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Manage Alert Configurations

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Overview

An alert configuration defines the conditions that trigger an alert and the alert’s notification methods. This tutorial describes how to create and manage the alert configurations for a specified group. To create and manage global alert configurations, see Global Alerts.

Default Alert Configurations

Ops Manager creates the following alert configurations for a group automatically upon creation of the group:

If you enable Backup, Ops Manager creates the following alert configurations for the group, if they do not already exist:

Default Settings for Notification Options

Group administrators can configure default settings for the following notification options:

  • PagerDuty
  • Flowdock
  • HipChat
  • Slack
  • Webhook

To configure default settings for one of the above notification options, select the Settings tab and then select the Group Settings page. Locate the notification option and enter the default values.

Ops Manager will fill in the default values automatically when a user selects that option when creating an alert configuration.

Considerations

SMS Delivery

Many factors may affect alert delivery, including do not call lists, caps for messages sent or delivered, delivery time of day, and message caching.

Check with your telephone service contract for the costs associated with receiving text messages.

If you choose SMS, Ops Manager sends alert text messages to all users in the group who have filled in their mobile numbers for their accounts.

Alert Intervals

You can create multiple alert configurations with different frequencies. The minimum frequency for an alert is 5 minutes.

The time between re-notifications increases by the frequency amount every alert cycle up to a maximum of 24 hours. For example, if the frequency amount is 5 minutes, and the alert condition is first triggered at 9am, subsequent alerts occur at 9:05am, 9:15am, 9:30am, etc.

You can set the time to elapse before Ops Manager sends an alert after an alert condition occurs. This helps eliminate false positives.

Procedures

These procedures apply to alert configurations assigned to a specific group. For global alert configurations, see Global Alerts.

Create a New Alert Configuration

When you create a new alert configuration you have the option of using an existing configuration as a template.

1

Select the Activity tab.

2

Click the ellipsis icon and select Alert Settings.

3

Select whether to use an existing alert as a template.

Do one of the following:

  • To use an existing alert configuration as a template, click the configuration’s ellipsis icon and select Clone.
  • To create the alert without pre-filled information, click the Add button and select New Alert.
4

Select the condition that triggers the alert.

In the Alert if section, select the target component. If you select Host, select the type of host. Then select the condition and, if applicable, the threshold for the metric. For explanations of alert conditions and metrics, see Alert Conditions.

5

Apply the alert to specific targets, if applicable.

If the options in the For section are available, you can optionally filter the alert to apply only to a subset of the targets by selecting Hosts where ….

Of the available filter conditions, is, is not, contains, does not contain, starts with, and ends with use direct string comparison, while matches uses regular expressions.

The For options are only available for replica sets and hosts.

6

Select the alert recipients and delivery methods.

In the Send to section, configure notifications. To add notifications or recipients, click Add and select from the options listed below. To test a notification, click the test link that appears after you configure the notification.

Notification Option Description
Group (group or global alerts only) Sends the alert by email or SMS to the group. If you select SMS, Ops Manager sends the text message to the number configured on each user’s Account page. To send only to specific roles, deselect All Roles and select the desired roles.
Ops Manager User Sends the alert by email or SMS to a specified Ops Manager user. If you select SMS, Ops Manager sends the text message to the number configured on the user’s Account page.
SNMP Host Specify the hostname that will receive the v2c trap on standard port 162. The MIB file for SNMP is available for download here.
Email Sends the alert to a specified email address.
HipChat Sends the alert to a HipChat room message stream. Enter the HipChat room name and API token.
Slack Sends the alert to a Slack channel. Enter the channel name and either an API token or a Bot token. To create an API token, see the https://api.slack.com/web page in your Slack account. For information on Bot users in Slack, see https://api.slack.com/bot-users.
Flowdock

Sends the alert to a Flowdock account. Enter the following:

  • Org Name: The Flowdock organization name in lower-case letters. This is the name that appears after www.flowdock.com/app/ in the URL string.

  • Flow Name: The flow name in lower-case letters. The flow name appears after the org name in the URL string: www.flowdock.com/app/orgname/flowname.

    The flow name also appears in the “flow email address” setting in Flowdock. For example: flowname@example.flowdock.com.

  • User API Token: Your Flowdock “personal API token” found on the https://www.flowdock.com/account/tokens page of your Flowdock account.
PagerDuty

Sends the alert to a PagerDuty account. Enter only the PagerDuty service key. Define escalation rules and alert assignments directly in PagerDuty.

This option is available only for alerts that require acknowledgement. Informational alerts, such as the alert that a replica set has elected a new primary, cannot use this notification method.

