXT file does not
delete the message from the .ACD file. To delete a message, import the .CSV or .TXT file with the type, name, and
specified fields filled in but the description blank.
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5. Click the Import
button.
6. Select the Communications > Download menu item.

7. When the Download dialog appears, select the Download
button.
8. When prompted with the message Done downloading. Change the controller mode back to Remote Run?
select the Yes button.
9. Make sure the controller is in Remote Run mode.
If it is not, select the Communications > Run Mode menu item

The alarms should now be language translating in View Client. You will verify this at the end of this section.
Tag-based alarm language switching
When the Alarm and Event Setup editor launches in FactoryTalk Administration Console, alarm messages display in the default
language defined for the application. If a message string does not exist in the default language a question mark character (?) is
displayed.
When the Tag Alarm and Event Editor opens in FactoryTalk View Studio, alarm messages display in the language selected
during start up of the FactoryTalk View SE application. If alarm messages are not defined in the specified language, alarm
messages display in the default language defined for the application. If a message string does not exist in the default language a
question mark character (?) is displayed.
When editing alarm messages in multiple languages, the Microsoft Excel method offers the advantage that you dont have to
close and then re-open the application in the appropriate language each timeyou can edit the text in any language in one step
and then import the translated text for all languages into the application at once.
Normally, you would use the Alarm and Event Setup Editor to create your alarms, do an export, translate the alarm messages,
and then import them back into the Tag Alarm and Event Server. For this lab, you will step through an export to see how it works.
Then, add alarm messages in multiple languages to your existing alarms with a file that already contains the translated
messages strings.
Exporting alarm messages
You will step through an export to see how it is done.
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1. Switch to FactoryTalk View Studio and from the Application Explorer, right-click on the FTAETag_Server and
select the Import and Export context menu item.
The Alarm Import Export Wizard will open.
2. Select the Export alarm configuration to Excel file and click the Next button.
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3. Leave the defaults with all the selected alarms and click the Next button. This may take a few moments to
complete.
4.
Select the Export messages for all alarms and click the Next button.
Note that there are no other languages that are currently configured for the tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events.
Therefore, only the default language of English (United States) is appearing in the selection list.
5. Change the file name to MY_InstantFizz_FTAETag_Area_FTAETag_Server_AlarmExport.xls and click the

Finish button.
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6. A progress indicator will open. When complete, click the OK button.

Translating alarm messages
A previously exported file has been translated and can be found in the C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Language Switching folder.
1. If you dont have the C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Language Switching folder open, do so. (For convenience,
a shortcut to Lab Files has been added to the Start menu and the desktop).
2. Double-click on the InstantFizz_AlarmExport_translated.xls file to open it and select Yes if
prompted Do you want to open the file now?.
3. Notice there is a worksheet for each alarm type, one for messages, and then one for tag update rates.
4. Click on each of the tabs and take a look. There are four digital alarms and one level alarm. Notice that one
message can be used in multiple alarms.
5. Click on the Messages tab. There is a column for each language that has been translated.
Messages can be created when a new alarm is being created or they can be created from the message tab and then they can
be associated with an alarm.
You can create as many messages as you like for alarms, but each alarm can be associated with only one message. For level
alarms, you can configure one message per level condition.
Alarm messages can be shared between alarms to eliminate duplication. The Usage column on the Message tab indicates
how many alarms are referencing an alarm message.
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6. Close the file. No need to save any changes if prompted.

Importing alarm messages
1. From the Application Explorer in FactoryTalk View Studio, right-click on the FTAETag_Server and select the
Import and Export context menu item.
2. Select the Import alarm configuration from Excel File option and click the Next button.
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beside the Specify import file location: field.
4. The Select Alarm Import File dialog will open. Navigate to C:\Lab Files\FTAE\LanguageSwitching.
Select the InstantFizz_AlarmExport_translated.xls file and click the Open button.
5. Click the Next button on the Alarm Import Export Wizard.

6. Select the Update existing alarm definitions and create new alarm definitions from the import file option and click
the Finish button.
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7. A progress indicator will open. When complete, you should see this:
8. Click the OK button.

