When an observation alarm is created (as a result of the observation monitoring action alarm) it must be created with acknowledgment obligations.

In the observation monitoring action create observation alarm the acknowledgment obligations are assigned to users and/or user groups. When an alarm is actually raise all specified users (including all members of the specified user groups at that specific point in time) are assigned an acknowledgment obligation.

If only user groups are obliged to acknowledge an alarm it can happen that when the alarm is raised those user groups do not have any members. In this case the alarm will not be raised.

An alarm is considered acknowledged if one of the obliged users actively acknowledges the alarm.

The observation monitoring action can also define the maximum time span in which users shall acknowledge an observation alarm. Observation alarms that are not acknowledged during that time are considered as overdue acknowledgments.

Observation alarms that need acknowledgment can be acknowledged by any user having acknowledgment obligation and by by users with the system permission Acknowledge all observation alarms (20). When acknowledging an observation the acknowledging user can add an acknowledging comment. This comment is immutable after acknowledgment.

As soon as one user has acknowledged an observation alarm the alarm is considered as acknowledged. Each observation alarm can only be acknowledged by one user.