  The Simons Observatory (SO) is a group of modern telescopes dedicated to
observing the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB), transients, and
more. The Observatory consists of four telescopes and instruments, with over
60,000 superconducting detectors in total, located at ~5,200 m altitude in the
Atacama Desert of Chile. During observations, it is important to ensure the
detectors, telescope platforms, calibration and receiver hardware, and site
hardware are within operational bounds. To facilitate rapid response when
problems arise with any part of the system, it is essential that alerts are
generated and distributed to appropriate personnel if components exceed these
bounds. Similarly, alerts are generated if the quality of the data has become
degraded. In this paper, we describe the SO alarm system we developed within
the larger Observatory Control System (OCS) framework, including the data
sources, alert architecture, and implementation. We also present results from
deploying the alarm system during the commissioning of the SO telescopes and
receivers.
