Notification Management

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, efficient alert and notification management is crucial for maintaining system stability and ensuring timely responses to critical issues. Our Notification Management feature provides a robust framework for applying various policies to manage alert notifications effectively.

By default, all correlated alerts will utilize the notification routing policy, ensuring consistency and efficiency in alert management. For rule-based alerts, users can configure notification channels and recipients directly within the alert rules. Alternatively, they can leverage the established notification routing policies, providing a centralized mechanism to manage notification channels and recipients without needing to adjust individual alert rules.

Key Features:

• Notification Routing Policy: Users can define comprehensive notification routing policies based on alert type, summary, tag, and other properties. This flexibility ensures that notifications are sent through the appropriate channels to the right recipients, optimizing response times and minimizing disruptions.
• Maintenance Windows Configuration: This feature allows the configuration of maintenance windows that mute alerts matching specific criteria. This ensures that non-critical alerts do not cause unnecessary interruptions during planned maintenance periods.

Benefits:

• Centralized Management: Streamline the management of notification channels and recipients, reducing the need for repetitive configuration changes.
• Enhanced Flexibility: Tailor notification policies to meet the specific needs of your organization, ensuring critical alerts reach the appropriate personnel promptly.
• Maintenance Optimization: Prevent unnecessary alert disruptions during maintenance windows, maintaining focus on critical tasks.

Accessing Notification Management

vuSmartMaps Alert Console can be accessed from the left navigation menu (Configure Observability > Notification Management).

Listing Page

The listing page looks like below.

• Route Name: The name given to a specific notification route.
• Route Category: The category under which the route falls, such as Journeys, Devices, etc.
• Severity: The severity level associated with the route, if applicable.
• Duration: The duration or condition that triggers the route, such as a time threshold.
• Recipients: The recipients or channels that will receive notifications for the route.
• Actions: Options to edit or delete the route configuration.
• + Button: Click on this button to create a new notification route.
• Test Route: Click on this to test if the notification route functions as defined.

Filter

The Notification Routes listing page allows you to filter routes based on various criteria, helping you quickly find and manage specific notification routes. Click on the checkbox to enable a particular filter.  Available filters include:

• Journeys: Filter routes associated with specific journeys. Eg: UPI Journey
• Applications: Filter routes related to particular applications. 
• Components: Filter routes concerning specific components. Eg: CBS
• Devices: Filter routes linked to certain devices based on the IP addresses
• Locations: Filter routes based on geographic or logical locations.
• Tags: Filter routes by specific tags assigned to alerts.
• Summary: Filter routes based on the summary content of alerts.
• Alert Content: Filter routes by the content of the alert.

Additionally, you can click on the Add Filters section and choose one or more criteria from the dropdown such as ‘Route Name’ or ‘Severity’ etc.

Prerequisites

For a Notification Route to take effect, make sure to include the condition use_notification_routing: true in the Advanced Configuration section of the Alert Contols while configuring the Alert Rules.

Create Notification Route

Step 1: Click on the ‘+’ button as shown below.

Step 2: Enter the Route Name based on the requirement. Eg: UPI

Step 3: Select Route Category from the dropdown. Eg: Journey for a UPI Journey

Step 4: Enter the Journeys name you would like to create a route for and click on Add as shown below. Example: UPI

Step 5: This is an optional step. Select severities from the dropdown such as Warning or Error etc for which the alert needs to be captured. 

Step 6: This is an optional step. You can set up alerts to be sent based on specific conditions like alert duration. Now, any UPI alert that lasts longer than 150 seconds will automatically be sent to the channels you selected.

To Select Duration, choose an operator from the “Select Operator” dropdown and choose the time. E.g.: 150 seconds.

Step 7: ‘Add Script’ is for advanced users. You can enable this option if you want to provide a Python script for the customization of the notification. This is similar to adding the Alert Evaluation Script during the Programmable Alert Configuration.

Step 8: ‘Select Channels’ allows you to manage how notifications are delivered. You can use email, WhatsApp, SMS, Runbook Automation, Slack, and MS Teams for communication. Configure recipients, groups, and message content to tailor alert content to your needs. This is similar to channel configuration in the Alerts.

Step 9: Click on Save. The new notification route is created and It will redirect you to the listing page.

The newly created Notification Route looks like this.

Notifications

Here are some notifications across multiple channels for different criteria.

Tickets:

Email:

MS Teams:

Slack:

Test Route

The Test Route button allows you to verify that a notification route is functioning as expected. By clicking this button, you can simulate an alert to ensure that notifications are delivered to the specified channels and recipients according to the defined route configuration. 

This feature is essential for validating the effectiveness of your notification routes before they are activated in a live environment.

Step 1: Click on the Test Route button as shown below.

Step 2: Select the Route Category from the drop-down. Example: Journeys or Devices

Step 3: Enter the Notification Route that you have created or you would like to test. And then click Run. It will show all the routes that match your criteria. It will work in the live environment only if it works here.

This concludes Notification Management.

Further Reading

• Alert Console