ALARM DIRECTOR

EMAILING SYSTEM FOR ANDOVER CONTINUUM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview 3

Using the Alarm Director Configuration Tool Creating New Email Monitoring Groups Subscribing to Items Filtering and Searching for Items Defining Time Frames Specifying Email Address for the Group Deleting and Existing Group

4 4 5 6 7 7 8

Requirements

Installation, Setup, and Launching Installing the Service Providing Connection Information Modifying Service Configuration Starting the Alarm Director Service Configuring the Alarm Director Configuration program

10 10 12 13 14 15

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OVERVIEW
Alarm Director is software that allows subscription and automatic emailing of Andover Continuum alarms to email lists during defined periods of time. This allows for common shift emailing to different groups of personnel depending on the time of day and day of week. It also allows for different monitoring groups for differing types of alarms. For example you might define a group, IT-Services, that is setup to email alarms for critical IT systems 24/7. And then another group, HVAC_Systems_Shift_01, that monitors heating and cooling systems only between 7am and 3pm M-F. Throw in another group that emails a single recipient whenever their research lab freezer temperature (an Infinet input) is too high. Alarm Director does not require the Microsoft Outlook client, which has been a point of failure on many Continuum sites as customers sometimes close the client terminating subsequent alarm emails. It also doesnt require a Windows user to be actively signed into any workstation. This is because it operates as a Windows Service from any machine on the network. It also doesnt require Continuum to be installed on the same workstation. The software supports subscription to groups of alarmed points by subscription to Andover Event Notifications or Alarm Events. More precise subscription can be made to individual points (numeric, inputs, outputs).

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USING THE ALARM DIRECTOR CONFIGURATION TOOL

This is the configuration tool that allows an administrator to create email groups, define active timeframes, and subscribe the group to Andover alarm events, event notifications, or individual alarmed points.

CREATING NEW EMAIL MONITOR GROUPS

Simply choose a name and type it into the GROUP box. Press the [Create New] to create a new group. If you have already defined email groups, you can recall them by pressing the down arrow and selecting from the drop down list of all email notification groups youve defined.

You can choose to either create a blank group, or alternatively create a copy of the current groups data. The latter option is useful when you have a group defined that closely resembles a new group youd like to create.

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SUBSCRIBING TO ITEMS
Unlike Continuums native emailing, Alarm Director allows you to subscribe to any combination of Alarm Events, Event Notifications, Inputs, Outputs, and Numerics. Subscribing to an Event Notification will subscribe to all Alarm Events assigned to the notification. This includes any point in the system that is attached to an alarm that is attached to the selected notification. This is effectively the same as how Continuum emailing normally works. The flexibility comes in with the ability to subscribe down to the individual point level. You can click on multiple points (control+click) and subscribe to them by clicking on the [ >> ] button on the interface:

This action copies the selected items into the SUBSCRIBED ITEMS list. Any subscribed item can be removed by clicking on the [ << ] button to remove the selected item.

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FILTERING AND SEARCHING FOR ITEMS

You can type any part of an Event Notification, Alarm Event, Input, Output, or Numeric point and click on the [Filter] button to filter the list of available system items. Please keep in mind that only points that have at least one alarm attached will show up in the available system items results. If a point doesnt have an alarm attached and youd still like to email it, you can attach a silent alarm to the point.

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DEFINING TIME FRAMES

Define a time frame where the group will be active by clicking on the schedule editor and dragging the mouse to select (dark blue) windows of time for each day. Currently Alarm Director works with half hour periods as the smallest window of time.

SPECIFYING EMAIL ADDRESSES

To specify a list of email addresses, simply type them into the email addresses box in the application. Each email address should be separated by a semicolon.

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DELETING AN EXISTING GROUP

In order to delete a group, first select the group from the group combo box and then use File > Delete Group to delete the currently loaded group. The program will ask for confirmation of the action which is non-reversible.

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REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Alarm Director has been tested on and works on Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Window NT, and Window Server 2000. .NET Framework: Alarm Director requires the Microsoft .NET Platform 3.5 (or greater). If its not already installed, you can download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx

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INSTALLATION / LAUNCHING
Alarm Director Configuration is a zero footprint program. It does not require any installation of its own. Simply copy the files to a subdirectory on your machine, or alternatively to a shared network folder. There are two portions of the complete program that are required: Alarm Director Service. This is the engine responsible for monitoring and emailing alarms. It runs as a Microsoft Service and can setup on any machine on the network that has access to the Microsoft SQL Server. Since it runs as a service the machine hosting it does not need an active user to be logged in. Outlook Client is also not required, as the Alarm Director Service handles all emailing itself. Finally, there is no requirement that Andover Continuum be installed on the machine running the Alarm Director Service.

Alarm Director Configuration Program This is the configuration tool that allows the administrator to create email groups, define active timeframes, and subscribe the group to Andover alarm events, event notifications, or individual alarmed points.

