Alarm Escalation

Alarm Escalation is a feature of Rules that ensures alarms are processed in a timely manner. If an operator fails to process an alarm before a configurable period of time, it can be escalated to another Rule. Typically, this destination Rule will be assigned to another Workstation in the deployment where its operator can process the alarm. Different escalation durations and destinations can be defined for both Unacknowledged alarms and Acknowledged alarms.

Escalation Definition

Attention: Escalations are always processed locally on each Workstation. Take care when using Acknowledged Escalations in conjunction with Alarm Processing Modes to ensure the Acknowledged state is properly communicated to the destination Workstation prior to escalating to its Rule.

When an asset is escalated:

  1. It remains in its original Rule.
  2. It is added to the configured destination Rule(s).
  3. It is always granted the Alarm, Select, and View permissions in the destination Rule for the duration of the escalation regardless of whatever permissions it had prior to escalating.
  4. The asset will revert to its original Rule assignments when the asset no longer has any active alarms.
    Note: Sending a Reset command to an asset while the underlying alarm condition is still true will retrigger the alarm. The escalation engine interprets this as a brand new alarm and will restart the escalation procedure from the original source Rule.
    Note: When using Unlatched alarms, it is possible to transition from one Unacknowledged alarm to another. The escalation engine interprets this as a brand new alarm and will restart the escalation procedure from the original source Rule.
  5. The entire asset is escalated, not just the alarm. In Advanced cases where multiple alarms are active on the asset, all alarms are escalated together.
    Note: Escalation does not occur when the system is running in the Execution Engine service.

Unacknowledged/Acknowledged Timers

Every asset will have an Unacknowledged Timer and Acknowledged Timer per Rule that the asset belongs to. The asset will be escalated when its respective timer has elapsed. Only one type of timer can active at a time. Each timer will begin counting depending on the asset's current alarm state:

  • Unacknowledged Timer — The asset has at least one active alarm. At least one of the alarms is Unacknowledged.

  • Acknowledged Timer — The asset has at least one active alarm. All alarms on the asset are Acknowledged.

Cascading Escalations

In the case where an escalated asset's destination Rule also has escalations configured, there are a few important behaviors to consider:

  1. The Unacknowledged or Acknowledged Timer for the asset begins from the moment the asset arrives in the destination Rule rather than the alarm's original timestamp.
  2. An asset will remain in the destination Rule until no more alarms exist on the asset.
    Note: In Advanced cases, this could mean that the original alarm event is no longer active, but new alarms have since appeared which will maintain the escalation state.
  3. An asset can only be escalated to a destination Rule only once per original alarm event.
  4. A Rule is allowed to escalate an asset to its own Rule provided that asset did not already have all three of the Alarm, Select, and View permissions prior to escalating.