Wonderware, servers, and lost alarms

Well, our usually faithful (hah!) servers have done a number on us. We're set up with a network environment for Wonderware, 2 sql servers, 2 IO servers, and a development/source server.

In order to clear up an alarm issue, I rebooted the IO servers. End result, the alarms are not showing on the Wonderware PCs. All you get is a blank screen. Our programmer of record recommended we use the right-click, select default database on the alarm page, and "that was all we needed to do". Well, if you close a working alarm screen, and reopen it, it's blank. Our IT department, in charge of the servers, has no clue on why this is happening.

I'm willing to listen to any possible result for this. It's never done this before (he says). Not for the 3 1/2 years I have been working with this system.

I can supply a little more detail if needed, but that's the problem as described.

Have you verified the alarm manager is running?

Start - Programs - Wonderware - InTouch - Alarm DB Logger Manager

We usually start this with a script once the InTouch View app has started, this makes sure the alarm service is always running when Intouch is active. It is important to note that the alarm manager can shutdown when a user logs out. I ran into this with Microsoft Server 2008, not sure if it applies to early versions of the server OS. I have to mind how I log out (RDP) of the server otherwise it will shutdown the alarm service. There is a technote on the WDN about it.

You can also verify the SQL connection with this tool as well, just click the "settings" - "test" to see if the connection to SQL is ok. You can also open the WWALMBD database in SQL to see if previous alarms are still in the database. If they are it must be a connection issue between the alarm service and the SQL database.

Also, check the SMC (System Management Console) log viewer to see if you can get more hints as to what errors are happening behind the scenes.

Alarms show up when you select them using the Alarm screen. I'm positive they are on the server. There's a connection problem, that's for sure.