View translated alarm messages
When RSLinx Enterprise makes the connection to the controller, all alarm messages and their languages are uploaded from the
controller. When a FactoryTalk View SE Client runs, the FactoryTalk Alarm and Event objects (Alarm and Event Summary, for
example) connect to the Alarm and Event system and request alarm messages in the current language. You can then switch
among languages with the click of a button on the client computer, and the alarm monitoring system and all of the client screens
switch to the appropriate language on that specific client.
Switching languages at run time does not switch time and date formats. The Alarm and Event objects in FactoryTalk View always
show the date/time format of the operating system.
Alarm Fault List messages that can be displayed from the Alarm and Event Banner and Summary do not currently switch
languages.
FactoryTalk historical alarm and event information is only logged in one language which is specified on the alarm server
properties. The contents of the Alarm and Event Log Viewer event list, which consists of historical alarm and event information, is
not translated. This data continues to appear in the same language used when the alarm and event information was written to
the alarm history database. For example, a message logged in English will be displayed only in English, even if the language is
switched to German.
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1. Switch back to the running FactoryTalk View SE client to open the Alarms display with the
the navigation display, if it is not already open.
2. Open the Languages
display and select French
button in
as a new language.
3. Close the Language display with the close button

4. Notice that both the tag and device-based alarms that appear in the Alarm and Event Summary object and are
displayed in the new language. Column Headers and other objects on the screen have been translated and
have also switched.
5. Open the Languages
6.
display and select Anglais
Close the Language display with the close button
to switch back to English.
Converting HMI Alarms to Tag Alarms and Events

The Alarm Migration tool performs a migration of digital and analog alarms defined in the FactoryTalk View Tag/Alarm CSV files.
The result is an Excel file in the XML spreadsheet format that can be imported into your Tag Alarms and Events server.
This tool will not convert graphics and will not modify your application directly. It simply converts existing FactoryTalk View Alarm
tags into a format than can be imported into a Tag Alarms and Events server.
Migration Notes
With the migration of the alarms from the FactoryTalk View HMI system, not all configured features will
convert to the tag-based FactoryTalk Tag and Events system and some assumptions must be made.
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Digital Alarms
FactoryTalkView HMI Alarm Fields

Tag File: Tag Name
Tag File: Address
Alarm File: Severity
Tag File: Tag Description
Alarm File: Alarm Label
Alarm File: Alarm Identify
Corresponding FactoryTalk A&E Fields

Name tag\path converted to tag_path
Input Tag
Severity scaled
Message ID via number assigned to message
Alarm Class
FactoryTalk View Command
Analog Alarms
FactoryTalkView HMI Alarm Fields
Tag File: Tag Name
Tag File: Address
Alarm File: Severity
Tag File: Tag Description
Alarm File: Alarm Label
Alarm File: Alarm Identify
Corresponding FactoryTalk A&E Fields

Name tag\path converted to tag_path
Input Tag
Severity scaled
Message ID via number assigned to message
Alarm Class
Analog Thresholds
FactoryTalk View HMI alarms allow for 8 Thresholds, either increasing, decreasing, or both where tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms
and Events have 4 Thresholds: HH, H, L, LL.
The conversion for INCREASING thresholds is made as follows:
The 2 most extreme defined INCREASING thresholds become HH and H.
If there is only 1 INCREASING threshold, it becomes H.
The conversion for DECREASING thresholds is made as follows:
The 2 most extreme defined DECREASING thresholds become LL and L.
If there is only 1 DECREASING threshold, it becomes L.
Analog Labels as Alarm Class

Analog FactoryTalk View HMI alarms contain an alarm label for each threshold. If selected, the Alarm Migration Tool will assign
the alarm label from the HH threshold, if present, to the alarm class.
If HH is not defined, then LL will be used.
If LL is not defined, then H will be used.
If H is not defined, then L will be used.
Analog Deadbands
Analog FactoryTalk View HMI alarms allow for the configuration of a deadband value, either an absolute value or percentage.
Tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events supports absolute values only, so all deadband values will be assumed as absolute.
HMI Tags as Threshold Limits or Acknowledge Tags
The Alarm Migration Tool will substitute the Device address for all HMI tags, if it exists.
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Default Language for Messages

By default, the messages defined in the import file on the Messages tab are in the English (United
States), en-US, language.
You may change that to any of the languages defined in your SE application or add additional languages
in another column.
Not converted:
These items are not migrated because they do not exist in the Tag-based FactoryTalk Alarms and Events format:
Alarm Handshaking and Handshaking Auto Reset
Acknowledge Auto Reset
Alarm history messages: from file, printer messages, user-defined, etc.
How to Use
1. Launch the Alarm Migration Tool from the Start > All Programs > Rockwell Automation menu.
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2. Select the RSView HMI Alarms to A&E Tag-Based Alarms operation and click Next.
3. Click the Browse
button beside the HMI Tags field.
4. Browse to C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Alarm Migration and select the InstantFizz_HMI-Tags.csv file that has already
been exported for you.
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 above for the HMI Alarms field and select the InstantFizz_HMI-Alarms.csv file which has
also been previously exported. Your configuration should now look like the following:
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6. Click Next >.