Users can acknowledge PagerDuty alerts only from the PagerDuty dashboard.
Webhook (group alerts only) Sends an HTTP POST request to an endpoint for programmatic processing. The request body contains a JSON document that uses the same format as the Public API’s Alerts resource. This option is available only if you have configured Webhook settings on the Group Settings page.
Administrators (global or system alerts only) Sends the alert to the email address specified in the Admin Email Address field in the Ops Manager configuration options.
7

Click Save.

Modify an Alert Configuration

Each alert configuration has a distribution list, a frequency for sending the alert, and a waiting period after an alert state triggers before sending the first alert. The minimum frequency for sending an alert is 5 minutes.

1

Select the Activity tab.

2

Click the ellipsis icon and select Alert Settings.

3

On the line listing the alert configuration, click the ellipsis icon and select Edit.

4

Select the condition that triggers the alert.

In the Alert if section, select the target component. If you select Host, select the type of host. Then select the condition and, if applicable, the threshold for the metric. For explanations of alert conditions and metrics, see Alert Conditions.

5

Apply the alert to specific targets, if applicable.

If the options in the For section are available, you can optionally filter the alert to apply only to a subset of the targets by selecting Hosts where ….

Of the available filter conditions, is, is not, contains, does not contain, starts with, and ends with use direct string comparison, while matches uses regular expressions.

The For options are only available for replica sets and hosts.

6

Select the alert recipients and delivery methods.

In the Send to section, configure notifications. To add notifications or recipients, click Add and select from the options listed below. To test a notification, click the test link that appears after you configure the notification.

Notification Option Description
Group (group or global alerts only) Sends the alert by email or SMS to the group. If you select SMS, Ops Manager sends the text message to the number configured on each user’s Account page. To send only to specific roles, deselect All Roles and select the desired roles.
Ops Manager User Sends the alert by email or SMS to a specified Ops Manager user. If you select SMS, Ops Manager sends the text message to the number configured on the user’s Account page.
SNMP Host Specify the hostname that will receive the v2c trap on standard port 162. The MIB file for SNMP is available for download here.
Email Sends the alert to a specified email address.
HipChat Sends the alert to a HipChat room message stream. Enter the HipChat room name and API token.
Slack Sends the alert to a Slack channel. Enter the channel name and either an API token or a Bot token. To create an API token, see the https://api.slack.com/web page in your Slack account. For information on Bot users in Slack, see https://api.slack.com/bot-users.
Flowdock

Sends the alert to a Flowdock account. Enter the following:

  • Org Name: The Flowdock organization name in lower-case letters. This is the name that appears after www.flowdock.com/app/ in the URL string.

  • Flow Name: The flow name in lower-case letters. The flow name appears after the org name in the URL string: www.flowdock.com/app/orgname/flowname.

    The flow name also appears in the “flow email address” setting in Flowdock. For example: flowname@example.flowdock.com.

  • User API Token: Your Flowdock “personal API token” found on the https://www.flowdock.com/account/tokens page of your Flowdock account.
PagerDuty

Sends the alert to a PagerDuty account. Enter only the PagerDuty service key. Define escalation rules and alert assignments directly in PagerDuty.

This option is available only for alerts that require acknowledgement. Informational alerts, such as the alert that a replica set has elected a new primary, cannot use this notification method.

Users can acknowledge PagerDuty alerts only from the PagerDuty dashboard.
Webhook (group alerts only) Sends an HTTP POST request to an endpoint for programmatic processing. The request body contains a JSON document that uses the same format as the Public API’s Alerts resource. This option is available only if you have configured Webhook settings on the Group Settings page.
Administrators (global or system alerts only) Sends the alert to the email address specified in the Admin Email Address field in the Ops Manager configuration options.
7

Click Save.

Delete an Alert Configuration

If you delete an alert configuration that has open alerts, Ops Manager cancels the open alerts whether or not they have been acknowledged and sends no further notifications.

1

Select the Activity tab.

2

On the line listing the alert configuration, click the ellipsis icon and Delete.

3

Click Confirm.

Disable or Enable an Alert Configuration

When you disable an alert configuration, Ops Manager cancels active alerts related to the disabled configuration. The configuration remains visible but grayed-out and can be later re-enabled. If you need to disable an alert only for a period of time, you can alternatively suspend alerts.

To disable or enable an alert configuration:

1

Select the Activity tab.

2

On the line listing the alert configuration, click the ellipsis icon and select either Disable or Enable.

View the History of Changes to an Alert Configuration

1

Select the Activity tab.

2

Click the ellipsis icon and select Alert Settings.

3

On the line listing the alert configuration, click the ellipsis icon and select History.

Ops Manager displays the history of changes to the alert configuration.

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