Before you can use the iFIX alarm system, you should understand more about alarms and messages. The following sections explain important alarm concepts.
Alarm Destinations
An alarm destination is an alarm service enabled in the System Configuration Utility (SCU). You can enable one or more alarm destinations on any iFIX node you set up. Once you enable an alarm service, iFIX starts a task to provide that service. For example, when you enable the Alarm Printer Service, iFIX starts a task to print the alarms and messages.
Alarm Areas
An alarm area is a physical or functional division of your plant. Once you enable an alarm destination, you assign alarm areas to it. In the following figure, OVEN1 has database blocks in alarm areas Line 1, Line 2, and Line 3 and OVEN2 has database blocks in alarm areas Line 4 and Line 5. These are physical divisions and correspond to individual production lines.
Sample Alarm Areas
Alarm area Ovens, on the other hand, is a functional division. It corresponds to an oven temperature. Operators monitor the temperature separately because it is critical to the overall process.
Routing Alarms and Messages
iFIX can route alarms and messages after you assign alarm areas to database blocks and alarm destinations. The area name acts as a routing label between the database blocks and alarm destinations in the same alarm area.
You can create any alarm area by naming it. iFIX saves these names in an alarm area database. Each iFIX SCADA server can have its own custom alarm area database. However, this approach makes troubleshooting more difficult. A better approach is to share the database by copying it to a file server. For more information on designing alarm areas, refer to the chapter Implementing an Alarm Strategy.
