TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary

Alert Management in Freshservice is set up in 3 steps: 

  • First: Enabling the Alert Management module

  • Second: Integration of monitoring tool/s via a) Out-of-the-box integrations b) Custom integration using webhooks c) Email as a channel for alerts

  • Third: Setting up Alert Rules to automatically convert deserving alerts into incidents and routing them to the right agent group


First - Enabling the Alert Management module

Step: 1

Where: Admin > IT Operations Management. If your account has more than one workspace, navigate to Admin > {Worskpace Name} >  IT Operations Management

What: Select Alert Management


Step: 2

Where: Alert Management page

What: Select Enable Alert Management




Note: If you are a returning user i.e. the Alert Management module has been 'enabled' but the set up is incomplete, you will see two other icons in the IT Operations Management section in the Admin pane. They are Alert Rules and Monitoring Tools. 



Second: Integration of monitoring tools 

Step: 1

Where: Monitoring Tools page

What: Select Add Integration



Once you 'enable' the Alert Management module, the system will take you directly to the Monitoring Tools page.  

Note: If you are a returning user who has already 'enabled' the Alert Management module, head straight to the Monitoring Tools section by clicking the Monitoring Tools icon on the Admin pane to reach the Monitoring Tools page.

Step: 2

Where: Monitoring Tools page

What: Select the monitoring tool you want to integrate with. If it is not listed, select Email to use email as a channel to ingest alerts into Freshservice. Or select Webhook to create a custom integration.




For pre-built integrations

Step: 1

Where: Monitoring Tools page

What: For pre-built configurations, simply select the monitoring tool, copy the authorization details, and paste them into your monitoring tool to start receiving alerts in Freshservice. 




For custom integration using webhooks

Step: 1

Where: Monitoring Tools page

What: Select Webhooks and proceed.




Step: 2

Where: Alert integrations page

What: Name the integration, describe what it does (optional), and then copy the alert payload sent by the monitoring tool and paste it in the space provided. Select Next to proceed.




Step: 3

Where: New integration page

What: Map Alert Fields from the alert payload to the values used in Freshservice. This exercise ensures that all alerts from multiple monitoring tools, speak the same language.



Step: 4

Where: New integration page

What: Scroll down to map severity values used by your monitoring tool to those used in Freshservice.



Step: 5

Where: New integration page

What: Scroll down to choose the factors based on which incoming notification would be grouped to reduce alert noise. You can group notification based on Resource, Metric, Node, and Message values, by choosing a minimum of two values. Select Save when done.




Note: Freshservice automatically resolves alerts when the severity value turns ok. But if another related notification is received within 30 minutes, the alert is reopened. You can change this time interval by selecting advanced settings. You can also choose to undo automatic alert acknowledgement when an alert reopens. 




Step: 6

Where: Alert integrations page

What: Copy the authorization details and paste them in the monitoring tool to start receiving alerts in Freshservice.




For integration using email

Users can also ingest alerts into Freshservice using email as a channel. This option can be useful when your monitoring tool doesn't support integrating with Freshservice via webhooks. The incoming notifications from monitoring tools can be tracked as alerts and they can be turned into incidents via alert rules only when they are required to be actioned upon. This way, you can filter the signal from the noise. 

Learn how to use email as a channel for alerts in Freshservice.



Check integration status under the Activities tab

To refer to the status of the integration, head to the Activities tab in the Monitoring Tools list page. Here, you will see time stamped updates related to the activities related to your monitoring tools. This tab lists eight kinds of updates:

  1. New integration added & awaiting configuration at the tool end

  2. Integration has been enabled 

  3. Integration running successfully

  4. Integration has been disabled

  5. Integration has been deleted

  6. Errors resolved: Integration running successfully

  7. Authorization error: Ensure that the Freshservice header is included in the monitoring tool configuration and if the auth-key is correct

  8. Error: Ensure that the payload from the monitoring tool is in JSON format and is correct


These updates will help you better understand the status of your monitoring tool integration and fix errors if needed.





Third: Set up Alert Rule/s

Where: Admin page

What: Once you've enabled Alert Management, you will see new icon under the IT Operations Management tab. Select Alert Rules

Next, learn how to set up an Alert Rule.






View Alerts

Select the Alerts icon on the left nav to see the alerts list page. Here you will be able to view alerts from all your monitoring tools after noise reduction, in addition to associated incidents created using Alert Rules.