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    Alarms and Notifications

    Articles
    • Review and Acknowledge Alarm Alerts
    • Creating Alarm Schedules
    • Warnings vs. Excursions
    • Create an Alarm Template
    • Create a Custom Alarm
    • Create a Not Reporting Alarm
    • Edit Alarms
    • Delete an Alarm/Unapply Alarm Template from a Device​
    • Alarm Delay Behavior
    • Alarm Options
    • Apply an Alarm Template to a Device
    • Apply an Alarm Template to Multiple Devices
    • Create a Template from an Existing Device’s Alarm
    • Alarm Escalation
    • Too Many Escalations for a Given Condition

    About Alarm Alerts

    • In your account, you can review, acknowledge, and add comments to your current and historical alerts.
    • Alerts are the result of triggered alarms, which will be captured in the Alerts and Events pages of your account.
    • Alert notifications will be delivered to users via email, text message, and/or phone call based on the alarm configurations.
    • Alerts are categorized as either warning alerts or excursion alerts based on the alarm configurations.

    Reviewing, Acknowledging and Commenting

    Reviewing Alerts

    The count of active alerts will be highlighted on the dashboard in the active excursions and warnings tiles.

    You can get to the alert pages by clicking on either the excursion or warning tiles or by clicking into Alerts pages on the left navigation bar.

    1. You have the ability to show/hide the filters on the top right to filter out specific alerts
    2. Current alerts will remain in current status until the alarm conditions get cleared when conditions go back to normal
    3. Alert history will capture all historical alerts

    Acknowledging Alerts

    In the alerts pages you can acknowledge the alerts by clicking Acknowledge next to the alert log. Acknowledgements can be done for all current and historical alerts, and will also capture a timestamp when the alert was acknowledged and by who.

    Only excursion alerts be displayed in the device graph area  under the summary data, and users can acknowledged those alerts in that area as well.


    Note
    Both warning and excursion alerts are documented in the alerts and events pages. However, only excursion alerts will display an excursion flag in the graph area and display an excursion alert annotation under the summary data. Excursion alerts will appear on both exports and reports, and warnings will not.

    Commenting on Alerts

    After acknowledging an alarm alert you can click on Comments and type in any content necessary. There is no limit to the amount of words, and be sure to click Save comment once you are done.

    Other users who have access to reviewing the devices will be able to review the comments that have been captured by other users.


    Success

    About Alarm Schedules

    • Alarm schedules allow users to schedule alarms for specific timeframes (days and hours) or remain active 24/7 so that alarm conditions are only monitored when you need them.
    • This article also dives into using the alarm buffer and after-hours notifications as optional configurations for alarm schedules.
    • Alarm schedules do not have any impact on environmental data being collected and reported to your account, and 24/7 monitoring will continue.

    How to Create Alarm Schedules

    Creating Alarm Schedules in a single Custom Alarms

    When creating alarm, the schedule will be set to 24/7 by default in Step 3.

    1. Slide the 24/7 schedule toggle to off to create a custom schedule
    2. Select the days of the week for the alarm schedule
    3. Determine the start time
    4. Set an end time
    5. You can add more days/times for more customization


    Note
    Continue reading below to learn more about the alarm buffer and after-hours notifications.

    Creating Alarm Schedules in Alarm Templates

    When creating an alarm template, the alarm schedule will automatically be set to 24/7 by default in Step 4.

    1. Slide the 24/7 schedule toggle to off to create a custom schedule
    2. Select the days of the week for the alarm schedule
    3. Determine the start time
    4. Set an end time
    5. This example shows two schedules (8AM-12PM and 1PM-5PM, Mon-Fri), so that there is a one-hour period between 12PM-1PM when alarms are not monitored
    6.  You have the ability to add more alarm schedules to your template

    Using the Alarm Buffer

    The alarm buffer is used to evaluate alarm activity prior to the start of an alarm schedule, and it is optional to use.

