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Suppressed Alarm Report

Hello,

I am looking to create a report that shows the currently suppressed alarms. I'd like to generate it in Excel or XLReporter so it can be emailed on a periodic basis. I cannot seem to find any hooks to allow me to query that information out of DeltaV.

Has someone done this before and can point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Dave

dave_marshall

13 Replies

  • meradi
    I would like this information also.
     
    Thanks,
    Maureen Radi
     
  • Matt Stoner
    You can get the data from the AlmSupp display (v12 and v13) by using the "Export Alarm Summary to XML" button (The Show Toolbar must be checked on Alarm Summary ActiveX properties on the Layout Tab - this should already be done by default but just in case you don't see the button), the output has what you want but doubt you will be able to schedule it.

    This would be a good request to the User Driven Enhancement Program (UDEP) at www.userideas-emerson.com as others would probably like to have this as well. Something like "Add to the System Alarm Management utility a report option showing all the currently Shelved and/or Out of Service alarms". This report could be scheduled once it is in the SAM utility instead of spending alot of time coming up with something custom.
  • dave_marshall

    In reply to Matt Stoner:

    Hi Matt,

    Thanks for the reply. It is a bit of a bummer that we don't have it already.

    Do you know if we can use VBA to call a print function against the alarm summary control or the export to XML function?

    Dave
  • Matt Stoner

    In reply to dave_marshall:

    Still researching and discussing with others within Emerson...but I think it will be tough.

    You probably could make a schedule to open the AlmSupp display and print it. I'm just not sure you should/want to do that while an operator is using the system. Just typing out loud here but maybe manually doing it (export or printing) during shift changes and be part of that process?

    I sent this to the Alarm Management Product Marketing Manager and he said this came up recently with another customer so this wasn't the first time for the request which might mean it may make a future release...unfortunately probably not in the time frame you want/need.
  • Andre Dicaire

    In reply to Matt Stoner:

    I fount a program in the DeltaV/Bin Directory called AlarmSummaryUtility.exe.   I ran it from a command window and it showed the following.

    DELTAV ALARM SUMMARY                     Sort order: Alarm Banner

      Status =    0,    Items =    1,    UnAcked =    1

      Occurred Alarm Id                 St LAALM  Priority  Description      Message

      -------- ------------------------ -- ------ --------- ---------------- ---------------------------------

    1 21:33:55 DV1331/FAILED_ALM         2 FAILED WARNING                    Event Chronicle: Data collection

    Found the following switch option showed some help information:

    c:\DeltaV\bin>alarmsummaryutility /?

    AlarmSummaryUtility.exe is a console program that acts like a DeltaV alarm summary.  It's

    primary purpose is to troubleshoot DvAlmSumDataSvr.exe.  Run it like:

     AlarmSummaryUtility [<summarySize> [<filterSpec> [<sortOption> [<desiredFields>

                               [<useLocalTime> [<useLocaleTimeFormat> ["<timeFormat>"

                               [</export> [</silent>]]]]]]]]]

    There was a lot more help information including format for the identified options above.

    This is an undocumented utility, and it is a "use at your own risk" type function.   It turns out my alarm summary currently only has this one alarm in it...

    there is a /export option field to export the summary to XML file, and a /silent option for non-interactive mode.  this an more is displayed with the /? qualifier so you can see if it will meet your needs.

    Looks like this will do what you want...

    Andre Dicaire

  • John Rezabek

    In reply to Matt Stoner:

    I think I can get such a report out of DeltaV Analyze. It's not free but it has many other useful features. From the "Alarm Statistics" report (in the IE / HTML dashboard) there's a target for "export" or to create an Excel file, for each of the categories including Alarms Suppressed during the reporting period.
  • GeloCortez

    you can try this. create a button to fire this on click - or you can use scheduler for periodic basis

    Dim strFileName As String
    Dim strAlarmName As String
    Dim strModuleName As String
    Dim strTime As String
    Dim strDesc As String
    Dim strPriority As String

    Dim i As Long
    'Print to file
    strFileName = "D:\SuppressedList.txt"
    Open strFileName For Output As #1
    Print #1, "Alarm Name" & vbTab & "Module Name" & vbTab & "Time of Alarm" & vbTab & "Module Description" & vbTab & "Alarm Priority"

