### Viewing, troubleshooting, acknowledging, and deleting alarms The WebCTRL® Alarms page displays alarms as they are received. If desired, an operator can set options on the My Settings page to have the WebCTRL® application play an audio file when an alarm is received. An alarm's setup may require that it be acknowledged and/or the alarm condition returned to normal. The alarm, its return to normal, and any other alarms related to the incident are referred to as an alarm incident group. The WebCTRL® application closes an alarm incident group when all of the following have occurred: You acknowledge the alarm (if required) The WebCTRL® application receives a return-to-normal (if required) The WebCTRL® application performs all alarm actions defined for the group You should delete alarms from your system as they are closed because large quantities of stored alarms can reduce the efficiency of your system.
Click for details below To view alarms in the WebCTRL® interface To control which alarms you see To troubleshoot an alarm To acknowledge alarms To delete alarms To receive audible notification of alarms
#### To view alarms in the WebCTRL® interface Click at the top of the page to see all alarms in the system. or Click the Alarms button and then select an item on the navigation tree to see all alarms at and below that level. NOTES The WebCTRL® tree can show 10 levels. If an alarm source is deeper than 10 levels, the alarm is reassigned to the system level. Alarms generated by the WebCTRL® application appear at the system level. Alarms generated by controllers appear at the system level on the Geographic tree, but in the network hierarchy on the Network tree. An alarm's details include a path to the alarm source. Each section of the path is a link to that location. For example, in the path East Wing/RTU-4/SSP_LO, East Wing links to the East Wing graphic, RTU-4 links to the equipment graphic, and SSP_LO links to the microblock's Properties page. You may see any of the following alarms icons in the WebCTRL® interface:
#### To control which alarms you see
Use these tools... | To control the Alarms list
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| Click the arrow buttons to display other alarms.
| Type a date and time or click to select a date. Then click Go to show up to 50 alarms since that date/time. When finished, click to display the 50 newest alarms or to display the oldest 50 alarms.
| Date–Sorts list by date/time the alarms were generated with the most recent at the top. To Do–Shows only alarms that require one or more actions before they are closed. Incident Group–Sorts alarms by incident. For example, an alarm and its return-to-normal form an incident group. Brackets indicate a group.
| Select the alarm categories that you want to see in the alarms list. Use Ctrl+click, Shift+click, or both to select multiple categories, or check Show all categories.
#### To troubleshoot an alarm You can select an alarm's checkbox and then click to open the Alarms time-lapse showing the 1-hour period in which the alarm occurred. You can step backward or forward through the time-lapse at 1-minute intervals to see what other alarms occurred at each minute during that hour. You can also go to the Graphics or Trends time-lapse to see what else happened when the alarm occurred. See Time-lapse for information on this feature.
#### To acknowledge alarms You must acknowledge alarms that have been set up to require acknowledgment. An alarm shows if it needs to be acknowledged. The table in the upper left corner of the page shows how many alarms need acknowledgment at the current location (Here) and in the entire system (Total). This table also shows how many alarms need a return-to-normal and how many are closed. To acknowledge an alarm On the Alarms page > View tab, select the checkbox of an alarm that shows Acknowledge. Click the Acknowledge button. To acknowledge all alarms in the alarms database for selected categories On the Alarms page > View tab in the left-hand column, select the categories whose alarms you want to acknowledge. NOTE Use Ctrl+click, Shift+click, or both to select multiple categories, or select the Select All checkbox. Click Advanced. Click Acknowledge All. TIP Acknowledging many alarms simultaneously can take a long time. Acknowledge alarms as they occur to avoid long waits.
#### To delete alarms You should delete alarms from your system as they are closed because large quantities of stored alarms can reduce the efficiency of your system. To save alarm information before deleting, select Alarms > Reports tab > Alarms, then click the Run button. To delete an alarm On the Alarms page > View tab, select an alarm's checkbox. Click Delete. To delete all alarms in the alarms database for selected categories On the Alarms page > View tab in the left-hand column, select the categories whose alarms you want to delete. NOTE Use Ctrl+click, Shift+click, or both to select multiple categories, or select the Select All checkbox. Click Advanced. Click Delete All. To delete all closed alarm incident groups in the alarms database An incident group is all alarms related to a particular incident. For example, an alarm and its return-to-normal form an alarm incident group. An incident group is considered closed when all alarms in the group are closed. On the Alarms page > View tab in the left-hand column, select the categories whose alarms you want to delete. NOTE Use Ctrl+click, Shift+click, or both to select multiple categories, or select the Select All checkbox. Click Advanced. Click Delete Closed Incidents. NOTES To have the WebCTRL® application automatically delete alarm incident groups a specified number of days after the groups close, select this option on the System Settings > Scheduled Tasks tab. Also on the System Settings > Scheduled Tasks tab, you can set the WebCTRL® application to archive alarm information to a text file as alarms are deleted. An alarm source may be set up to generate an alarm and a return-to-normal. If an alarm occurs but the WebCTRL® application never receives the return-to-normal, you can select the alarm and then click Force Normal so that the alarm can be closed. Force Normal has no effect on the alarm condition that generated the alarm.
#### To receive audible notification of alarms You can set up the WebCTRL® application to play an audio file on your workstation when it receives a critical or non-critical alarm. On the System Configuration tree, select My Settings. See To change My Settings. On the Settings tab, select Non-critical alarms or Critical alarms to be notified of each type of alarm. In the Sound File field, type the path to the sound file. When an alarm triggers the audio file to play, you can click and then select: Snooze to temporarily stop the sound for 5 minutes Silence to stop the sound The alarm sound is silenced until another alarm that triggers a sound is received.