    For example, if your alarm schedule is set to 8AM-5PM, and your first escalation for your alarm is set to trigger at 30 minutes, then the system will begin evaluating for alarm activity at 7:30 AM. If the alarm conditions were met, notifications will be delivered beginning at 8AM, if no alarm conditions are met, no notifications will be delivered.

    This buffer can help identify if alarm conditions are met as an alarm schedule begins.

    Using After-Hours Notifications

    After-hours notifications will notify users when alarms that started during an alarm schedule are resolved after the schedule has ended.

    For example, if the alarm schedule is 9AM-5PM, the alarm is triggered at 4 PM, and at 6:30 PM the alarm clears as conditions go back to normal, then you can be notified if after-hours notifications is enabled. If after-hours notifications are not enabled, then users will not receive a notification that the alarm has cleared at 6:30 PM.

    Rather after-hours notifications is enabled or disabled, the system will always resolve the alarms when conditions go back to normal, and document details in the system’s events and alerts pages.


    Warning
    The alarm buffer and after-hours notifications will not be options if the alarm schedule is set to 24/7 monitoring.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Warnings vs. Excursions

    • This powerful functionality allows you to correct cases where your conditions are trending in a less than ideal way before having to do rigorous paperwork.
    • Warnings are non-critical thresholds that you want to address before they become critical excursion thresholds.
    • Excursions are critical thresholds that must be addressed and may require more paper work as part of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as potential loss of product.
    • Combine Excursions and Warnings on alarms or create one for each.

    How to use Warnings vs. Excursions

    Escalation Rules for Alerts:
    1. To use Warning and Excursion alerts within the same alarm, the Warning alert delay has to be less than that of the Excursion alert delay. For example, a user can set Escalation 1 as a Warning with a delay of 5, and set Escalation 2 as an Excursion as long as the delay is greater than 5, i.e. the Excursion has a delay of 6 or 6+ readings for this scenario.
    2.  If an Excursion alert is set to have a delay that is less than that of a Warning alert delay, then the system will automatically mark both alerts as Excursions. For example, the user marks Escalation 1 as an Excursion with a delay of 5 and attempts to mark Escalation 2 as a Warning with a delay of 6 or 6+ readings. The system will not allow the user to do this.
    3. A user can set all Escalations alerts to be Excursions. For example, the user marks Escalations 1, 2, and 3 as Excursions only.
    4. A user can set all Escalation alerts to be Warnings. For example, the user marks Escalations 1, 2, and 3 as Warnings only.
    5. A user can set Escalations 1 and 2 as Warnings and Escalation 3 to be an Excursion, as long as the Excursion delay is greater than the delay of the Warning delays.
    6. A user can set Escalation 1 as a Warning and Escalations 2 and 3 as Excursions, as long as the Excursion delays are greater than the delay of the Warning delay.

    Audible Alarm Rules:
    1. To activate Audible Alarm on the device so that is sounds when all of the alarm conditions are met click on the sliding toggle to activate it
    2. Determine if the Audible Alarm alert will be a Warning or an Excursion
    3. Determine a delay

    Examples
    1.  In this example, both a Warning and Excursion alert exist within the same alarm.
    2. What differentiates a ‘Warning’ from an ‘Excursion’ is the delay.

    1.  In this example, there are two alarms created
    2. One alarm is for a ‘Warning’ set to a condition of 58
    3. Second alarm is for an ‘Excursion’ set to a condition of 54
    4. Both alarms have the same delays

    Success
    You are now ready to move on to creating alarms. You have the ability to mix and match alarms for various high and low thresholds as well as conditions.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    • An alarm template is a set of conditions and associated notifications (emails, texts, phone calls, etc.) that can be applied to a group of loggers in bulk or to a new logger once it has been added.
    • The goal is to reduce the recreation of the same alarm conditions over and over. This feature is particularly helpful for accounts with many loggers and even more so when the loggers are monitoring the same application (a large number of refrigerators and freezers storing vaccines for example).

