Schneider Geo SCADA SMS notifications & alarms – integration manual

Here we describe how to use SMSEagle Hardware SMS Gateway with Schneider Geo SCADA Expert (formerly known as ClearSCADA) for sending SMS notifications & alarms.

SMSEagle is an offline hardware SMS gateway. Therefore no external connection to 3rd party system is required. All notifications are generated on-premise and sent directly to a cellular network. This solution can be used in secure installations without Internet access.

Setup is easy and should take 10-15min to complete.

SMSEagle Setup

This integration will use Email To SMS plugin (see details: Email To SMS plugin). This plugin is included in each version of SMSEagle device.

• Enable Email To SMS plugin in SMSEagle web-gui

Schneider Geo SCADA Setup

1. To successfully redirect an alarm by forwarding the details in an e-mail:
   • The servers on your system have to be configured to send e-mail messages.
     • Access the Geo SCADA Expert Server Configuration Tool.
     • Expand the System Configuration branch of the tree-structure.
     • Select E-Mail to display the E-Mail settings.
     • Make sure that Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server is configured
     • If you don’t have Outgoing Mail (SMTP) server configured, you may use SMSEagle as SMTP server (see notes below). In such case use the following configuration:
     • In the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) section, define these settings:
       • Server: IP address of your SMSEagle device
         
       • Port: 25
       • Timeout: 2000
       • Use secure connection: None (alternatively you can choose TLS for better encryption)
       • Name: Enter the name that is displayed in the From field in each message sent. For example: GeoSCADA
       • E-Mail Address: noreply@localhost
   • The database items for which alarms might need redirecting have to be assigned geographical coordinates (if your system uses Geo SCADA Expert’s Geographical Location features and alarms are to be redirected to users that are in the relevant geographical region)
   • The users to which you want to send e-mails must have:
     • Geographical regions within which they are ‘responsible’ for alarms (if alarms are to be redirected to users that are in the relevant region) (see Assign Regions of Responsibility)
     • Geographical coordinates (if Geo SCADA Expert is to compare a user’s geographical location with an alarm’s region when determining to whom alarms should be redirected)
     • Configured User e-mail accounts for Email To SMS redirection:
       • Display the relevant User Form (to define the settings that apply to an individual User account)
       • Select the Contact Information tab
       • Define the e-mail contact settings in the E-Mail Contact section:

         

         a) In the E-Mail Contact field, enter an e-mail address in the following form:

         PHONE_NUMBER@IP_ADDRESS_OF_SMSEAGLE
         Where:
         PHONE_NUMBER is a destination phone number
         IP_ADDRESS_OF_SMSEAGLE is the IP address of your device
         For example: 123456789@192.168.0.101

         Or
         NAME_IN_PHONEBOOK@IP_ADDRESS_OF_SMSEAGLE
         Where:
         NAME_IN_PHONEBOOK is a username or group name (must be a public group) from SMSEagle’s phonebook
         IP_ADDRESS_OF_SMSEAGLE is the IP address of your device.
         For example: db-admins@192.168.0.101

         b) Select the Send Using Plain Text Only check box to enforce plain text only e-mails

2. Display the Action Form for the E-mail Action that you want to configure (select the View tab on the ViewX ribbon > Database > right-click on the redirection action in the Database Bar > E-Mail Action tab)
3. Select the E-Mail Action tab.

   

3. Use the Inhibit Action combo box to define under what circumstances Geo SCADA Expert should be inhibited from sending the e-mail
6. Use the Redirection Scheme combo box to specify whether you want to redirect alarms to users that are in the relevant region or suitable geographical location. If your system does not use Geo SCADA Expert’s Geographical Location, or you want to redirect alarms regardless of a users’ region or location, select the default option ‘User, Group or Roster‘.
7. The Send To field directly below the Redirection Scheme combo box only applies when the Redirection Scheme is set to the default option of ‘User, Group or Roster‘.
   If another Redirection Scheme option is selected, the Send To field is grayed out and unavailable for use.Use the Send To field to specify the User, User Group, or User Roster to which Geo SCADA Expert is to redirect alarms. To do this:
   • Select the browse button next to the Send To field.
     A Reference browse window is displayed.

     

   • Use the Reference browse window to locate and select the name of the required User, User Group, or User Roster
   • Select the OK button.
8. Regardless of the option chosen for the Redirection Scheme, use the E-Mail Contact combo box to specify to which e-mail the message is to be sent. Each user can be allocated up to four e-mail addresses through which they can be contacted. Select the email you created for Email2SMS in point 1 “Define the e-mail contact settings in the E-Mail Contact”.
12. Set the Alarm View check box to specify whether the e-mail is to include a hyperlink to the relevant Alarm View (if such a view exists for the item that is in alarm). Clear the check box if no hyperlink is required.
13. Enter the title of the e-mail in the Subject field.
    Regardless of the E-Mail’s format, the Subject is sent as 7-bit US-ASCII, a character set to which limitations apply (see Plain Text Format E-Mails).
14. Select the Message field.
    Enter the e-mail message. This can include trip sequences (see Trip Sequences Supported by Redirection Actions, and see Use Trip Sequences to Include Geographical Information).

    If the Send Using Plain Text Only feature is activated on the recipient’s user account, the recipient will only be sent e-mails in plain text format.

16. Save the configuration. Select the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar.
16. When you have configured the required E-Mail Actions, you can proceed to Configure Alarm Redirections for an Item or Group.

For more details about the Email Actions parameters, please read the documentation: Geo SCADA Define the E-Mail Action Details

SMSEagle as SMTP Server (optional)

As described in point 2 above, for sending e-mail messages you can use SMTP server installed on the SMSEagle device. In this scenario your email from Schneider EcoStruxure will be directly sent to SMSEagle (without using any external email servers). SMTP server on the SMSEagle device will accept messages addressed for it only. The other messages will be rejected.