How to create an alert configuration

An alert configuration decides who gets notified when an alarm fires, and when they get notified. The alarm says something is wrong; the alert configuration says who should know about it.

A configuration has three parts: which alarms it covers, which alert groups are responsible at which times, and any exceptions plus a fallback group.

You need write access to create alert configurations. With read access only, the Create button is not visible. Some organizations also require an administrator role.

Before you start

The alert groups have to exist before you can assign them. If you haven't created them yet, do that first — see How to create an alert group.

How to create an alert configuration

• Open the building you want to work on. See How to switch building and search for a building.

• Go to Incidents > Alert configuration in the sidebar.

• Click Create in the top right.

• Fill in Name. The field is required, and the name is how you will recognize the configuration in the list.

• Under Alarms, choose how the alarms are picked:

• Select alarms — you pick the building's alarms manually.

• Query alarms — you set criteria such as Severity and Category, and every alarm matching them is covered. Properate shows how many alarms match your criteria as you work.

• Leave Mute off. See the section below on what it does.

• Consider Smart alert throttling. With it on, if one alarm fires repeatedly over a short period, Properate groups the alerts into a summary instead of sending one message per event. Other alarms in the configuration are still delivered normally.

• Under Should be assigned to these groups:, click Add group rule. Pick the group to notify and the time period the rule covers. Use Add time to give the same group several time periods, and add more group rules if responsibility shifts through the week.

• For each group, choose whether everyone is notified at once with Notify all, or in turn with Notify by priority.

• Click Create.

You get the confirmation Alert configuration created, and the configuration appears in the list.

Note: The Responsible group column in the list shows which group is responsible right now, not every group in the configuration. An empty column means no group rule covers this moment — and then nobody gets notified.

How to add exceptions and a fallback group

Exceptions are for times when nobody should be notified, for example planned maintenance. A fallback group catches alerts nobody in the responsible group has acknowledged.

• Open the configuration from the list.

• Under Exceptions:, click Add exception rule and set the time period under Don't send on.

• Under Fallback group:, click Add fallback group, pick the group and set the timeout — that is, how long Properate waits before passing the alert on.

• Click Save.

What does "Mute" do?

With Mute on, no messages are sent from this configuration, even if an alarm fires inside the alert period. The alarm is still recorded in Properate, but nobody is told. Use it when you want to quiet a configuration temporarily rather than delete it, and remember to switch it off again. Muted configurations are marked in the list.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know the alerting actually works?

Open the configuration and use Send test notification to current responsible groups. That confirms the right people get the alert on the right channel. You have to wait five minutes between test notifications.

If Properate finds no responsible group or no responsible people for that moment, the message says the test notification will not notify anyone. That points to a gap in your group rules, not a fault in the test.

What happens to alarms that aren't in any alert configuration?

They are recorded in Properate, but nobody is notified. The summary at the top of the page shows Alarm configurations without alerts:, so you can see how many are in that state.

Can I select as many categories as I like under "Query alarms"?

No, six categories per configuration at most. If you need more, create another configuration.

Tip!

Set up group rules that cover the whole week, evenings and weekends included, before putting the configuration to use. A gap in coverage doesn't show up as an error — it only shows as an empty Responsible group column at the moment the alarm actually fires.