    Warning
    A two channel temperature device with two probes monitoring different ranges should have two separate alarm templates.

    Getting Started with Alarm Templates:
    1. Start by clicking Manage on the left
    2. Then click Alarm Templates
    3. To add a new template, click +Add New Template

    1. Name the template and click Continue


    Naming Templates
    When creating/naming your template consider who will be using the template and what assets or monitoring points these alarms are protecting.

    1.  Configure the thresholds that should trigger alerts. You can add more than one condition on an alarm template.

    1. If you have created Notification Policies previously you can choose from them here. If you are creating a new Notification Policy you can follow the directions below.

    7. The alarm template 24/7 schedule will be togged to on by default. To create your own custom alarm schedule, slide the 24/7 alarm schedule toggle to off and select the days and times the system should monitor for alarms.

    8. Determine if the Buffer is enabled or not to begin monitoring for alarm conditions prior to the start of an alarm schedule.

    9. Enable the after-hours notifications if you would like to receive alert notifications when an alarm is triggered during an alarm schedule but gets resolved after the schedule has ended.

    Set Your Notification Policy:
    1. To create a new Notification Policy click Create New
    2. Slide the toggle to activate an Audible Alarm (this will trigger a sound alarm on the device)
    3. Determine if the Escalation is a Warning or an Excursion
    4. Determine the delay for when you and/or others should be notified (e.g., 0 readings will trigger a notification immediately when the condition is met)
    5. Determine what method to alert by selecting Email, SMS or Phone call, select a recipient from Roles or Contacts and determine where to contact
    6. You can add additional methods of contacting or add additional Roles or Contacts to contact

    Read more on Warnings vs. Excursions

    Complete Alarm Template:
    1.  You can search for devices, channels, or additional tags to apply the Template
    2. You check the boxes for any devices or channels that you wish to apply the template to and they will appear on the right hand side under Applied to Template.
    3. Click Continue to Finish

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Creating a Custom Alarm

    • Creating Custom Alarms allow users to create alarms specifically for a device is not wanting to use an Alarm Template
    • Alarms Alert individuals when conditions are met that are pre-determined by the users
    • Users can be alerted via Email, SMS, and or Phone Call

    How to Create a Custom Alarm

    Create Custom Alarms on a Device:

    Go to DicksonOne.com

    1. Click into a Device to configure an alarm on it
    2. Click Alarms above the graph next to Overview


    In the Alarms page you will have two options

    1. Be sure that you are on Build a Custom Alarm if not click Build a Custom Alarm


    Note
    There are multiple ways that users can create alarms and apply them to devices. If an Alarm Template has been created and you wish to apply the Alarm Template to the device, click Select Template. To learn more about how Alarm Templates work, please visit the DicksonOne How-to Articles.

    Set Your Condition:

    Determine the purpose of the Alarm

    1. From the drop-down options, alarms can be created for channels or a device alarm
    2. Determine the condition
    3. Check the box Add a reference line if you wish to add a reference line to the Device Graph
    4. Help and tips will populate to the right for guidance

    Set Your Notification Policy:

    When, What Method, and Who

    1. To create a new Notification Policy click Create New or if you would like to use an existing notification policy click Use Existing
    2. Slide the toggle to activate an Audible Alarm (this will trigger a sound alarm on the device)
    3. Determine if the alert is a Warning or Excursion
    4. Determine the delay for when you and/or others should be notified (e.g., 0 readings will trigger a notification immediately when the condition is met)
    5. Determine what method to alert by selecting Email, SMS or Phone call, select a recipient from Roles or Contacts and determine where to contact
    6. You can add additional methods of contacting or add additional Roles or Contacts to contact

    Read more on Warnings vs. Excursions

    Wrap up and Finish

    1. Determine if you wish to templatize the alarm by checking the box next to Make this a reusable template  
    2. Name the alarm if making the alarm a reusable template
    3. Click Save Alarm to finish


    Note
    As part of Escalations, the delay (when to contact) is determined by the Device’s Sample Interval * Number of Readings that the condition must be met.
    Success
    A Custom Alarm can be created on a device and can be formulated into a template for later use if needed.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Not Reporting Alarms

    • Not reporting alarms are used to alert users that DicksonOne is no longer receiving data from a device.
    • Reasons that may trigger a Not Reporting alert are a power outage as the devices utilize AC power to communicated to DicksonOne, a network outage as an internet connection is required for the devices to communicate to DicksonOne, all sensor pods are unplugged from a device, and/or a device malfunction.