7. Click the Browse
button beside the A&E Import File field.
8. Navigate to the C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Alarm Migration folder. Then, type in the file name AlarmImport and
select Open.
Your configuration should now look like the following:
You are also able to select an existing file if one has been created.
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9. Click Next > to finalize your preferences. We will keep the default options.
Option
Meaning
This option will convert Alarm Identify commands to
FactoryTalk View Commands.
Convert Alarm Identify Commands to FactoryTalk

View Commands.
Note: Alarm Identify Commands are taken as-is, so if

they reference HMI tags that will no longer exist in your
new application, the commands will need to be updated
manually.
When selected, the tool will scale existing RSView-level
severities to A&E-level severities.
RSView level 1 = A&E level 100
Scale RSViewAlarm Severity to FactoryTalk Alarm

Severity
(Create all alarms with severity XX)

When not selected, the tool will set all A&E-level
severities to the number in the entry field.
If your entry is invalid, the default entry is 100.
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When selected, the tool will expose all newly created A&E
alarms as tags.
Expose A&E Alarms as tags
Not selected is the default.

When selected, the HMI tag Alarm Label will be used as
the A&E Alarm Class.
Use Alarm Label as Alarm Class
When not selected, the A&E Alarm Class will remain

blank.
Alarm messages are assigned an index number and that
number is paired with an alarm definition. This feature
allows you to reuse the same alarm string for many
alarms.
By default, the Alarm Migration Tool does not optimize
string text and every alarm message gets its own index
number.
Alarm Messages start at ID number
You may select a new starting index so as not to

overwrite any messages already defined in your
application.
The default entry is 1.
Tag-Based A&E Alarms are polled. Select your desired
default poll rate here.
Select Default Tag Update Rate
1.0 second is the selected default.
10. Select Migrate Alarms
11. Once the alarms have been converted you will receive a Conversion Status dialog. Click Close.
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12. An Excel spreadsheet with our defined name of AlarmImport.xls, is automatically opened with 5 worksheets.
13. Close the spreadsheet.

How to Import
1. From the Application Explorer in FactoryTalk View Studio, right-click on the FTAETag_Server and select the
Import and Export context menu item.
2. Select the Import alarm configuration from Excel File option and click the Next button.
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beside the Specify import file location: field.
4. The Select Alarm Import File dialog will open. Navigate to C:\Lab Files\FTAE\Alarm Migration.
Select the AlarmImport.xls file and click the Open button.
5. Click the Next button on the Alarm Import Export Wizard.

6. Select the Update existing alarm definitions and create new alarm definitions from the import file option and click
the Finish button.
7. A progress indicator will open. When complete, you should see this:
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8. Click the OK button.

9. In the Explorer window, double-click Alarm and Event Setup.
10. Notice in the Alarm and Event Setup, there are 7 alarms configured. The converted alarms have now been
imported into the existing configuration.
You may find this tool on the Rockwell Automation Knowledgebase in AID 45583 - Tool: Converting RSViewSE HMI Alarms
to FactoryTalk View SE A&E Tag-Based Alarms (v1.2 b7).
Alarm Annunciation using Win-911

