The Metasys UI facilitates the following actions:
- Acting on alarms
- Use your computer or tablet to view and take action on Metasys system alarms with the Alarm Manager and Alarm Monitor. You can navigate directly from the Alarm Manager to the Building Network through a link, without having to manually search the network tree after finding the root cause of an alarm. Use your smartphone to view and take action on alarms in the Alarms list (Alarm Announcement) on your phone platform.
- Acting on faults
- Starting at Release 11.0, you can investigate and manage faults that occur on your site with the new Fault Detection and Fault Triage features, if these features are licensed. You can access these features through the Potential Problem Areas widget. Compared to alarms, faults utilize more system points, delays, and thresholds that are directly related to each individual fault. Fault Triage provides a unique view, which provides additional information on a particular fault, corrective actions in the order of their likeliness to resolve the issue, a description of the fault, charting of supporting data, and an activity log to track progress. Fault Triage also enhances the sorting order and information in the Faults tab of the Potential Problem Areas widget to introduce fault occurrences and durations to better drive the most problematic issues to the top of the list.
- Adding, deleting, and configuring objects
- Starting at Release 11.0, you can manage objects in Metasys UI Online directly. You can add, delete, and configure objects directly from the Building Network tree in Metasys UI. You can add, delete, and configure the following objects: integrations, devices and point objects, trends, alarms, schedules, and scheduled items. Managing objects was previously supported in SMP only. Creating an item in Metasys UI does not require switching between different views, resulting in a more streamlined and efficient workflow as compared to SMP.
- Adding annotations
- You can add an annotation of 1–255 characters that may be used to describe any operational tasks that should be performed in response to the cause or condition that prompted the event message. You can add and view annotations to commands (user change), alarm instances, and system changes. In addition to user-defined annotations, discards and acknowledgments of alarms display as annotations. Administrators can also choose to enforce annotations. Moreover, users can select annotations from a list of preset annotations, if they were configured in SMP.
- Advanced search, commanding in bulk, modifying in bulk, reporting, and smart filtering
- The Advanced Search and Reporting feature brings powerful insights to all Metasys users by providing an intuitive and easy method to gather and analyze data. Users can quickly search for data across the Building Network tree or by spaces or equipment. Using a series of filters, including wildcards, you can refine your search results. For example, you can search for all zone temperature points in a specific space.
- Authorizing users within the Metasys UI
- With Space Authorization within the Metasys UI, you can explicitly grant access to specific spaces, which indirectly grants access to equipment serving the spaces.
- Commanding with integrated priority array
- A Commanding dialog view with integrated Priority Array identifies the current command priorities. This helps operators troubleshoot issues faster by making it easier for them to determine what command priority is currently active on a point object. In addition, you can navigate directly from the Commanding dialog to the Building Network through a link, without having to manually search the network tree after finding the root cause of an alarm or other issue. For a list of all supported commands refer to List of objects and supported commands table in the Metasys UI Help (LIT-12011953) .
- Configuring the routing and filtering of event and audit messages within the Metasys UI and sending announcements
- With the Remote Notifications feature you can configure the routing and filtering of event and audit messages directly in the Metasys UI for each server or engine, without installing software on client machines. The Remote Notifications feature is known as the Destination Delivery Agents (DDAs) feature in SMP. Starting at Release 10.1, all Server Remote Notifications are created and modified in Metasys UI and no longer in SMP. However, SMP management of Server DDAs is still available for MVE sites. Starting at Release 11.0, administrators can also configure announcements with the Remote Notifications feature in Metasys UI Online. The Send Announcement feature facilitates mass communication. For example, you can announce a scheduled downtime due to system upgrades or maintenance to all Metasys users.