    Warning
    The Touchscreen devices have the ability to support two sensor pods. If one sensor pod is unplugged from the device, but another sensor pod is still attached and reporting on the device, then the system will not trigger a ‘Not Reporting’ alert. If both sensor pods are unplugged, then the system will trigger the ‘Not Reporting’ alert. The same behavior goes for the DWE models which support only one sensor pod.

    How to Create a Not Reporting Alarm

    1. Within a device click the Alarm Icon or on Alarms

    1. Click Add a New Alarm

    1. Under Set Your ConditionSelect a Channel pick the Device

    1. Choose an existing escalation policy or create a new one

    If you have not created a Notification Policy before you can reference Alarm Escalation


    Alarm State
    Each alarm in “alarm sent” state transitions back to normal if the device’s reading and configuration packets are up-to-date per the loggers sample interval

    1. If applicable you can save the Not Reporting alarm as a reusable template
    2. Click Save Alarm to finish and apply the alarm to your device

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Editing Alarms

    • If your parameters and or conditions have changed, the ability to edit alarms is essential. This article will cover how to edit Custom Alarms and Alarm Templates.

    How to Edit Alarms

    Edit a Custom Alarm:

    Go to DicksonOne.com > Click into a Device > Click Alarms

    1. Click Edit Alarm to make changes to the existing custom alarm
    2. Continue reading onto the next step to or if you wish to delete the custom alarm and create a new custom alarm click Delete and then +Add a New Alarm

    After clicking Edit Alarm 

    1. The conditions for the alarm can edited so that a different channel can be selected or alarm type, as well as the parameter (e.g., below 65 degrees to below 62 degrees, etc.)
    2.  An existing notification policy can be applied or you can edit the current notification policy
    3. The escalations(s) as part of a notification policy can also be changed
    4. The delay can also be changed (device sample interval * readings)
    5. Contact and/or roles can be deleted or added
    6. Can add additional contacts and/or roles to notify

    Edit an Alarm Template:

    Go to DicksonOne.com > Manage > Alarm Templates 

    1. Click into the alarm template you wish to edit

    Go to DicksonOne.com > Manage > Alarm Templates 

    1. The alarm template’s conditions can be edited (e.g., the temperature is below 49 degrees)
    2. The alarm delay, escalation and who to notify can also be edited
    3. The channels that the alarm template is applied to can also be changed
    4. To delete the alarm template click Delete Template


    Warning
    When deleting an alarm template, the template will be unapplied to all devices and channels that it was applied to and the alarms will be removed.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Deleting an Alarm/Unapplying Alarm Template from a Device

    • Though Alarms are very useful to receiving notifications, at times, deleting an alarm and creating a better suited alarm or alarm template can be useful
    • This article will go over how to delete Custom Alarms or Unapply Alarm Templates

    How to Delete an Alarm/Unapply Alarm Template from a Device

    Found on a Device:

    Go to DicksonOne.com > click into a Device > click on Alarms

    1. Click on Alarms to view the alarms that are applied to a device
    2. If an alarm was created on a device, it will show Custom Alarms
    3. If an Alarm Template was created it will show Alarm Templates

    Deleting the Custom Alarm from a Device:
    1. Click Delete Alarm to delete the alarm from the device
    2. If you need to make changes to the alarm, you can edit the alarm by clicking Edit Alarm
    3. If you wish to temporarily unapply the custom alarm and not have the alarm be active, click Pause Alarm


    Warning
    I an Alarm is deleted, it cannot be changed. However, a new alarm can be added. We recommend taking caution when using the Pause Alarm function since the alarm has to be activated again if Alerts/Notifications are expected.

