Applies To:
  • CitectSCADA 5.xx
Summary:
The SumDesc field on the Alarm Summary page does not retain the original value. All entries on the Alarm Summary page for an alarm will have the same description even if an embedded variable tag has changed value. 

Solution:
CIT has confirmed this to be a problem in Citect for Windows version 5.00. This problem has been fixed in version 5.00 Service Pack E and 5.01.

Please note however, that you must be running 5.00 Service Pack E or 5.01 on all computers otherwise you will experience corrupted Alarm Summary lists on computers running 5.00. This can be seen on the Alarm Summary page as "Bad Record Identifier" which will appear in the Alarm Summary entries. To keep compatibility until all computers have been upgraded, the fix is disabled by default. This is controlled by the Citect INI parameter [Alarm]VariableSumDesc on the Alarm Servers. Citect 5.01 Display Clients can accept data from both 5.00 and 5.01 Alarm Servers but they will only display the correct Alarm Summary Descriptions when talking to 5.01 Alarm servers with VariableSumDesc set to 1.

Given a Primary Alarm Server (Computer A), a Secondary Alarm Server (Computer B) and several Display Clients, all running Citect 5.00, an example upgrade path would be :

  1. Upgrade all Display Clients to 5.01.
  2. Shutdown Computer B and upgrade it to 5.01. Leave VariableSumDesc set to its default (0) and restart Citect.
  3. Shutdown Computer A and upgrade it to 5.01. Set VariableSumDesc to 1 and restart Citect.
  4. Shutdown Computer B. Set VariableSumDesc to 1 and restart Citect.

Note : Summary entries that have been saved to the alarm almsave.dat file while using 5.00 will appear as before when the upgrade to 5.01 has done completed. Only new entries will have the correct Summary Description.

 
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