- Creating and managing graphics
- Use the Graphics Manager and Graphics Editor to create and manage graphics and their associations for the Metasys UI graphics. You can import and export Custom Symbols into the Graphics Library with the Custom Symbols Library. Custom Symbol Libraries integrate seamlessly with the base graphics package. With the Graphics Manager, you can also manage associations for supported legacy graphics. When the graphics are associated with a space, equipment, or equipment definition, you can view the graphics on the associated Equipment dashboard or Space dashboard. You can bind graphics to an equipment definition with the Graphics Association Manager for Aliased Graphics feature, so that all equipment associated with that definition will be assigned the graphic automatically. You can also bind Network Tree items to graphics with the Building Network Tree binding option in the Graphics Editor. The binding tree is context-sensitive, which ensures that the binding tree opens to the appropriate space or equipment when the user launches the Graphics Editor from a particular space or equipment. Lastly, you can edit an existing path that was drawn with the drawing tool with the Path Tool editing feature.
- Custom behaviors
- A Custom Behavior is a user-defined behavior made up of an effect, trigger, and optional rule. A Custom Behavior can be applied to a shape, symbol, element of a symbol, or image. With Custom Behaviors you can create custom symbols to meet unique operational needs.
- Custom dashboards
- Custom dashboards allow Metasys UI designers to customize their dashboards by the widgets to include, the widget order, the widget appearance, and by device type (desktop, tablet, and phones). These custom dashboards can be applied to all spaces and equipment, including spaces (by type) and equipment (by definition).
- Learning about potential problem areas
- The Potential Problem Areas widget provides a single display showing all items in alarm, warning, overridden, out of service, and offline statuses within a space. This display lets you filter and view data that is important to you. Starting at Release 11.0, you can also use this widget to investigate and manage faults that occur on your site, if faults are licensed. The Potential Problem Areas widget can be used as a daily punch list to manage buildings more efficiently.
- Learning about security-related issues and system issues
- The Cyber Health Dashboard provides a comprehensive summary of system security risks, system status details, and user activity information. The dashboard provides a Metasys Administrator with a centralized view of security-related issues or system issues which are detectable by a Metasys Server, but which may not surface as part of general system alarms. The Administrator can also see out-of-date software at one glance. The information is grouped into critical issues, potential risks, and informational items. Administrators can export Cyber Health Dashboard data in the form of a .pdf report. The Cyber Health Dashboard is supported on desktop, tablets, and smartphones; and can be accessed through the Administrative Tasks in the User menu.
- Managing schedules
- You can edit and view schedules associated with a space or a piece of equipment. Schedules provide a visual representation of the monitored systems that enable you to quickly check if a schedule associated with your space is enabled or disabled. The Schedule widget provides a summary of how a space is affected by a scheduling strategy so that you can understand the complete picture. The Schedule widget also provides a way to view effective schedule information for a specific date in the future, so that you can ensure it is set up correctly.
- Managing users and roles within the Metasys UI
-
The User Management feature facilitates the creation and management of users and their roles, category-based permissions, and privileges directly in Metasys UI Online, without the need to install software on client machines. Administrators can create and manage user details for Metasys local users and Active Directory users.
Starting at Release 11.0, Active Directory includes Microsoft® Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), including two-factor authentication (2FA) when you configure the ADFS Server for 2FA, in addition to Active Directory LDAP authentication. When you enable ADFS authentication in the User Management feature, Metasys UI Online users with an Active Directory Metasys user account have a way to authenticate through their company-provided sign-in process rather than entering their credentials into the Metasys UI Login page. This provides an opportunity for a single sign-on (SSO) experience for Metasys UI users when the required SSO conditions are met. It also provides the ability for the customer to enforce two-factor authentication for Metasys UI Online users. Also new at Release 11.0 is the ability to create a user who can access the public Application Programming Interface (API).
- Navigating by Building Network
- The Building Network provides access to all objects using an alternative navigation tree to the Spaces tree. The Building Network organizes objects according to the Metasys component hierarchy, similar to the All Items tree in the Site Management Portal (SMP). The Building Network supports a Focus view, Summary view, Network view, Relationships view, and Trend view. Objects listed in the Building Network tree are identified by name and by icons, that support Global Status indicators.
- Navigating by Spaces
- Spaces help you organize the information displayed for the Metasys system into physical locations (a campus and buildings) and areas within those locations (floors, zones, and rooms). The hierarchy resembles the physical world to help you navigate your Metasys system. Each space has a hierarchical relationship to other spaces, and a served-by relationship to the equipment that provides services to the space.