In todays information-centric world, the ability to make informed decisions is more critical than ever. Whether you are interested
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in optimizing the performance of an existing plant or maintaining uptime on a line, knowing when a process has fallen outside
predetermined tolerance levels and why can be extremely difficult. In such cases, a well-designed control system can provide
fault escalation using any number of readily available technologies.
In the case of an alarm, wouldnt it be nice to be able to page a maintenance manager, call a supervisor off-site, or even email a
production manager? WIN-911 provides a convenient and comprehensive mechanism for annunciating alarms from a
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system to external sources such as cell phones, pagers, or email accounts. When annunciating
via a telephone connection, user can listen to the list of active alarms and have the option of acknowledging them. The latest
version of WIN-911 now has the ability to annunciate and acknowledge alarms using SMS message via a GMS model.
In this section, you will review a WIN-911 configuration and annunciate alarms by following the steps outlined below.
Data Source Definition
The first step is to specify the information necessary for WIN-911 to connect to a FactoryTalk Application and subscribe to
alarms and events.
1. Run the WIN-911 Configurator from Start > All Programs > WIN-911 V7 > WIN-911 Configurator.
2. The FTAE configuration file was previously configured and will automatically open.
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3. Click the Define Data Sources button
and then select the FTAE Access Name and click the Edit button.
4. The FactoryTalk Data Source Settings dialog opens to allow you to review the configuration:
The Connection Settings tab of the WIN-911 FactoryTalk Data Source specifies all of the information necessary to
connect to a FactoryTalk Application.
For the FactoryTalk user account we used the local Windows user. Typically, a specific user account would be created
for use by WIN-911. This would allow the appropriate security rights to be assigned and make it easy to track the
operations performed via WIN-911.
5. Click the Event Subscription tab. Observe you can limit the alarms sent to WIN-911 based on Priority, Area
and Event Source (Alarm Name). For the lab, we will leave the settings at their default values.
6. Click Cancel to close the FactoryTalk Data Source Settings dialog.
7. Click OK to close the Data Source Definition dialog.
Phone Book Entry
The next step is to configure the people that will be notified when certain alarms occur (the criteria for which alarms will cause a
notification is done in a later step).
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1. Click the Define Phone Book Entries button

Edit button.
and then select the existing contact name Joe. Click the
2. In the Name Definition dialog, you will see the following information:
Name: Joe
Access Code: 123
Acknowledge Code: 4
A Phone Book Entry specifies the name of the person, the Access Code they must enter to log into WIN-911 and the
Acknowledge Code they must enter to acknowledge an alarm over a telephone voice connection.
3. Click the New button. Observe you specify various Connections (pager, voice over phone, email) that can be
used to notify a person. For the lab, we do not specify any connections.
4. Click Cancel to close the Connection Definition dialog.
5. Click Cancel to close the Phone Book Entry.
6. Click OK to close the Phone Book Entry list.
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Group Definitions
The next step is to configure groups of people that will be notified when certain alarms occur. Typically, you may have different
sets of people notified for different areas of a plant.
1. Click the Define Groups button

Edit button.
and then select the existing Shift Managers Group Name. Click the
2. In the Group Definition dialog, you will see the following information:
3. Click the Contact List tab to verify that Joe is in the Selected Name List.
The Contact List specifies the Phone Book Entries that will be notified of alarms. The entries in the list are contacted in
order until a person acknowledges the alarm.
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4. Click the Contact Delays tab. Observe you specify various delays before anyone in the group is notified. For
example, if 10 minutes was configured for the Voice Delay Before setting, an alarm would need to be In Alarm
and Unacknowledged for 10 minutes before WIN-911 would attempt to notify the first person in the group.
5. Click Cancel to close the Group Definition.
6. Click OK to close the Group Definition list.
Filter Definitions
The next step is to specify the alarms that require annunciation. Typically, you would configure filter criteria that would select
important alarms that you would like to have some phoned or paged about.
1. Click the Define Filters button
and then select the existing FTAE filter. Click the Edit button.
2. In the Filter Definition dialog, you will see the following information:
The WIN-911 Filter Tagname allows the user to assign names to a filter tag or group of tags that are created by the
tags filters and properties. It should be kept in mind that this is WIN-911's name for the filter alarm point or points, not
FactoryTalk View's.
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3. Click the Edit Filter button

to 1000.
and note that the Filter on Alarm Severity setting is defined for 700
In addition to the subscription criteria specified by the Data Source (Priority, Area and Event Source), you can further
filter alarms in the Filter Definition based on the Alarm Name, Alarm Class and a Severity range.
Unlike most of the other WIN-911 data sources, you do not specify each alarm point you wish to have someone
phoned or paged about. For FactoryTalk Alarms and Events, you specify the set of alarms based on the subscription
and filter criteria.
4. Click Cancel to close the FactoryTalk Filter Editor.