    Unapplying an Alarm Template from a Device:
    1. Click Unapply Template to remove the Alarm Template from the Device
    2. Unapplying the Template does not delete or alter the Alarm Template
    3. A template can be reapplied if it still exist and has not been deleted from Alarm Templates
    4. To Edit or Delete the Alarm Template, please go to DicksonOne.com > Manage > Alarm Templates


    Success
    Alarms can be created and then deleted from a device, as well as alarm templates.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About the Alarm Delay

    • It is important to understand what the Alarm Delay means so that proper parameters are set on Alarms
    • The Alarm Delay as part of Escalations is determined by the Sample Interval and n Readings
    • Alarm Delay = Device Sample Interval * n Readings

    The Alarm Delay

    Sample Interval:

    The Sample Interval is the interval at which a Device is collects a sample of data (e.g. collecting the temperature every 60 seconds, 10 minutes, 1 hour, etc.)

    1. Go to Settings after clicking into a Device
    2. Review Device settings
    3.  Click on Sample Interval to view the interval options
    4. The sample interval can be changed here if desired but it will provide you with the current interval that the device is set to

    View or Update Sample Interval to Multiple Devices:

    Go to DicksonOne.com > Manage > Devices

    1. Check the box next to the Devices you would like to change the Sample Interval to
    2. The current Sample Interval will be displayed on the page for review
    3. When a Device is selected, the Sample Interval Options will be available
    4. Click Apply Bulk Actions to n Devices to save the new changes

    Delay and Readings:

    When creating a Custom Alarm or Alarm Template, you will determine the N readings as part of an Escalation

    1. Wait n Readings (e.g. wait this many collected Samples)
    2. To the right we can determine that 5 readings = 5 minutes which must mean that the Device’s Sample Interval is set to 60 seconds since 5 * 60 seconds = 5 minutes
    3. If the Device’s Sample Interval was set to 10 minutes (e.g., collect a temperature sample every 10 minutes), and we determine to wait 5 readings, we would expect the delay to be 10 (Sample Interval) * 5 (determined readings) = 50 minute Delay


    Success
    Understanding the Sample Interval and Alarm Delay can be vital to users. To learn more information about various functions of DicksonOne, please visit DicksonOne How-to Articles.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Alarm Options

    • This article will cover an overview of the various alarm options that can be created as well as the alert types
    Alarm Types:

    DicksonOne Alarm Types

    1. Not Reporting Alarms are used to alert users when a device is not reporting to DicksonOne due to loss of power, network connection and or device malfunction
    2. Channel/threshold Alarms (e.g., temperature, relative humidity, etc.) alarms
    3. Disconnected probe is specific to a k-thermocouple being disconnected from the sensor pod

    Note
    Learn more on Device loses Power or Network Connection or visit Create a Not Reporting Alarm.

    Alert Types:

    DicksonOne offers SMS, Phone Call, Email, and Audible alerts as part of notifying individuals when alarms conditions are met.

    1. Audible Alarms can be useful to notify individuals that may be near the device as this alert will create a sound alarm on the hardware.
    2. Email alerts will notify individuals via email. This can include users or outsiders of DicksonOne to be notified by creating a custom alert when creating an alarm.
    3. SMS alerts will notify individuals via SMS. This can include users or outsiders of DicksonOne to be notified by creating a custom alert when creating an alarm.
    4. Phone call will notify individuals via Phone call/voice message. These alarms can also be useful to landlines to contact a specific location or office. This can include users or outsiders of DicksonOne to be notified by creating a custom alert when creating an alarm.


    Warning
    Be sure to evaluate the goals of using alarms specific to your applications and requirements as you we caution alarm fatigue.

