Alarms

This section describes what an alarm is within the Nexus platform and outlines the key properties that describe each alarm instance, including a description of its lifecycle.

An alarm in the Nexus platform represents a system-detected condition that requires attention. Alarms are raised by the Device Monitoring component in the Nexus platform, when anomalies are detected. For example when monitored values exceed defined thresholds, communication fails, or system errors occur. Alarms are persistent entities with rich metadata to support tracking, filtering, and resolution across the entire platform.

Each alarm includes a set of core properties that uniquely identify it, describe its origin, and determine its importance. These properties also defines the state of the alarm—those are covered in the separate Alarm Lifecycle section.

Alarm Properties

Property	Description
Id	A globally unique identifier for the alarm, also used as a human-readable name. This format ensures that alarms are uniquely traceable across distributed systems. It is structured as: {device id}.{property}
Area	A logical grouping that describes the source context of the alarm. Typically set to Device, but can also represent broader scopes such as a customer, system group, or hierarchical structure.
TimeOn	The UTC timestamp when the alarm was first triggered (entered the alarm state). This marks the beginning of the current alarm incident.
TimeOff	The UTC timestamp when the alarm condition returned to normal. If this value is null, the alarm is still active.
Source	Indicates the component type where the alarm originated. This could be a module on an edge device, a data connector, or a backend service.
SourceReference	A detailed path to the specific origin of the alarm. For example:{management endpoint name}/{device id}/{module id} This reference is used for correlation and root-cause analysis.
Priority	A numeric indicator of the alarm's severity. Lower values indicate higher criticality (e.g., 1 = critical, 999 = low priority). Priority helps operators sort and triage alarms based on operational impact.

These properties enable precise filtering, auditing, and escalation, ensuring that each alarm is actionable and traceable within its operational context.