VTS uses the following set of rules to determine the appropriate roster tag or roster group to contact in the event of a triggered alarm:
1A) Tags with Built-In Alarm Capabilities
(Analog status tags, digital status tags, and pump status tags)
If an alarm is triggered by one of these tag types, the
system will attempt to match the Area property of the tag with the Area property
of the available roster tags as follows:
The Area property of the trigger tag matches the Area property of a roster tag or group of roster tags.
In this case, the operators assigned to the roster tag(s) will be contacted by the Alarm Dialer.
The Area property of the trigger tag does not match the Area property of any roster tag.
The system will refer to the Area property of the I/O device driver tag associated with the trigger tag (i.e. the tag associated with the trigger tag by means of the I/O Device or Site property on the I/O tab). The system attempts to match the Area property of the I/O device driver tag with the Area property of the available roster tags as follows:
The Area property of the I/O device driver tag matches the Area property of the available roster tags
The operators assigned to the roster tag(s) are contacted by the Alarm Dialer system.
The Area property of the I/O device driver tag does not match the Area property of any roster tag
Refer to step 2 below.
1B) Tags with Associated Alarm Capabilities
Alarm tags monitor the value of any tag with a numeric tag type, including input and output tags, and trigger an alarm based on user-defined criteria. If an alarm is triggered for a tag that has an associated alarm tag instead of built-in alarm parameters, the system attempts to match the Area property of the alarm tag with the Area property of the available roster tags as follows:
The Area property of the alarm tag matches the Area property of the available roster tags.
The operators assigned to the roster tag(s) are contacted by the Alarm Dialer.
The Area property of the alarm tag does not match the Area property of any roster tag
In this case, the system attempts the following:
The trigger tags area matches the an available roster tag:
The system refers to the Area property of the trigger tag (i.e. the tag whose value the alarm tag is monitoring) and attempts to match the trigger tag's Area property with the Area properties of the available roster tags. If the Area property of the trigger tag matches the Area property of the available roster tags, the operators assigned to the roster tag(s) are contacted by the Alarm Dialer system.
The Area property of the trigger tag does not match the Area property of any roster tag.
In this case, the system attempts the following:
o The system refers to the Area property of the I/O device driver tag with which the trigger tag is associated (i.e. the tag associated with the trigger tag by means of the I/O Device or Site property on the I/O tab) and attempts to match the I/O device driver tag's Area property with the Area properties of the available roster tags. If the Area property of the I/O device driver tag matches the Area property of the available roster tags, the operators assigned to the roster tag(s) will be contacted by the Alarm Dialer system.
o If the Area property of the I/O device driver tag does not match the Area property of the available roster tags, the system follows step 2 below.
2) Unable to find matching areas as described in steps 1A and 1B
If the system fails to find a match between the Area property of the alarm tag or the Area property of the associated trigger tag, or the I/O device driver tag associated with the trigger tag and the available roster tags, the Alarm Dialer system will refer to the roster tag(s) with Default Area configured as their Area property and will contact the operators configured on that roster tag.
If no roster tags are found to have Default Area configured for their Area property, the system follows step 3 below.
3) No matching area found and no match found on default areas
If no roster tags have been assigned Default Area as their Area property, the Alarm Dialer system will pick an Area at random, and will make it the default for the call. The operators belonging to the roster tag(s) matching the randomly selected Area will be contacted by the Alarm Dialer system.
Note: As discussed in Triggering All Rosters for an Alarm, if you set any alarm tag's Area to GeneralAlarm (no spaces), then all active rosters in all groups will be called when the alarm has been triggered. This functionality is useful in emergency situations where it is crucial that all operators be contacted (e.g. in the event of a hurricane).
Note: If a new alarm should occur while operators are being notified of existing alarms, or the first person in the active roster has already been informed of an existing alarm when the new alarm occurs, the Alarm Dialer system will initiate a new call to the first person on the active roster.