    About Applying an Alarm Template

    How to Apply an Alarm Template to a Device

    1. From a device’s page, select the Alarm Icon

    1. Click Select Template

    1. Choose the desired template from the drop-down list
    2. Select the applicable channels


    Applicable Channels
    All alarm conditions will be applied to the channels they relate to and are available on the device

    1. Click Preview Template to see which conditions will be applied to which alarms

    1. Click Add these Alarms to add the template to the device.

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    How to Apply an Alarm Template to Multiple Devices

    1. On the left hand side click Manage
    2. Then click Alarm Templates

    1. Choose the Alarm Template that you wish to apply

    1. Next to This template is applied to X channels/devices click Edit

    1. Select or Search the devices you would like to apply to the template.
    2. Click Save to apply the changes

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    If you have previously created a set of notifications for a device that can be applied to new or future devices it is possible to create a template based off of that existing alarm.

    You may also want to reference:

    Create a Custom Alarm

    Create an Alarm Template

    Apply an Alarm Template to a Device

    How to Create a Template from an Existing Alarm

    1. From a device page, Click the Alarm Icon

    1. Click Edit Alarm within the alarm you wish to use

    1. Check the box Make this a reusable template

    1. Check the box Make this a reusable template.
    2. You will then be prompted to name the alarm template
    3. To finish click Save Alarm. Once saved you will be able to find and apply the template under Manage > Alarm Templates


    Alarm Template Saved
    Once saved you will be able to find and apply the template under Manage > Alarm Templates

    This article applies to these plans:

    Basic

    Standard

    Compliant

    About Alarm Escalation

    • This article focuses on the alarm escalation feature specifically. For more information on how to set a basic alarm, please click Here

    How to use the Alarm Escalation Feature

    What is alarm escalation:

    When you set a standard alarm, after you specify the condition to trigger an alert, you can set an alarm delay. Then you proceed to add multiple notifications.

    However, all those notification alerts will be sent at the same time based on how you set the alarm delay initially.

    You can “escalate” an alarm to send multiple notifications at different intervals based on the delay.

    How to set an escalating alarm:
    1. Begin by navigating to the alarms page of the device you would like to set an alarm for.

    1. To create a new one, begin as you would for a standard alarm.

    1. You can then add more notifications to this alarm condition, but with a different delay so that the recipients can be notified at later times. Click Add Custom Escalation Group to add a new delay.

    1. In the second delay box, input a number for the readings required to trigger this next notification or group of multiple notifications.
    2. As with standard alarms, you will see the approximate time delay calculated based on the delay you input and your device’s current sample rate.

    1. As with a standard alarm, select the notification type from the drop-down and input the appropriate email or phone number.
    2. Repeat steps 3-6 as necessary if you would like to add a third notification group. Keep in mind, the system will allow a maximum of three delays (escalation groups). For more info about this limit, please click here.
    3. Click Save Alarm

    About Escalation Policies

    • This article covers what to do if you have received this error message: “Sorry, you cannot have more than three escalations for the same condition. Please adjust your settings and try again”.
    • When creating an alarm or alarm template, you cannot have a single condition that escalates more than three times or levels (including the initial level).

    What to do if you have too Many Escalations for a Given Condition

    A single condition would be “when the temperature is greater than 70F”. A different value or a different variable, like humidity would count as other conditions.

    You have likely set up an alarm that looks like the following:

    When the temperature is greater than 70F…

    • For 3 readings, contact person A, B
    • For 5 readings, contact person A, B, C
    • For 8 readings, contact person B, C, D
    • For 20 readings, contact person A, B, C, D, E, and F

    To remedy the situation, you must remove one of the lines above. If you remove the line with 5 readings, you should be able to save the alarm and would be left with:

    When the temperature is greater than 70F…

    • For 3 readings, contact person A, B
    • For 8 readings, contact person B, C, D
    • For 20 readings, contact person A, B, C, D, E, and F

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