This article follows the steps to set up the Missed Reports feature for your Condence device levels.
Purpose of Missed Reports feature is to expose administrators if a hardware unit is not communicating. Feature can monitor terminal level reports or can be extended to monitor metric level reports.
A notification is triggered if cloud has not received a report in defined period of time. Notification is displayed in the user interface at Notifications and Alarms -widget. Missed Report notification includes the source hardware, notification trigger time, severity level and customizable text. A notification can be set to be triggered when a report is received after missed reports.
If you apply the Missed Reports as Device specific, all the metrics reported to the cloud will be considered. This means that if single metric level report is received, reports are not considered missing. This is the most common use case to monitor if a terminal has lost connection to the cloud. You can also apply Missed Reports to an individual metric. This is useful, for example, when configuring Modbus metrics so you can monitor the operative functionality of the Modbus sensor itself.
When using the Missed Reports on Condence Easy, it is recommended always to use Device Specific setting since it is unified source of data for one Device.
Missed Reports feature is a new Alarm Type in Condence Alarms. If you do not have general knowledge of Condence Alarms, please introduce yourself to the subject in Alarm creation support article. This article only describes the Missed Reports -specific areas of creating the Alarm.
Configuring Missed Reports alarms
Configurations tab
To configure Missed Reports, go to the Configurations tab and then to the Alarm Rules section. Press the Create alarm rule button to create your Missed Reports alarm.
After you have pressed the Create alarm rule button, you are presented with options on what kind of alarm you want to create. Choose the Cloud Latest Data Age to start configuring your Missed Reports feature
The options presented after selecting the Cloud Latest Data Age are similar in many ways to the other Alarm type options. Set up your Name, Notification template and Zone as you would with any other Alarm. However, there is a new lever that is specific for Missed Reports.
Device Specific lever is located under the Zone dropdown menu in the Alarm Rules section. If you turn the Device Specific tab on, the Missed Reports will be applied to the whole device you are configuring. This is the primary user case of Missed Reports in most cases, and when it is turned on, the Missed Reports alarm will be applied to all the metrics in this device.
If you turn the Device Specific tab off, you may apply the Missed Reports only to some specific metrics. This is useful, for example, in cases where you want to monitor whether the Modbus sensor is active. Apply the Missed Reports to metrics provided by the Modbus sensor, and if the metrics do not report in a desirable amount of time, the Modbus sensor may be offline.
After preliminary settings, press the + Add threshold button to continue.
Severity lets the user select the right severity setting for this threshold level. Severities are configured separately in the Alarm Severity section in the Configurations tab. Alarm Severities must be done before you can further configure the threshold settings. For Missed Reports, recommended is to set Severities matching Threshold as follows:
Threshold value (hours) lets the user to select the time in hours the cloud needs to be not receiving reports for the notification to trigger. Usual Reporting Period is hour or two. We recommend having 24 hours as Missed Report interval as a minimum baseline, as then more minor network issues do not disturb the Missed Reports notifications. The relative Threshold value is recommended to be multiplier to the Reporting Period, usually multiple times larger. The absolute minimum threshold value is one hour. However, if using leave parameter, the absolute minimum threshold becomes viable. The usage for leave -parameter will be covered more a little later in the example section.
Margin section is not relevant to Missed Reports Alarm type, and thus should be set to 0.
Time hysteresis section is not relevant to Missed Reports Alarm Type and thus should be set to 0.
Notify on should be selected as enter when you are making Missed Reports and want to make an alarm that triggers when the time limit reaches a certain threshold. Enter should be used as a default, except when you are making a Leave notification. Please see the last example below.
Configuration Examples
When the terminal is offline
- Severity
- Notification (Yellow)
- Threshold value (hours)
- 24
- Margin
- 0
- Time hysteresis
- 0
- Notify on
- Enter
This example above would produce a Notification level Missed Report notification 24 hours after not receiving reports with Notification severity settings. With this template, you can make more Missed Report notifications at different intervals. For example:
- Severity
- Warning (Orange)
- Threshold value (hours)
- 72
- Margin
- 0
- Time hysteresis
- 0
- Notify on
- Enter
Missed Report above would produce a yellow Warning level severity notification after 3 days (72 hours).
- Severity
- Critical (Red)
- Threshold value (hours)
- 168
- Margin
- 0
- Time hysteresis
- 0
- Notify on
- Enter
This Missed Report would produce a red Critical level severity notification after 1 week (168 hours)
When the terminal gets back online
- Severity
- Leave (Green)
- Threshold value (hours)
- 1
- Margin
- 0
- Time hysteresis
- 0
- Notify on
- Leave
It is possible to configure Missed Reports to give you an indication when the terminal gets back online. This feature helps you to keep track of when the terminal reports again, so you do not need to check online from time to time again if it is working again or not. As with other Missed Reports, you may get notifications when the terminal gets back online.
For this, you need to make a severity-level notification, which we have given green colour in this example. We’ve used a threshold of 1 hour to get a response as fast as possible to know that the terminal reports again.
Device Manager configuration
After configuring the Missed Reports in the Configuration tab, you still need to attach them to the device level to which you wish to apply the Missed Reports and publish them. Please refer to the Alarm how-to articles How to attach an alarm to a metric and How to publish an alarm to a device for more information.