BACnet

Alarm Management
October 2015

Description: Guide to understanding, setting up, and processing Intrinsic (Real-time) Alarms
BACnet Alarms in GENESIS64. Some object types (Analog Input/Output/Value, Binary
General Requirement: Basic GENESIS64 and BACnet knowledge. Input/Output/Value) support intrinsic alarming. Intrinsic alarming
means the object instance itself can be configured to generate
Introduction event notifications based on object-specific rules (Analog object
types are based on Low, Normal and High Limit notifications,
The BACnet protocol offers Alarm management features Binary object types can create event notifications based on
including algorithmic-based generation of real-time alarms Binary object state).
(similar to AlarmWorX64 Server), logging these alarms to internal
buffer (similar to AlarmWorX64 Logger), and then the forwarding Algorithmic (Real-time) Alarms – Event Enrollment
of generated alarm messages to clients (such as GENESIS64). object
BACnet alarms are generated by BACnet devices, typically
Event Enrollment is an object type allowing you to reference any
controllers. GENESIS64 is a client that can be configured to
property from any object instance, located in any BACnet device
subscribe to all or subsets of alarm/event messages generated
as a datasource. The Event Enrollment object executes selected
by the BACnet devices. GENESIS64 provide the ability to visualize,
algorithms to evaluate alarm conditions on the configured data
acknowledge, and log alarm/event messages that it receives.
source. If these specific conditions are met, an event notification
is sent to a chosen Notification Class Object. Then it is
BACnet Alarms Overview distributed to subscribers. An Event Enrollment object
implements alarm analysis such as high limit, low limit,
A critical component of the BACnet alarm processing is the evaluation on selected values of other objects.
BACnet Notification Class Object. Any device capable of
generating and forwarding BACnet alarms must have at least one Historical Alarms – Event Log object type
Notification Class object. Instances of this object type act as
If a BACnet device supports Event Logs, it is able to store a
“gateways” for reporting about new real-time alarms. Clients (in
specific number of BACnet events from a Notification Class local
our case AlarmWorX64 Viewer or Logger) subscribe to a selected
to the device. . AlarmWorX64 Viewer can be then used for
Notification Class. When a new event occurs the Notification
visualization and navigation through the buffer (historical alarms).
Class sends a notification to all subscribed clients. BACnet
devices can contain one or more Notification Class objects.
Event States
BACnet Device In the BACnet universe there are 3 standardized event states:
Any property (from any
object type and any device,
e.g. PresentValue from
Analog Value object)
 Normal – value is within specified boundaries.
 Off Normal – value is out of specified boundaries.
Intrinsic Alarm (e.g. in Algorithmic Alarm  Fault – a problem prevents the device from providing
Analog Value object (Event Enrollment correct event evaluation (e.g. sensor malfunctioned,
instance) object type)
thus cannot reliably provide a value).
Event Notification Event Notification

All events generated must be of one of these types.

Notification Class

Subscribing to BACnet Alarms

BACnet Runtime
The following steps are necessary to configure a GENESIS64
GraphWorX64
system to subscribe to BACnet alarms or events from one or
AlarmWorX64 AlarmWorX64 more devices.
Viewer Logger
GENESIS64 Platform 1. Create Notification Class object in the generating device (if
Figure 1 - BACnet Alarms/Event Infrastructure it does not already exist).
2. Configure Objects intended to generate alarms.
3. Add the BACnet Device to Alarm Cache.

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Alarm Management
October 2015