SETTING UP THE ALARM DIRECTOR SERVICE

The Alarm Director Service files can be copied directly to the host machine and placed in any subdirectory. Make sure that the hosting machine has Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed. Alarm Director Service should exist only on one machine. The following files are required files for the Alarm Director Service: AlarmDirectorService.exe AlarmDirectorService.exe.config DBConfig.exe ConferenceLogic.dll dbConnContinuum.cfg

1. INSTALLING THE SERVICE

To install the Alarm Director Service youll start Windows command line (you may need to select Run As and select Administrator on Windows XP and Vista operating systems). From there, navigate to: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 And then run the following command to install the service: InstallUtil c:\path to file\AlarmDirectorService.exe

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Below is a typical install for the Alarm Director Service. Of primary concern is the final lines indicating that the install was successful.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>installutil c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe Microsoft (R) .NET Framework Installation utility Version 2.0.50727.4927 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Running a transacted installation. Beginning the Install phase of the installation. See the contents of the log file for the c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe assembly's progress. The file is located at c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.InstallLog. Installing assembly c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe'. Affected parameters are: logtoconsole = assemblypath = c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe logfile = c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.InstallLog Installing service AlarmDirector... Service AlarmDirector has been successfully installed. Creating EventLog source AlarmDirector in log Application... The Install phase completed successfully, and the Commit phase is beginning. See the contents of the log file for the c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe assembly's progress. The file is located at c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.InstallLog. Committing assembly c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe'. Affected parameters are: logtoconsole = assemblypath = c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.exe logfile = c:\AD\AlarmDirectorService.InstallLog The Commit phase completed successfully. The transacted install has completed.

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2. PROVIDING DATABASE CONNECTION INFO

Before starting the service youll need to wrap up configuration by defining your configuration options. The Alarm Director Service needs to know the IP address (or machine name) of the SQL Server hosting your Continuum database, the database name (typically CotinuumDB), and a user name and password for connection. If youve already completed this step for the Alarm Director Configuration program, you can simply copy the same dbConnContinuum.cfg file to the Alarm Director Services folder. To provide this information, run the DBConfig.exe utility and provide connection information for your Andover database.

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3. MODIFYING SERVICE OPTIONS

The Alarm Director Service uses a XML configuration file for its program options. Here youll specify your SMTP server and user information (if required). If no user is required, simply leave the value blank. The file can be edited with any standard XML editor, or even notepad.exe Typicaly SMTP uses port 21, however if you are using Googles SMTP server youll specify port 587 and set the smtpUseSSL value to True. These configuration settings are shown below. <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" > <section name="AlarmDirectorService.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" /> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <startup><supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/></startup> <applicationSettings> <AlarmDirectorService.Properties.Settings> <setting name="smtpServer" serializeAs="String"> <value>smtp.gmail.com</value> </setting> <setting name="smtpPort" serializeAs="String"> <value>587</value> </setting> <setting name="smtpUser" serializeAs="String"> <value>sen.can@gmail.com</value> </setting> <setting name="smtpPass" serializeAs="String"> <value>mypassword</value> </setting> <setting name="smtpUseSSL" serializeAs="String"> <value>True</value> </setting> <setting name="PollRate" serializeAs="String"> <value>5</value> </setting> <setting name="smtpReturnAddress" serializeAs="String"> <value>sen.can@schneider-electric.com</value> </setting> </AlarmDirectorService.Properties.Settings> </applicationSettings> </configuration>

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4. STARTING THE ALARM DIRECTOR SERVICE

Navigate to Start-> Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools (or alternatively, Run services.msc). You should make sure that the service is set to start automatically. You can also start and stop the service here if necessary.

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CONFIGURING THE ALARM DIRECTOR CONFIGURATION PROGRAM

Running the AlarmDirector.exe will launch the configuration program where you can create new email groups, define time periods, and subscribe the group to various Continuum alarm enrollments, event notifications, or individual point alarms.

The following files are required files for the Alarm Director Configuration: AlarmDirector.exe DBConfig.exe ConferenceLogic.dll dbConnContinuum.cfg

1. PROVIDING DATABASE CONNECTION INFO

Before starting Alarm Director Configuration program youll need to define your connection to the Andover Continuum database. The Alarm Director needs to know the IP address (or machine name) of the SQL Server hosting your Continuum database, the database name (typically CotinuumDB), and a user name and password for connection. If youve already completed this step for the Alarm Director Service, you can simply copy the same dbConnContinuum.cfg file to the Alarm Director Services folder. To provide this information, run the DBConfig.exe utility and provide connection information for your Andover database.

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2. STARTING THE ALARM DIRECTOR CONFIGURATION PROGRAM

The Alarm Director Configuration program can be started by simply double-clicking on the programs icon (AlarmDirector.exe). You can create a shortcut to the program, or share it on a network drive if youd like. You should provide security to the program through standard Windows file security (or Active Directory) permissions.

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