Designing and Managing Behavior Models - Using Alarms - Defining an Alarm -
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Defining an Alarm

This section provides a high level overview of how to create a new alarm. Because creating an alarm is a fairly involved process, you'll need to consult some additional sections to get all the information you need.

 
  To define a new alarm:

1. From the client's Admin menu, choose Alarm Definition List.

   NerveCenter displays the Alarm Definition List window.

   Alarm Definition List Window

   

   Click the thumbnail above to view full-sized image.

2. Select the New button.

   The Alarm Definition window appears.

   Alarm Definition Window

   

   Click the thumbnail above to view full-sized image.

3. Type a unique name for the alarm in the Name text field.

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   Note    The maximum length for alarm names is 255 characters.

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4. Select a property from the Property list box. Or leave the Property set to NO_PROP.

   The property you choose helps determine whether a particular trigger can cause an alarm instance to be instantiated or cause a transition in an existing alarm instance. Generally, the alarm's property must match one of the properties in the property group of the node associated with the trigger. The property NO_PROP matches any property.

   For complete information regarding the matching rules that determine whether a trigger causes an alarm transition, see the section, Rules for Matching.

5. Select a scope from the Scope list box.

   The options are Enterprise, Instance, Node, and Subobject. Briefly, an alarm instance with Enterprise scope monitors all the nodes managed by the NerveCenter server. An alarm instance with Node scope monitors a single node. A subobject scope alarm monitors a subcomponent of a node, usually an interface (subobject). Instance scope lets you monitor different base objects in a single alarm instance.

   For further information on alarm scope, see the section Alarm Scope.

6. Select the Clear Triggers for Reset To Ground or Off checkbox if you want NerveCenter to clear any pending triggers fired by this alarm when the alarm is turned off or manually reset to ground. The alarm might have pending triggers if you associated a Fire Trigger alarm action with this alarm.
7. Create the alarm's state diagram in the drawing area at the top of the Alarm Definition window.

   This can be a big step. Before you actually draw the state diagram, you must design it. Your resources for learning how to design an alarms are:

   • This book.
   • The book Learning How to Create Behavior Models, which includes a tutorial on creating alarms.
   • The predefined alarms that ship with NerveCenter. Looking at these alarms and reading the notes that accompany them should give you some ideas for creating your own alarms.

     Then, there are the mechanics of creating the state diagram. This subject is covered in the following places:

   • Defining States
   • Defining Transitions
   • Alarm Actions for information about adding actions to alarm transitions
8. Select the Save button to save your alarm.
9. If you want to enable you alarm now, set the alarm's Enabled status to On, and then select the Save button again.