4. Subscribe for Alarms in AlarmWorX Viewer Control or Alarm Example: Setting up intrinsic (real-time) alarm
Logger. In order to have intrinsic alarming working as expected it is
required to have a Notification Class already created in the
Creating Notification Class device (you have to know its instance number). Follow the next
steps to set it up:
In order to create a Notification Class please follow these steps:
1. Launch Workbench.
1. Launch Workbench. 2. Switch to the BACnet provider.
2. Switch to the BACnet provider. 3. Find an object supporting intrinsic alarming and select it, For
3. Find the desired device in the object tree, right-click it and example, select an Analog Value provided by ICONICS
select the “Add Object to Runtime” option. BACnet Simulator located on a remote machine.
4. Choose “Notification Class” in the drop-down list. 4. The Runtime tab of the selected object will be opened and
5. A configuration form will be opened where an instance ID is you should be able to read and write values of all properties.
automatically assigned (you can overwrite it). Next you need You have to configure specific values for the following
to define state priorities, and whether acknowledgement is properties (under BACnet / BACnet Intrinsic Alarming
required. You can also specify a list of recipients in Recipient section):
List pane – by this you will explicitly tell which BACnet clients
(BACnet Runtimes) should receive notifications. By default it a. Notification Class – instance number (ID) of the
will be configured automatically after adding BACnet Device Notification Class you want to use for alarm
to the GENESIS64 Alarm Cache. notifications.
6. Click “Apply” to create a Notification Class. b. Time Delay – how long (in seconds) the value must
stay over/under the specified limit before an Event is
A device can contain multiple Notification Classes. If you are generated (for instant notification set to 0).
familiar with the concept of AlarmWorX64 Server, the c. Event Enable – which event transitions will be notified
Notification Classes can be compared to Areas – they can be (check at least To Normal and To Off Normal events).
used to distinguish alarms/events from specific sets of d. Limit Enable – this property is Analog object type
alarm/event sources. You can subscribe to a notification class of specific – specify which limit should be monitored in
a subset of alarms/events. For instance imagine that you have order to generate events (in our case check both –
two rooms, each with a set of BACnet-enabled sensors and High Limit Enable and Low Limit Enable)
detectors (temperature, humidity, light intensity, etc.), all of these e. High Limit – specify value of High Limit (set 300)
sensors are connected to a single central BACnet device. You will f. Low Limit – specify value of Low Limit (set 100)
define that alarms/events from sensors located in Room A will
notify through Notification Class instance NC 1 and sensors Please note that other Object Types can have different Intrinsic
located in Room B through NC 2. This will allow you to separate Alarm settings depending on object’s purpose (e.g. Binary object
and clearly distinguish events raised in separate rooms. Another types will not have Low and High Limits). But Notification Class,
application of multiple notification class objects is to generate Time Delay, and Event Enable properties should be used for all.
Alarm priorities. A Notification class generates alarms at only
one specified priority. All alarms generated by it will be at a Setting up algorithmic alarm
specific priority. Consequently a Notification Class Object will be In this example it is assumed that the device already has a
created for each alarm priority and objects that generate alarms Notification Class and the monitored property already created in
will be configured to utilize the appropriate notification class the device. An algorithmic alarm is created by creating an Event
object that generates the alarm at the appropriate priority. Enrollment object type configured to analyze the desired
alarm/event source property, to apply the desired algorithm to
Configuring the Object evaluate the alarm condition, and specified to report via the
desired Notification Class. To configure please follow these steps:
For common use please follow next chapter “Setting up intrinsic
alarms” covers standard use-case. 1. Launch Workbench
2. Switch to the BACnet provider.
3. Find the desired device in the tree,
4. Right-click it and select the “Add Object” item.
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5. Choose “Event Enrollment” in the drop-down list and

confirm by clicking OK (don’t have “Create Empty Object”
checkbox checked).
6. In opened form you have to fill in following:

a. Notification Class - instance number of NC you want

to use for alarm notifications.
b. Event Type – here you choose an algorithm type used
for evaluation. Please refer to BACnet specification for
details, in our case please set “Out Of Range” Event
Type
c. Event Parameters – Click the “…” button next to
“Event Parameters” text box to open the dialog specific
for “Out Of Range” event type in order to set its Figure 3 - Subscribing to alarms during device discovery
parameters – it uses same parameters as we described
in “Setting up intrinsic alarm” section so please refer it Subscribing Real-Time BACnet Alarms using
for the details.
d. Referenced Object – Click the “…” button next to AlarmWorX64 Viewer
“Referenced Object” text box to open the dialog to
browse for referenced property whose value is used as In order to display BACnet Alarms in AlarmWorX64 Viewer do the
a data source, or set Referenced Object values following:
manually using combo boxes and numeric fields.
1. Launch GraphWorX64.
7. Confirm Event Enrollment object creation by clicking Apply 2. Insert an AlarmWorX64 Viewer control
button. 3. Double-click the viewer control in order to open its
properties and settings.
Add BACnet Device to Alarm Cache

In order to receive BACnet Alarms/Events from a device you must

configure all such devices to be included in the Alarm Cache.
You can add devices to the alarm cache during the Device
Discovery process by clicking on buttons with alarm indicators as
shown in Figure 3.