- Navigating by User menu
- Access Advanced Search & Reporting, System Activity, Administrative Tasks, Help, My Profile, and Log Out in the User menu.
- Receiving software update notifications and licensing notifications
-
Starting at Release 11.0, you receive software update notifications that identify software updates for ADS/ADX, ADS-Lite A, ADS-Lite E, and OAS. This includes software updates for patches, minor releases, and major releases. Software Manager data is thereby displayed directly in the Metasys UI.
As an Administrator user, you receive a notification in the form of a message on the Metasys UI screen when a license has expired or when a license is about to expire in the next 14 days.
- Searching by space and equipment
- You can search for the exact string that is contained in the space or equipment name. For example, if you search floor, the results include any space or equipment with the word floor contained in the name of any given space. Or, if you search fan, the results include any equipment with the word fan. You can also search words and phrases with varying case and obtain the same search results.
- Show Involvement
- Starting at Release 11.0, you can use the Involvement widget to see a visual representation of how objects are related and impacting one another in the Metasys system. Operators can determine more easily if troubleshooting is needed and they can identify everything that could impact an object's controlled state and everything that an object could impact. This makes the troubleshooting process faster and more efficient.
- Usage Analytics
- Usage Analytics is a usage statistics feature that collects information on how building operators use Metasys UI and what types of devices they use to access it. This helps improve the Metasys experience by providing insights to Metasys developers on how operators navigate and interact with Metasys software. You can enable or disable Usage Analytics in the Metasys UI either at the site level or the user level. As an Administrator, you can enable Usage Analytics at both levels. As a Non-Administrator, you can only enable Usage Analytics at the user level, provided that the Administrator has already enabled Usage Analytics for the entire Metasys site.
- Viewing a site by dashboards
- The Space dashboard provides a comprehensive summary of the selected space, including the equipment that serves the space and potential problem areas in the space. The Equipment dashboard provides a cohesive summary of a selected piece of equipment. Information displayed includes alarm history, user change history, historical trend information, and relationships with other equipment and spaces.
- Viewing Legacy Graphics+ Graphics and Standard Graphics
- You can view graphics associated with a space or a piece of equipment. Graphics provide a visual representation of the monitored systems that enable you to quickly check the status of spaces or equipment and recognize unusual system conditions. Graphics can be designed to allow you to navigate to buildings, floors, and other areas, and to view building systems and control processes.
- Viewing system-level activity
- Starting at Metasys Release 11.0, you can view and manage all audits that are forwarded from an engine to a Metasys server directly in Metasys UI with System Activity. The audit data is presented in the form of a time line in System Activity. The feature helps you understand changes that have occurred in the Metasys system over a period of time.
- Viewing trends and trend studies through the Custom Trend viewer and the Trend widget
-
With the Custom Trend viewer you can view historical trend data for up to 10 points on computer platforms and tablets, and up to four points on smart phones for several pieces of equipment configured for the Metasys UI. With the Trend widget you can view historical trend data for up to 10 points for a single piece of equipment. The Trend widget can also plot points from the equipment being served by the equipment you are currently viewing. You can view trended data points on up to three different charts at once. This helps operators visualize trended points of drastically different ranges.
Starting at Release 11.0, you can use the Trend Study feature to save points plotted on a trend graph, the trend graph type, and the trends' date and time range for review at a later time. This saves you time, as you are not required to recreate trend graphs. The Trend Study Manager is the single point of entry to create and edit Metasys UI trend studies. Also starting at Release 11.0, you can plot real time trend values for any trendable object that does not have a trend extension on its default attribute. This functionality is called live trending. Further enhancements include an increased total sample limit of 50,000 objects, instead of having 600 samples per trend; the ability to choose between raw or aggregate data; and the ability to select points from anywhere in the Spaces tree or Building Network tree when you use the Custom Trend viewer.
- Viewing user details, system privileges, and category access
- The My Profile feature shows the user details, system privileges, and category access for the logged-in user. The details shown in My Profile are based on the details entered in User Management. When authorized users edit their profile information in My Profile, their profile details are automatically updated in User Management.