Alerts

An alert is a condition of interest that indicates the status of a unit. Users that have been set up as a contact point in User Contact Information (My Profile Page) are sent a notification by the system when an alert occurs. Notifications are sent for both alarm and non-alarm conditions. Available contact methods include e-mail, phone, text message, numeric page, or FTP (file transfer protocol).

A notification is sent for each alert received from a unit, including when two or more alerts are received at the same time. The system typically lists units with alerts in the In Alarm status category on Unit System Status or in the Status Filter pane on the All Units page. However, when a unit's alert settings include the Notify Only option, the system lists the unit in the Normal status category instead. Notify Only is used for non-alarm conditions when setting up an Activity, Status, or Packet alert type. For example, a non-alarm condition is when the unit is operating normally, but the system has not received a packet transmission from the unit within a user-defined time period.

The following table describes the four different alert types:

Alert Types

Alert Type	Description
Data Alert	Select Data Alert to be notified of an alarm event for a data point, such as an out-of-spec channel measurement, low battery voltage, power on reset, or RSSI reading.
Activity Alert	Select Activity Alert to be notified when the unit does not transmit packets or transmits an unusual number of packets (too few or too many) within a certain number of days.
Status Alert	Select status Alert to be notified when the unit changes from one operating state to another, such as normal to alarm, normal to interrupting, or open to closed digital state.
Packet Alert	Select Packet Alert to be notified when the unit transmits a normal, alarm, or test packet.

The following topics include more information about alerts and how to create and manage alerts:

• Alert Message Template Tags — definitions for the different alert messages used when sending a notification to contacts regarding an alert.

• Data Alert Condition Operators and Trigger Values — definitions of the operators and trigger values that are used when adding conditions to a new data alert.

• Create an Alert — four different alerts can be created to notify users of unit events.

• Add Contacts to an Alert — set who will receive the alert.

• Add Conditions to an Alert — set up conditions for when alerts are sent.

• Preview Alert Message and Send Test Alert — preview how the text will look when sent to contacts.

• Enable or Disable an Alert — set whether or not the alert will be used.

• View or Edit Alert Settings — make changes to alert or view how an alert was set up.

• Acknowledge an Alert — once received by the website, alerts can be acknowledged from several different views.

• Delete an Alert — remove alerts from a unit.