The alarm class is maintained by the alarm extension and all alarm classes available to the system are maintained as slots on the alarm service. The alarm class routes alarms with some similar set of properties along common routes and they serve as channels for like data. Alarm class manages the persistence of the alarms as needed via the alarm archive, but otherwise merely chains alarms from the alarm source via a topic. The alarm class also manages which alarms require acknowledgement and is the basis for visual grouping in the alarm console.

The alarm classes are located under the alarm service node in the nav side bar, as shown in Figure 233.

You can set up multiple alarm classes in order to have a variety of alarming and routing options available for selection from the alarm extension properties. For example, you may set up an alarm class that routes to the console recipient and station recipient, while you may use another alarm class that routes alarms only to an email recipient, as shown in Figure 234.

For more information about alarm recipients, refer to Types of alarm recipients. For information about configuring alarm classes, refer to About alarm class properties.