Another option for devices already added to BACnet cache is

right-click on specific device and select “Add to Alarm Cache”. Figure 4 - Configuring BACnet Alarm Viewer
You can see whether the device is added by looking at the icon
in Figure 2. 4. In the opened dialog, select the “Grid” tree item.
5. Click the button with the “+” sign in the “Create/Remove
Subscriptions” section and choose “Real Time Subscription”
from the opened context menu.
6. Select the “Local Alarm Server” item in the “Add/Remove
Event Points” section and click the “-” sign in the same
Figure 2 - Icon for device in Alarm Cache
section to remove the existing subscription.
7. Now press the “+” button in the “Add/Remove Event Points”
section. This will open the Data Browser.
8. In the Data Browser expand My Computer / Data Sources
and find BACnet node.
9. Choose your BACnet device from the list to see its provided
objects.
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Alarm Management
October 2015

10. In the list of objects, find a Notification Class providing 10. In the list of objects, find an Event Log object providing
notifications about alarms (in Figure 4, it is “Notification historical alarms.
Class 1”). 11. Confirm your selection by clicking “OK” in the Data Browser.
11. Confirm selection by clicking “OK” in the Data Browser. This This will add the Event Log historical subscription to the
will add the Notification Class subscription to the AlarmWorX64 Viewer.
AlarmWorX64 Viewer. 12. After listing all desired Event Log objects, you can close the
12. After subscribing to all desired Notification Classes, you can dialog window for AlarmWorX64 Viewer’s configuration.
close the dialog window for AlarmWorX64 Viewer’s 13. Switch GraphWorX64 to Runtime mode in order to see
configuration. historical alarms provided by the Event Log object(s).

You can also subscribe to a device or the complete BACnet NOTE: The current implementation supports getting the historical data
by polling method only; AlarmWorX64 Viewer specifically asks for new
network in the Data Browser. In this way you can subscribe to all
data. This can be forced manually by performing a “Refresh” action on
notification classes in the device and for all BACnet devices in the the AlarmWorX64 Viewer control. You can enable automatic polling in
alarm cache. AlarmWorX64 Viewer’s configuration dialog. Go to the “Behavior” tab,
click the checkbox and fill in the input field “Automatically update
Historical data after”.
Your subscription syntax can look like:
BACnet network: bacnet:
Device: bacnet:ICONICS BACnet Simulator 915 Logging BACnet Alarms to SQL Database
Specific NC: bacnet:ICONICS BACnet Simulator 915\NotificationClass 1
You can log BACnet Alarms using AlarmWorX64 Logger. Just
NOTE: For easier configuration you can use the Drag and Drop feature.
select Alarm Subscription: entire BACnet device or specific
In GraphWorX Configuration mode, open the Data Browser panel and
browse for the BACnet node. Then you can select “BACnet”  device  BACnet device /Notification Classes.
notification class and drag it to the display. This will add an
AlarmWorX64 Viewer control that is automatically subscribed to the In short, the AlarmWorX Logger’s “Alarm Subscription” should
given notification class.
look like subscription for Real-time Alarms (see the section
entitled “Subscribing Real-Time BACnet Alarms using
Subscribing Historical BACnet Alarms using AlarmWorX64 Viewer”, point 12).
AlarmWorX64 Viewer
Notification Class Subscriptions settings
In order to display BACnet Historical Alarms - Event Log object,
in AlarmWorX64 Viewer hosted in GraphWorX64, do the BACnet Runtime allows user to configure automatic
following: configuration of Notification Class Subscriptions. Under Devices
 Communication tab, find the “Notification Class Subscriptions”
1. Launch GraphWorX64. section. The important options are:
2. Insert an AlarmWorX64 Viewer control.
3. Double-click the viewer control in order to open its  Manage Recipients Lists – if enabled this GENESIS64 server
properties and settings. will be automatically added to “Recipients List” of
4. In the opened dialog, select the “Grid” tree item. Notification Class objects on the BACnet Device.
5. Now click the button with the “+” sign in the  Valid Days and Time Range – specification when accepting
“Create/Remove Subscriptions” section and choose of event notifications will be allowed (e.g. NC2 only on
“Historical Subscription” from the opened context menu. weekend).
6. Select the “Local Alarm Server” list box item in the  Accept All / Process ID’s event notifications – Process ID
“Add/Remove Event Points” section and click the “-” sign in can is a specific “pairing key” with specific alarm/event
the same section to remove the existing subscription. generating functions in alarm/event generating device. If
7. Press “+” button in the “Add/Remove Event Points” section. “only accept ID” is enabled, only notification comes from NC
This will open the Data Browser. with the same IDs will be accepted. The typical setting is
8. In the Data Browser expand My Computer / Data Sources “Accept All”
and find BACnet node.
9. Choose your BACnet device from the list to see its provided
objects.

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