Communication to pagers, email, printer, SNMP, or Syslog destination - Metasys - LIT-12011279 - General System Information - Metasys System - 13.0

Network and IT Guidance Technical Bulletin
Product
Building Automation Systems > Building Automation Systems > Metasys System
Document type
Technical Bulletin
Document number
LIT-12011279
Version
13.0
Revision date
2023-09-29
Product status
Active

The system guarantees delivery of events from engines to a Metasys server, but this delivery guarantee does not extend to the DDA destinations: pagers, email accounts, printers, or SNMP destinations.

Consider the following:

  • Pagers: (Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol) - Delivery to the service provider is guaranteed. The service provider delivers to the final pager account as time permits. Pager functionality is not available on network engines at Release 9.0.7 or later, nor with any Metasys Server at Release 10.1 or later.

  • Email: (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - Delivery to the service provider is guaranteed. The service provider delivers to the final email account as time permits. The delivery may not be made for a number of reasons, including recipient mail server spam rules, or the service provider’s inability to communicate to the recipient mail server. At Release 10.1 or later, email functionality has been moved from the Metasys Server to the Remote Notifications feature in Metasys UI Online, but is still available if MVE is installed on the Metasys Server.

  • Printers: Information sent to a printer may not be delivered in a timely manner for a number of reasons, including printer offline or out-of-paper conditions. At Release 10.1or later, printer functionality has been moved from the Metasys Server to the Remote Notifications feature in Metasys UI Online, but is still available if MVE is installed on the Metasys Server.

  • SNMP: This delivery system uses UDP, which does not guarantee delivery. At Release 10.1 or later, SNMP functionality has been moved from the Metasys Server to the Remote Notifications feature in Metasys UI Online, but is still available if MVE is installed on the Metasys Server.

  • Syslog: The Syslog DDA implementation is UDP, not TCP. Therefore, any audits/events generated while the Syslog server is offline are not recorded at the Syslog server, even though the Metasys system, unable to determine the current status of the Syslog server, continues to send out messages. A gap in time is present between events when the Syslog server comes back online. At Release 10.1 or later, Syslog functionality has been moved from the Metasys Server to the Remote Notifications feature in Metasys UI Online, but is still available if MVE is installed on the Metasys Server.

Given the non-deterministic status of delivery, we recommended that physical fail-over measures be implemented as the primary safety control for critical activities.