    For i = 1 To 250
    strAlarmName = frsreadvalue("DVSYS.THISUSER/OPSUP[" & i & "].A_ATTR", , , False)
    If strAlarmName = "" Then GoTo CloseFile
    strModuleName = frsreadvalue("DVSYS.THISUSER/OPSUP[" & i & "].A_CV", , , False)
    strTime = frsreadvalue("DVSYS.THISUSER/OPSUP[" & i & "].A_TIN", , , False)
    strDesc = frsreadvalue("DVSYS.THISUSER/OPSUP[" & i & "].A_DESC", , , False)
    strPriority = frsreadvalue("DVSYS.THISUSER/OPSUP[" & i & "].A_PRI", , , False)
    Print #1, strAlarmName & vbTab & strModuleName & vbTab & strTime & vbTab & strDesc & vbTab & strPriority
    Next i
    CloseFile:
    Close #1
    MsgBox "Done. Refer to SuppressedList.txt located in D:\ directory."

  • doug bray

    In reply to Andre Dicaire:

    Andre,

    Did Emerson every add this to a release? We are on v14 and i cannot find a way to do it. I have have not tried the alarmsumaryutility yet. I am hoping Emerson has a better way by now.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to doug bray:

    Doug, this data must be capable of being transmitted reliably using the utility. We use Hexagon PSS for our event historian, and it is getting its data from the utility, and we can run suppression reports from it.
  • Andre Dicaire

    In reply to doug bray:

    Emerson is big on AgileOps which includes EventKPI alarm and event performance and reporting tool. I have not worked with this in detail, but it replaces DeltaV Analyze and has additional capabilities. One could say that Emerson has "added this functionality", but not the way you would like.

    Currently, HMI Alarm Summary tool has an export button that sends the current summary to an XML file. I can't see anywhere that allows this to be programmatically activated. If the alarm summary could allow a Live Timer Event or a custom script to trigger the XML report, you would have what you need. So close....

    As far as I can tell, the Alarm summary executable is the only tool that will allow you to generate a report of current alarm information, such as Suppressed alarms based on the consoles span of control that comes with the product.

    To make this work, you need to be able to send the output to a file. I don't know if the utility does this. DVCHDump.exe does not and that caused me issues, where I wanted to programmatically, on demand export history data for a trend. I can save the output to file through the CLI (Command Line Interface) redirect output to file feature, but this does redirect is not available when launching DVCHDump.exe from Live. I have not found a way to encapsulate this exe inside something such that the output is captured and written to a file. If Alarm Summary does not have its own output to file function, you'll have the same problem automating the export to file.

    That leaves you with EventKPI or maybe Report writer.

    Personally, I'd like to find a solution for the executable to be able to output to file. Then I could build a schedule item in LIve and run the executable on demand or based on time. That would open opportunities for enhanced reports without the need for complex Ejournal queries or adding software tools for a point solution.

    Andre Dicaire

  • doug bray

    In reply to Andre Dicaire:

    Thanks Andre and MPHymel,

    I have a request into my local Emerson supplier investigating this as well. I'll wait until they respond and then decide my next step. I would think this would be an easy add for Emerson to do and would be a great feature.
  • dave_marshall

    I realized today that I never updated this item with how I solved the problem.

    The System Alarm Manager, if accessed from the ProPlus, allows for scheduling of reports. These reports get dumped to an XML file that you can then parse. Fair warning, the XML file isn't formatted the best and it takes some effort to parse it correctly. The XML file is landed at D:\DeltaV\DVData\AlarmReports. This report takes me around 5-10 minutes to run.

    Thus, in my case, I have the following setup (I use XLReporter to process the reports, otherwise task scheduler could be just as easily used):
    1. SAM Report runs daily at 12:10AM. The report is configured for all alarms, all areas, nodes, and logic solvers.
    2. XLReporter (installed on a reporting server) copies the file to the reporting server locally.
    3. XLReporter launches an excel book that is loaded with VBA to import the XML file to Excel, and then parse/copy the relevant data to a new workbook.

    I have had problems with this running in v15 (hence me now updating this question since I forgot how I did it all those years ago) that I'm now working through.

    I hope this helps!

  • Dustin Beebe

    In reply to dave_marshall:

    As mentioned, DeltaV AgileOps is also a good way to get this data. You can view the data in AgileOps or export it to your dashboards. You can also schedule an export into CSV, Excel, PDF, etc. Instead of updating once a day. AgileOps will stay up to date and capture all of the things in between. As well as do this for all of the control systems that you might have in your control room.

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