5. Click Cancel to close the Filter Definition.
6. Click OK to close the Filter Definition list.
Monitor and Acknowledge Alarms with the WIN-911 Alarm Monitor
1. Run the Scan and Alarm application from Start > All Programs > WIN-911 V7 > Scan and Alarm.
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2. Click WIN-911 Alarm Monitor in the Windows Task Bar to view the window.
3. Switch to the FactoryTalk View SE Client and arrange the windows so that both the FactoryTalk View SE Client
and the WIN-911 Alarm Monitor are visible. Navigate to the Alarms display using the Alarms button
from the navigation bar.
4. Click the Turn on digital device-based CIP Valve alarms button

. You should hear the
WIN-911 text to speech engine verbalize the alarm messages. A similar message would be spoken to a person
being notified over a telephone connection.
5. Click the Acknowledge button in the WIN-911 Alarm Monitor. Observe the alarm appears as acknowledged in
the Alarm Summary object on the FactoryTalk View SE client.
. The CIPValve0,
6. Click the Turn off digital device-based CIP Valve alarms button
CIPValve2 and CIPValve3 alarms will be removed from the Alarm Summary and the WIN-911 Alarm Monitor.
You should hear the WIN-911 text to speech engine verbalize that the alarms have returned to normal.
The CIPValve1 alarm changed severity in Section 1 and does not meet the subscription and filter criteria. Therefore, it is
not annunciated with WIN-911
Alarms that meet the subscription and filter criteria defined in WIN-911 are displayed in the WIN-911 Alarm Monitor
application. This application is only needed for testing; typically, people are notified of alarms through a device such as
a pager or telephone. In these cases, users need to enter their access code when they are contacted and their
acknowledge code if they choose to acknowledge one or more alarms.
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Section 7: Supplemental Reading

Since the introduction of FactoryTalk Alarms and Events, there are 3 ways to configure alarms to be displayed on the HMI.
1. HMI Tag Alarming (Traditional)
Defined in the HMI tag database.
2. Alarm and Events - Tag-Based
Defined in a database within the HMI and offers the equivalent of HMI tag Alarm monitoring, but with an expanded feature
set.
Works with any controllers available on multiple data servers (OPC or RSLinx Enterprise)
Enhanced Graphics Objects: Alarm Viewer, Alarm Banner, Alarm History, Alarm Explorer
3. Alarms and Events Device-Based Analog (ALMA) and Digital (ALMD) instructions
Works with Logix controllers (V16 and up).
Alarm detection performed in RSLinx Enterprise.
No HMI tag definition needed.
All alarm configuration done in the controller using RSLogix 5000.
Enhanced Graphics Objects: Alarm Viewer, Alarm Banner, Alarm History, Alarm Explorer
Typically, a large project with many alarms will consist of either HMI Tag Alarming or a mix of Tag-Based and Device-Based
Alarms and Events.
Shown here is a comparison table showing the features of the different types of alarming.
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Configured in HMI Application

Alarm tags are polled by HMI
HMI Tag
Alarming
(Traditional)
FactoryTalk
Alarms and Events
Tag-Based
Configured in Controller
Time Accuracy within milliseconds
Alarm status is pushed to HMI
Enhanced Alarm Summary Object
Alarm History in open MS SQL database

Alarm History Viewer Object
Alarm Banner Object
Support for Redundancy
Runtime Language Switching
FactoryTalk
Alarms and Events
Device-Based
When choosing to implement FactoryTalk Alarms and Events, there are considerations to make based on the number of alarms
youd like to implement and the number of HMI clients in your application.
Alarms and Events Considerations

Testing has been done to establish reliable limits for an HMI application, which are the same for both
redundant and non-redundant FactoryTalk applications. These limits apply to FactoryTalk Alarms and
Events v2.60
Number of FactoryTalk alarms per HMI application = 100,000 Total
100,000 limit is any combination of device or tag based alarms
Number of alarms the alarm summary can display at once = 2000 Total
Number of clients simultaneously connected to the application = 50 Total
Device-based alarms
Number of device servers per FactoryTalk application = up to 10 pairs
Number of alarm subscriptions per device server = up to 10,000
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Tag-based alarms
Number of Tag and Event servers per FactoryTalk application = up to 10 pairs
Number of alarms per Tag and Event server = up to 10,000
Testing has also been done to establish reliable limits for a controller, when choosing to implement device-based
alarms.
Every time an RSLinx Enterprise server subscribes to alarms from a controller, the controller dedicates 100KB of memory to be
used for buffering by that subscriber.
Number of subscribers (RSLinx Enterprise servers) per controller (rev 20 or earlier) = 16
Number of subscribers (RSLinx Enterprise servers) per controller (rev 21 or later) = 32
When sizing a controller application, know that ALMA and ALMD instructions will consume extra memory
and processing time, even more so when using redundancy.
Approximate controller memory used for each alarm = Digital 1 KB; Analog 2.2 KB
Using associated tags, string tags consume 750-1600 bytes per string tag depending on the alarm
type.
Execution times for alarms (controller rev 20 or earlier)
Rung State
Execution times
ALMD instruction
ALMA instruction
False with no alarm state change
8 s
17 s
False with alarm state change
35 s
17 s
True with no alarm state change
8 s
65 s
True with alarm state change
35 s
126 s
Execution times for alarms (controller rev 21 or later)

