PRTG Manual: SIMATIC S7-1200/1500 Alarm Status Sensor

Enabled Beta Sensors experimental feature

This sensor requires that the Beta Sensors experimental feature is enabled.

For more information, see the Knowledge Base: What are beta sensors and how can I use them?

S7 Web API

This sensor requires S7 Web API to be enabled on the device.

PLC firmware

This sensor requires as of PLC firmware 3.1 on S7-1500 Standard, T, F, and V CPUs, as of PLC firmware 4.1 on S7-1500 R/H CPUs, and as of PLC firmware 1.0 on S7-1200 G2 CPUs.

Credentials

This sensor requires credentials for the S7 Web API in settings that are higher in the object hierarchy. The user account must have read_diagnostics permissions.

IPv6

This sensor supports IPv6.

Performance impact

This sensor has a very low performance impact.

Scanning interval

This sensor has a fixed minimum scanning interval for performance reasons. You cannot use a shorter scanning interval. Consequently, shorter scanning intervals in the Monitoring settings are not available for this sensor.

• The minimum scanning interval of this sensor is 1 minute.
• The recommended scanning interval of this sensor is 5 minutes.

Lookups

This sensor uses lookups to determine the status values of one or more channels.

Limits

This sensor has predefined limits for one or several metrics.

Primary Channel

Select a channel from the list to define it as the primary channel. In the device tree, PRTG displays the last value of the primary channel below the sensor's name. The available options depend on what channels are available for this sensor.

You can set a different primary channel later by clicking below a channel gauge on the sensor's Overview tab.

Graph Type

Define how this sensor shows different channels:

• Show channels independently (default): Show a graph for each channel.
• Stack channels on top of each other: Stack channels on top of each other to create a multi-channel graph. This generates a graph that visualizes the different components of your total traffic.
  You cannot use this option in combination with manual Vertical Axis Scaling (available in the channel settings).

Stack Unit

This setting is only visible if you select Stack channels on top of each other above.

Select a unit from the list. PRTG stacks all channels with this unit on top of each other. By default, you cannot exclude single channels from stacking if they use the selected unit. However, there is an advanced procedure to do so.

Result Handling

Define what PRTG does with the sensor result:

• Discard result (default): Do not store the sensor result.
• Store result: Store the sensor result and the last response in the \Logs\sensors subfolder of the PRTG data directory on the probe system. The file name is Result of Sensor [ID].log. This setting is for debugging purposes. PRTG overwrites this file with each scanning interval.

This option is not available when the sensor runs on the hosted probe of a PRTG Hosted Monitor instance.

In a cluster, PRTG stores the result in the PRTG data directory of the master node.

[Module Name] Alarm Status

This channel is only available as of PLC firmware 4.1 and does not appear on redundant S7-1500 R/H systems.

The alarm status of a hardware module or the CPU, based on the system diagnostic alarms for this module

• Up status: Inactive
• Warning status: Active - Acknowledged
• Down status: Active - Unacknowledged
• Unknown status: Channel Value Not Set

A module without an active alarm reports Inactive.

Channel names correspond to the module names configured in the TIA Portal. The alarms of the CPU module also count toward the System Diagnostic Alarms channel. To monitor the operating state of the CPU, use the SIMATIC S7-1200/1500 CPU Status sensor.

Downtime

In the channel table on the Overview tab, this channel never shows any values. PRTG uses this channel in graphs and reports to show the amount of time in which the sensor was in the Down status.

Other Alarms

The number of active alarms that do not fall into the program alarms or system diagnostic alarms category, for example motion, security, sinumerik, graph7, or prodiag alarms

Program Alarms

The number of active program alarms

System Diagnostic Alarms

The number of active system diagnostic alarms

This channel counts the alarms of the CPU module as well.

Total Alarms

The total number of active alarms, regardless of category or acknowledgment status

Total Unacknowledged Alarms

The number of active alarms that are not yet acknowledged

Alarms without an acknowledgment object cannot be acknowledged. This channel excludes them.

This channel has default limits:

• Upper warning limit: 0

• Upper error limit: 1

This channel is the primary channel by default.