The IAO/NSO will ensure that alarms are categorized by severity using the following guidelines:
- Critical and major alarms are given when a condition that affects service has arisen. For a critical alarm, steps must be taken immediately in order to restore the service that has been lost completely.
- A major alarm indicates that steps must be taken as soon as possible because the affected service has degraded drastically and is in danger of being lost completely.
- A minor alarm indicates a problem that does not yet affect service, but may do so if the problem is not corrected.
- A warning alarm is used to signal a potential problem that may affect service.
- An indeterminate alarm is one that requires human intervention to decide its severity.