Rung State
Execution times
ALMD instruction
ALMA instruction
False with no alarm state change
7 s
5 s
False with alarm state change
16 s
5 s
True with no alarm state change
7 s
15 s
True with alarm state change
16 s
25 s
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Scan times increase more during a scan when many alarms change state at the same time. An alarm
state change is any event that changes the condition of the alarm. Minimize the potential for large
alarm bursts by creating dependencies on related alarms. Large alarm bursts can have a significant
impact on application code scan time.
For a complete listing of Logix 5000 execution times for all instructions, see the following document:
Logix 5000 Controllers Execution Time and Memory Use Reference Manual
http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/rm/1756-rm087_-en-p.pdf
Keep in mind that there is no hard-coded limitation as to the number of ALMA and ALMDs you may
implement in an RSLogix5000 application; however, testing has been done to establish reliable baseline
limits for controller with an average load in terms of memory, task execution, and I/O. An application that
exceeds these recommendations, but is still properly sized and performs as desired is completely
acceptable.
Recommended maximum number of alarm instructions per controller = ~2000
Recommended maximum number of alarm instructions per redundant controller (L6x) = ~250
Recommended maximum number of alarm instructions per redundant controller (L7x) = ~500
ALMA and ALMD Configuration Options

When configuring ALMA and ALMD instructions, both instructions have several properties in common. Below is a brief
discussion of each of them.
Severity
ALMD
ALMA
The severity value can range from 1 to 1000, to indicate different levels of importance. Alarm severities are integer values, where
1 is the least severe, and 1000 is the most severe. For example, a level alarm may be configured with the HI level condition
using a severity of 750 to warn that a vat is 80 percent full of liquid while the HIHI level condition could use a severity of 900 to
indicate that the vat is about to overflow.
Because 1000 different alarm severities can be cumbersome to work with, ranges of alarm severities are mapped to one of four
alarm priorities (Low, Medium, High, Urgent) by the FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system.
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Minimum Duration
ALMD
ALMA
The Minimum Duration specifies the minimum amount of time that the alarm condition must be true (the Input=1 in this case)
before the alarm condition goes In Alarm. This setting is used to minimize false alarms.
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Associated Tags
ALMD
ALMA
In many cases it is useful to have additional process information associated with an alarm. When an alarm is defined, you can
associate up to four tags with the alarm. At run time, the tag values are recorded in the Alarm and Event History Log. The tag
values can also be displayed in the Alarm and Event Summary or Alarm and Event Log Viewer, and as we have seen in the lab
exercise embedded in alarm messages.
Alarm Class
ALMD
ALMA
To help group alarms, you might want to classify alarms that relate to each other in ways that do not include severity or priority.
For example, you might want to group together alarms by function, such as those that monitor for valves that fail to open or
close, pressure, temperature, equipment running, or tank levels. The alarm class is a text string of up to 40 characters that you
enter when configuring an alarm.
At run time, the value of the alarm class is recorded in the Alarm and Event History Log and can also be displayed in the Alarm
and Event Summary or Alarm and Event Log Viewer. The contents of the Alarm and Event Summary or Alarm and Event Log
Viewer can also be filtered based on the value of the alarm class.
ALMD
ALMA
You can associate a FactoryTalk View command of up to 1000 characters with any alarm. The command is executed from the
Alarm and Event Summary or Alarm and Event Banner when the operator selects an alarm and then clicks a button. The
Summary and Banner can also be configured to execute the command when the operator double-clicks the alarm in the list. A
common use for the FactoryTalk View command is to display a screen that shows an overview of the equipment related to the
alarm.
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Acknowledgement Required
ALMD
ALMA
If an alarm is required to be acknowledged by an operator, it will remain on the summary screen even if the alarm condition is
cleared, until the operator acknowledges that he or she has seen it. With an analog level alarm, this single setting applies to all
the levels.
Messages
ALMD
ALMA
The message string (maximum of 255 characters, including characters that specify embedded variables) contains the information
to display to the operator regarding the alarm. In addition to entering text, you can also embed variable information. Click the
to open the alarm message editor, then select the variable you want and add it anywhere in the message string.
You cannot programmatically access the alarm message string from the alarm tag. To change the alarm message based on
specific events, configure one of the associated tags as a string data type and embed that associated tag in the message.
Multi-language Messages
Using the Alarm Properties dialog along with the Documentation Language menu, is a quick and easy way to make small edits to
alarm messages in different languages
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Specific ALMD Configuration Options

