In addition to the standard file-based alarm service, described in this section, there is a memory alarm service available. These two services should not run in the same station. Refer to About memory alarm service for details about the memory alarm service.

Each station may contain a single alarm service that coordinates the routing of alarms within the NiagaraAX framework and maintains the alarm database. The alarm service is available in the alarm palette, as shown in Figure 192.

If you do not have the alarm service in your active station, you can add it by dragging and dropping a copy from the alarm palette, as shown in Figure 193.

The alarm service may contain one or more alarm classes (refer to About alarm class for more information about alarm class). An alarm class may route alarms to one or more alarm recipient types (refer to Types of alarm recipients for more information about alarm recipient).

The routing process includes getting alarm acknowledgements from the recipients back to the source, and alarm notifications from the source to the recipients. The default view (wire sheet view) of the alarm service makes it easy to visualize the relationships between the alarm class and the alarm recipient. These relationships are created by linking the alarm class to the alarm recipient, as described in About alarm class. In addition to the wire sheet and property sheet views, there are several other views of the alarm service. See Types of alarm service views for a description of the alarm service views.