Understanding Monitoring Alerts and Notifications

Understanding Monitoring Alerts and Notifications

Effective alert management ensures you're notified of issues without being overwhelmed by notifications. This guide explains how Faciotech's monitoring alerts work and how to configure them optimally.

Types of Alerts

Downtime Alerts

Triggered when your website becomes unavailable:

• Down notification - Sent when site goes offline
• Up notification - Sent when site recovers
• Still down reminder - Periodic reminder while offline

Performance Alerts

Triggered by slow response times:

• Slow response warning - Site is loading slowly
• Performance recovered - Speed returned to normal

SSL Alerts

• Certificate expiring - Warning before SSL expires
• Certificate error - Invalid or misconfigured SSL

Alert Channels

Email Notifications

The default alert method. Includes:

• Monitor name and URL
• Current status
• Response time (if applicable)
• Error details
• Time of incident

SMS Notifications

For critical alerts requiring immediate attention:

• Shorter message format
• Faster delivery than email
• Ideal for on-call staff

Webhook Notifications

For integration with other systems:

• Slack channels
• Discord servers
• Custom applications
• Incident management tools

Configuring Alert Settings

Alert Threshold

How many consecutive failures before alerting:

• 1 failure - Immediate alert (may cause false positives)
• 2-3 failures - Recommended (balances speed and accuracy)
• 4+ failures - Very conservative (may delay real alerts)

Alert Delay

Time to wait before sending the alert:

• Immediate - Alert as soon as threshold is met
• 5-10 minutes - Filters out brief outages

Repeat Interval

How often to resend alerts while issue persists:

• Never - Only alert once
• 15-30 minutes - Regular reminders
• 1 hour - Less frequent reminders

Alert Management Best Practices

Avoid Alert Fatigue

• Set appropriate thresholds to prevent false positives
• Group related monitors to reduce duplicate alerts
• Use escalation policies for critical systems
• Review and tune alerts regularly

Alert Escalation

For critical systems, consider escalation:

1. First alert - Primary contact via email
2. After 15 min - Add SMS to primary contact
3. After 30 min - Alert secondary contact
4. After 1 hour - Alert management

Maintenance Windows

Pause alerts during planned maintenance:

1. Go to your monitor settings
2. Click "Schedule Maintenance"
3. Set start and end time
4. Monitoring continues but alerts are suppressed

Reading Alert Details

Down Alert Contains:

[DOWN] Main Website - yourdomain.com

Status: DOWN
URL: https://yourdomain.com
Error: Connection timeout
Time: 2024-01-15 14:32:00 UTC
Duration: Ongoing

Check your server status or contact support.

Recovery Alert Contains:

[UP] Main Website - yourdomain.com

Status: UP
URL: https://yourdomain.com
Response Time: 450ms
Time: 2024-01-15 14:47:00 UTC
Downtime Duration: 15 minutes

Your website is back online.

Responding to Alerts

When You Receive a Down Alert

1. Don't panic - verify the issue first
2. Try accessing your site from different networks
3. Check server status in your Client Area
4. Review recent changes that might have caused issues
5. Contact support if you can't identify the problem

When You Receive a Slow Alert

1. Check if it's a temporary spike
2. Review server resource usage
3. Check for traffic spikes or attacks
4. Consider optimization or upgrade if persistent

Contact Management

Adding Alert Contacts

1. Go to Monitoring → Alert Contacts
2. Click "Add Contact"
3. Enter name, email, and optional phone
4. Set which monitors should alert this contact

Alert Contact Types

• Primary - First to receive all alerts
• Secondary - Backup when primary doesn't respond
• Group - Multiple people for critical systems

Need Help?

If you need assistance with alerts or are experiencing issues, contact our support team.