Providing Alarms On The Opc Ua Server; Useful Information On Alarms - Siemens SIMATIC ET 200AL System Manual

9.3.6

Providing alarms on the OPC UA server

9.3.6.1

Useful information on alarms

Alarms allow you to detect errors in process control in the automation system quickly, to
localize them precisely, and to eliminate them. This leads to a significant reduction in
downtimes in a plant. The OPC UA information model "Alarms & Conditions" provides a
standardized and platform-independent way of message processing.
As of firmware version V2.9, the OPC UA server of an S7-1500 CPU supports the OPC UA
information model "Alarms and Conditions". In this way, the OPC UA server provides access to
controller alarms.
The following sections describe which alarm types available in SIMATIC are supported at the
OPC UA interface of the OPC UA server.
The following sections also describe how you configure the OPC UA server of the S7-1500
CPU for Alarms & Conditions, the main points of how the Alarms & Conditions model is
structured with OPC UA, and which special points must be taken into consideration when
using alarms from the address space of the OPC UA server as compared to the SIMATIC
controller alarms of the CPU alarm system.
Basis for the converting alarms to OPC UA Alarms & Conditions
The Alarms and Conditions information model is specified in the "OPC 10000-9: OPC Unified
Architecture Part 9: Alarms & Conditions" specification.
Controller alarms in SIMATIC
The OPC UA server of the S7-1500 CPUs supports the controller alarms listed below, which
are available to S7-1500 CPUs. You configure or program these alarms in the usual way,
without the need to consider additional rules for use of these alarms by OPC UA clients.
The added benefit of OPC UA Alarms and Conditions is that these alarm types can be
displayed not only by HMI devices, web browsers, the CPU display or the TIA Portal, but also
by all OPC UA clients that support OPC UA Alarms and Conditions.
• PLC supervision alarms with ProDiag
You can integrate simple supervisions in your program with just a few configuring steps
and without having to change the program code. The configuration of the supervisions is
independent of the programming languages of the TIA Portal because only individual
operands are supervised, and you do not need any additional programming sections.
• System diagnostics alarms
Configuration-dependent module events are known by the hardware configuration of the
CPU and can be evaluated by connected display devices. They can only be viewed in the
alarm editor and cannot be edited.
• Program alarms (Program_Alarm instruction)
For reporting program synchronous events, program alarms are assigned to one block at a
time. They are created in the program editor and edited in the alarm editor (TIA Portal).
• GRAPH alarms
For GRAPH function blocks, you can also enable alarms; e.g. for interlocks, supervisions
and GRAPH warnings (step time monitoring).
Communication
Function Manual, 05/2021, A5E03735815-AJ
OPC UA communication
9.3 Using the S7-1500 as an OPC UA server
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