A digital alarm is configured to monitor its input for one of the following alarm conditions:
the input value equal to one
the input value equal to zero
When the alarm condition is true, the alarm enters the In Alarm state. When the alarm condition is false, the alarm enters the
Normal or Out of Alarm state.
Latching
ALMD
A latched alarm remains active after the alarm condition becomes false, until a reset command is received. The reset command
is ignored until the alarm condition is false.
Specific ALMA Configuration Options

An analog alarm can be configured to monitor for two types alarm conditions: Level and Rate of Change.
A Level alarm monitors an input for alarm conditions that go In Alarm when the input value goes above or below predefined
limits. When defining a level alarm, you can configure up to four alarm level conditions each with limits (sometimes called
thresholds), a severity and alarm message. The supported alarm conditions are:
High High (HIHI)
High (HI)
Low (LO)
Low Low (LOLO)
A Rate of Change alarm monitors an input for alarm conditions that go In Alarm when the input value changes faster or slower
than predefined limits. When defining a level alarm, you can configure up to two rate of change conditions each with limits, a
severity, and an alarm message. The supported alarm conditions are:
Rate of Change Positive (ROC_POS)
Rate of Change Negative (ROC_NEG)
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Enable/Disable
ALMA
Each of the Level alarm conditions can be enabled or disabled using the checkboxes to the left of the corresponding condition
name.
The Rate of Change alarm conditions are disabled when their limits are set to 0. For this lab, the rate of change alarm will not be
configured.
Input Rate of Change
ALMA
Rate-of-Change (ROC) limits (in units/second) can be configuration in both a positive and negative direction. The limits for these
conditions may be any REAL value >= 0.0. Rate-of-change limit detection is enabled for any value > 0.0, if the ROC Period is
also > 0.0.
The Period may be any REAL value >= 0.0. This value specifies the sampling interval for calculating the ROC value each time
the sampling interval expires, the difference between the current sample and the previous sample is divided by the specified
Period.
.
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Deadband
ALMA
With certain kinds of measured values, such as line pressure, input values can fluctuate rapidly above and below a critical limit.
Where such conditions exist, you can create a deadband as a buffer zone to prevent the fluctuations from re-triggering
unnecessary alarms. For the High and High High alarm conditions, the tag value must drop below the alarm limit minus the
deadband before the alarm condition goes Normal (Out of Alarm). For the Low and Low Low alarm conditions, the tag value
must go above the alarm limit plus the deadband before the alarm condition goes Normal.
The following diagram shows how deadband settings affect an alarm's transition between In Alarm and Normal states.
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Controller Status Alarms
Rockwell Automation Device Servers (RSLinx Enterprise) generate diagnostic alarms relating to Logix5000 controllers that are
producing alarms in a FactoryTalk Alarms and Events system. These alarms are referred to as controller status alarms and they
indicate a problem with the connection to a controller or the status of a controller. A single controller status alarm is produced for
each shortcut that is configured with alarms and events enabled.
The following conditions cause a controller status alarm to go In Alarm:
Unable to connect to the controller
Unable to get a list of list of alarms contained in the controller because there is no program or program download in progress
Unable to subscribe to one or more alarms in the controller because the controller has insufficient memory to create
subscription
Connection to the controller is lost
Controller was switched to Program Mode
Program download
Non-recoverable program fault
Recoverable program fault
Controller status alarms have the same name as the shortcut that references the controller. The alarm message is not user
configurable and the severity for all status alarms is configured in the system-wide severity settings
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Tag-Based Alarm Configuration Options

Configuring a tag-based Digital alarm is analogous to configuring an ALMD instruction.
Configuring a tag-based Level alarm is analogous to configuring an ALMA instruction.
The configuration options and configuration panel are extremely similar.
Tag-Based Digital Alarm Configuration
ALMD Configuration
Tag-Based Level Alarm Configuration
ALMA Configuration
One difference between tag-based Level alarms and ALMA instructions is the Input Rate of Change alarm. There is no tagbased ROC configuration available.
Deviation Alarm
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Tag-Based Deviation Alarm Configuration
A deviation alarm compares the value of an input tag to the value of a target for a deviation value. The target can be either a
constant or a tag, but the deviation value must be an absolute value (a constant, not a tag value). If the target differs from the
input tag by greater or less than the deviation value, an alarm occurs. For each deviation alarm, you can select the deviation
condition (greater than deviation value, less than deviation value, or both).
The following illustration shows a tag value fluctuating above and below its target value. When the tag value crosses the
Deviation High limit or Deviation Low limit an alarm occurs:
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The Deviation High (DEV_HI) alarm condition is In

