Use a routine to create alarm instances when a tag value meets certain conditions.

Introduced in May 2025

You can create routines to monitor system health tags and trigger alarms based on these tag values. These routines help ensure that critical resources, such as the disk space or the CPU usage of the system, remain within acceptable limits. This proactive approach to test station management can help maintain system reliability.

  1. Navigate to Analysis » Routines and click Create routine.
  2. Specify a name and description for the routine.
  3. Select a workspace for the routine.
    Note The workspace you choose determines the input data for the routine process. For more information about workspaces, refer to Managing Access to SystemLink Enterprise.
  4. Select the Tag value updated event option.
  5. Select the Generate alarm automation option.
  6. Specify the tag(s) to monitor in the Tag path field.
    • To apply the routine to one tag, specify the absolute path of the tag.
    • To apply the routine to multiple tags of the same data type, use the wildcard character (*). This character can represent any number of characters in the path.

    The following table displays examples of each type of tag expression.

    Example Tag Expression Result
    system1.Health.Disk.Total Monitors only the system1.Health.Disk.Total tag.
    *.Health.Disk.Total Monitors all tags ending with .Health.Disk.Total.
  7. Specify the tag data type for the routine.
    Note The routine only monitors tags that match the specified data type.
  8. Specify a name and description for the alarms.
    1. To make the name and description of your alarm more informative, embed any custom property values from the triggering tag. To embed the value, include the property name within angle brackets.

      The following table displays examples of custom property values.

      Property Example
      <displayName> Test Machine CPU USED
      <nitagHistoryTTLDays> 30
      <nitagMaxHistoryCount> 10000
      <nitagRetention> DURATION
      <units> %
    2. When the system meets an alarm condition, the routine processor adds the properties displayed in the following table.
      Property Example Description
      <system> System A A user-friendly identifier for the system associated with the tag that triggered the alarm. This property is the system alias (if set), the hostname (if set), or the first segment of the tag path.
      <alarm_occurred_at_date> April 14, 2025 An American English formatted date stamp of when the alarm triggers.
      <alarm_occurred_at_time> 5:43:26 PM An American English formatted time stamp of when the alarm triggers.
      <trigger_value> 17.2 The value of the tag when the alarm triggers.
      <routine_id> 67f6bfd155359a8fa775a2a6 The unique identifier for the routine that triggered the alarm.
      <alarm_condition> Greater than: 15 A formatted string of the tag conditions when the alarm triggers.
      <alarm_link> https://example.com/alarms/6814dfc3fa3 A link to the triggered alarm.
      <source_link> https://example.com/systems/Test-Machine-00-6A-67-C8-7B A link to the system associated with the tag that triggered the alarm.
      <minionId> Test-Machine-00-6A-67-C8-7B An identifier for the system associated with the tag that triggered the alarm. By convention, this property is the first segment of the tag path.

      The following table illustrates how an alarm name with embedded properties looks before and after value substitution.

      Before Substitution After Substitution
      CPU usage on <system> is high. CPU usage is <value>%. CPU usage on test1 is high. CPU usage is 90%.
      PXI chassis in rack number <rack_number> is overheating. PXI chassis in rack number 154 is overheating.
  9. Configure the conditions to specify when to create an alarm.
    1. Under Alarm Conditions, click Add Condition and choose the Severity Level for which you want to define conditions.
    2. Choose the Comparison Mode you want the alarm rule to use to process values.
    3. Specify a Deadband for the alarm. The deadband determines how far the tag value must be from the set point to clear an active alarm.

      Use the following table to determine how deadband values operate in each comparison mode.

      Comparison Mode Alarm Clearing Value
      Less Than A value greater than or equal to [Set Point]+[Deadband] clears the alarm.
      Less Than or Equal A value greater than [Set Point]+[Deadband] clears the alarm.
      Greater Than A value less than or equal to [Set Point]-[Deadband] clears the alarm.
      Greater Than or Equal A value less than [Set Point]-[Deadband] clears the alarm.
      In Range A value less than [Set Point (Low)]-[Deadband] or greater than [Set Point (High)]+[Deadband] clears the alarm.
  10. Choose whether to alert users about alarm activity through email notifications.
    Note Users receive a new email whenever the alarm reaches a new maximum severity due to a tag value change. For example, users receive an email if a moderate severity alarm becomes a high severity alarm.
  11. Click Create.

When a rule triggers an alarm, you have three options. You can clear the alarm, acknowledge the alarm, or ignore the alarm.

The following table illustrates the alarm states that result from different actions you perform on an active alarm.

Cleared? Acknowledged? Resulting Alarm State
No No Active
No Yes Active and acknowledged
Yes

The alarm condition is no longer met.

 No Active
Yes

The alarm condition is no longer met.

 Yes Inactive
Yes

The user force clears the alarm.

 Yes

By force clearing the alarm, the user also acknowledges the alarm.

 Inactive