Wonderware Distributed Alarms, Historical and Summary

I tried to find some information using the search engine and I couldn't find anything helpful, so I'll post this here.

I've been assigned to a new platform and one of the first things brought to my attention was a series of "nuisance" alarms on the alarm screen. Digging into the problem, the other SCADA tech and I have found that there are two alarm pages, one set up as an alarm summary page, and one set up as an alarm history page. I'm digging it so far.

However, what happens is that the alarm summary page "acts" like it is displaying alarm history. It keeps the alarms for days. Meanwhile, the alarm history page starts dumping alarms after a minute or so.

I've checked the settings on the pages and they seem to be setup properly. If I go to the Alarm Summary page and doubleclick on it to pull up the alarm configuration box, it is configured to pull up a summary query of all alarms on \InTouch!$System.

The history page is set up to do a history query of all alarms within \InTouch!$System.

There is also a series of scripts written for both pages. I will include a copy of them below:
This is the script for history page.

Old_Screen_Num = Screen_Num;
Screen_Num = 9;
almSetQueryByName( "Alarm_Hist", "default_A_Hist");
Alm_View = 1;
SelectionType = 1;

{IF Alm_View ==1 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =500;
Alm_to_Priority = 979;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==2 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =500;
Alm_to_Priority = 509;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==3 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =600;
Alm_to_Priority = 609;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==4 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =700;
Alm_to_Priority = 799;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==5 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 610;
Alm_to_Priority = 611;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==6 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 800;
Alm_to_Priority = 809;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==7 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 900;
Alm_to_Priority = 910;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==8 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 810;
Alm_to_Priority = 811;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==9 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 920;
Alm_to_Priority = 939;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==10 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 940;
Alm_to_Priority = 959;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==11 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 510;
Alm_to_Priority = 519;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==12 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 520;
Alm_to_Priority = 529;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;}

This is the script for the summary page.

Old_Screen_Num = Screen_Num;
Screen_Num = 10;
almSetQueryByName( "Alarm_", "default_A");
Alm_View = 1;
SelectionType = 2;

{IF Alm_View ==1 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =500;
Alm_to_Priority = 979;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==2 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =500;
Alm_to_Priority = 509;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==3 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =600;
Alm_to_Priority = 609;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==4 THEN
Alm_from_Priority =700;
Alm_to_Priority = 799;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==5 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 610;
Alm_to_Priority = 611;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==6 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 800;
Alm_to_Priority = 809;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==7 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 900;
Alm_to_Priority = 910;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==8 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 810;
Alm_to_Priority = 811;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==9 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 920;
Alm_to_Priority = 939;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==10 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 940;
Alm_to_Priority = 959;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==11 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 510;
Alm_to_Priority = 519;
ELSE
IF Alm_View ==12 THEN
Alm_from_Priority = 520;
Alm_to_Priority = 529;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;
ENDIF;}


The original programmer used the priorities as a way to subdivide alarm groups so he could filter out alarms by section. Pretty interesting notion and it seems to work well, but it seems irrelevant to me in terms of fixing this problem.

Basically, nothing I've done seems to make any difference. Am I completely misunderstanding what the difference between history and summary queries is? I would think the history query and page would show a long term historical view, whereas the summary page would basically be an instantaneous snapshot of what is happening right now, but this set up is acting exactly the opposite way. Rather than going on endlessly with information that is of no use, I'll give you guys the opportunity to look at what I've got and come back with any questions for clarification. Thank you for your help,
Mark

Alarm summary view shows all alarms that are currently active, alarm history shows alarms that are not active.

Are you sure the alarm summary is not in fact showing active alarms? I ask because I have been cleaning up nuisance alarms in a few apps for months.

Check your alarm buffer size;

alarms are held in the internal alarm memory "Alarm Buffer". This is the maximum number of alarms that the app can store for summary or historical alarm queries. I think the default value is 500, once this number is reached the oldest alarms are deleted to make room for new entries. If this number was set real low, to save memory for instance, your alarms may exhibit the behavior you describe on the history page, particularly if you have a large number of nuisance alarms active that gobble up the buffer.

I run WW on newer computers with 2-4GB of ram, I have had no trouble storing 5000 entries in this buffer for a full week of alarm history.

BTW, the alarm buffer size is in Window Maker, Go to Special-->Configure-->Alarms

iraiam-

That seems to have done it. I saw earlier that the default was 500. For some reason the setting was made at 50. I had set it up to 100 earlier, figuring there may have been some good reason it had been set to 50. I've set it to 1000 now and the difference was immediately noticeable.

Thank you...I was going crazy trying to figure out WHY they were acting the way they were.