Alarm when the Input Tag value is greater than or
equal to the Target value plus the Deviation value.
The Deviation Low (DEV_LO) alarm condition is In

Alarm when the Input Tag value is less than or equal
to the Target value minus the Deviation value.
Alarm Backing Tags

Every ALMA and ALMD instruction can be accessed programmatically via backing tags to allow RSLogix 5000 code or HMI
buttons to manipulate alarm status, such as Enable/Disable, Suppress/Unsuppress, Acknowledge, and Reset.
Certain alarm parameters can also be changed programmatically, such as Severity levels or Minimum Duration time settings.
These backing tags are available in RSLogix5000 or via the Tag Browser.
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Tag-Based alarms offer a similar functionality when choosing to Show Alarm as a Tag.
A Tag-Based alarm shown as a tag will appear with all available parameters in the Tag Browser.
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Where to get more information
Within RSLogix 5000, when adding and ALMA or ALMD instruction to your project, press F1 to access the RSLogix 5000
Online Help to see more information about the input/output parameters in detail.
FactoryTalk Alarms and Events System Configuration Guide

Start All Programs Rockwell Software FactoryTalk Tools FactoryTalk
FactoryTalk Help File

Start All Programs Rockwell Software FactoryTalk Tools FactoryTalk Help
175 of 178
ControlLogix Enhanced Redundancy System, Revision 19.52

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/um/1756-um535_-en-p.pdf
AID 117223 - FactoryTalk View SE 6.0 (CPR9 SR3) Server Redundancy Guidelines
AID 32549 - FactoryTalk View SE Distributed System Design Considerations
176 of 178
Notes
177 of 178
Publication XXXX-XX###X-EN-P Month Year
Supersedes Publication XXXX-XX###X-EN-P Month Year
178 of 178
Copyright 2011 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All rights reserved.

Factory Talk SE Alarmas y Eventos

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FactoryTalk View Site Edition: Implementing

FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

For Classroom Use Only!

Important User Information

FactoryTalk View Site Edition: Implementing FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

Section 5: Filtering and Subscriptions ....................................................................................................... 122

Before you begin

About this lab

Tools & prerequisites

FactoryTalk Alarms and Events v2.60.00

Words shown in bold italics

Words shown bolded, underlined and

Overview of FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

FactoryTalk Alarms and Events components

1. Device-based alarm monitoring

2. Tag-based alarm monitoring

Network application on distributed computers

Section 1: Getting started with FactoryTalk Alarms and Events

Subscribing to Device-based Alarms and Events

Select the Enable alarm and event support check box

Check this box

Un-check this box

13. If you have not already done so, maximize

the FactoryTalk View Studio window.

A blank display appears in the workspace.

The mouse pointer changes to the Object drawing cursor.

to close the Property page as we will use the default settings.

18. On the Graphics toolbar, click Test Display button

You will see alarms!

20. Save the display by clicking the Save button

Working with Device-based Alarms and Events (Digital)

1. Double-click on the IF2_DEMO.ACD shortcut

7. Return to RSLogix 5000. In Rung 0, select the Examine On

to open the ALMD Properties dialog box.

10. Change the Severity to 500.

12. Click Apply

14. Select again the Examine On

to open the ALMD

The Acknowledge Time will update on the Status tab.

to close the ALMD Properties dialog box.

21. Find the CIPValve1 alarm in your list.

(In Alarm and Unacknowledged) to

(In Alarm and

Congratulations!! You have just:

Working with Device-based Alarms and Events (Analog)

1. Return to RSLogix 5000.

to open the ALMA

to open the Alarm Message Editor.

13. Click <- Add

to add the variable to the message.

The resulting message will look like this:

on this dialog box.

15. Click Apply

19. Find the MotorOverheatAlarm entries on the alarm summary list.

The LO alarm condition is now active

and the HIHI, HI conditions are now normal

in the corner. Select no if you are prompted to save.

on the toolbar and then click

Working with Tag-based Alarms and Events

1. Switch back to FactoryTalk View Studio.

on this dialog box.

to close the Level Alarm Properties dialog box.

on this dialog box.