Create an APM alert

While similar to standard metric alerts, we designed APM alerts to monitor features of APM metrics. With APM alerts, you can set alerts at the service level for metrics: number of hits, errors, and various latency indicators.

To create an APM alert, complete these tasks:

Begin defining an APM alert

  1. In the Alerts interface, click Creae New Alert (Create New Alert).

  2. In the initial interface for creating alerts, Kloudfuse guides you to select the appropriate alert type.

    Choose APM.

  3. The Create APM Alert interface appears.

Step 1 Choose the detection method

APM alerts have these detection options:

Threshold alert

select Threshold alert

Anomaly detection

select Anomaly detection

Step 2 Pick a service and trigger type

Specify the service you plan to monitor, and its trigger.

alerts apm select service trigger

  1. Select the Service name (Service name), from the Pick a service(Pick a service) drop-down.

    Depending on the service and its configuration, the system displays its labels.

    alerts apm service

  2. Pick labels (Pick labels):

    1. Select a label from the next drop-down.

    2. Choose the comparison operator:

      =~

      Regex expression equal

      !~

      Regex expression not equal

      !=

      Not equal

      =

      Equal (default)

    3. Finally, select one of the possible values from the last drop-down in the grouping.

  3. Choose Trigger type (Trigger type) from the drop-down. The default is Request per Second, and other options are p50 Latency, p75 Latency, p90 Latency, p95 Latency, p99 Latency, Error rate, Min latency, Max latency, Average latency, and APDEX.

  4. Click the initial text field to select a metric from the drop-down.

  5. The chart of the metric over the time period appears.

You can proceed with these optional configurations:

Work with filters

  1. To add a new filter, select a label and add it to the metric view.

    Next to the From(From) tag, click the Add (Add) icon.

  2. In the expanded view, click the first Select (Select) option, and choose the new label from the drop-down.

  3. Choose the comparison operator:

    =~

    Regex expression equal

    !~

    Regex expression not equal

    !=

    Not equal

    =

    Equal (default)

  4. Finally, click the second Select (Select) option, and choose the label value from the drop-down.

  5. To add another filter, click the Add (Add) icon, and specify the new label.

    Remember that the filter selections combine using AND logic.

  6. To remove a filter, click the Delete (Delete) icon that corresponds to the label/value pair that you plan to remove.

  7. The filter no longer appears on the page.

Work with aggregations

  1. In the aggregation section, click avg, and select another aggregation calculation from the drop-down.

  2. The chart changes to show the newly selected aggregation of results.

  3. To aggregate over another dimension, in the metrics selector specify the aggregation by clicking Select, and choosing another metric option from the drop-down.

  4. To remove the aggregation, in the aggregation section click the Remove (Remove) icon.

Work with functions

  1. To add a new function to the graph, click the Sigma (Sigma) icon at the end of the query specification.

  2. In the drop-down, either search for a function name, or select an existing function category, and then pick the function name.

  3. Configure the parameters of the function, if any.

  4. To remove a function, click Remove function (Remove function) icon, next to the function you want to drop.

Work with queries

  1. To add a query, click Add Query button (Add Query).

  2. Notice that a new query B (B) appears under query A (A), and it is a duplicate.

    This is intentional, and makes it is easier to perform calculations across the time series retrieved by the two queries.

  3. Change the selected filter in query B (B).

  4. To remove one of the queries, click the Remove (Remove) icon that corresponds the to query you plan to remove.

Work with formulas

Add formula

You can combine metrics over facets or labels into formulas, to get additional insights.

  1. To add a formula, click Add Formula button (Add Formula).

  2. The empty formula option appears in interface as line 1 (1), under the query lines.

  3. Type the formula in the text box next to label 1 (1).

  4. To remove a formula, click Delete (Delete) icon that corresponds to the formula you plan to remove.

  5. The formula is no longer in the interface.

Change step size

  1. Click the Steps option of the metric.

  2. Notice the default step size, and change it to what you require.

  3. Observe how the graph for the metric changes with new step size.

  4. If you click the Delete (Delete) icon, the step size reverts to the default.

Step 3 Set condition

There are some differences in the process of setting the alerting condition, depending on the detection method.

  1. Define the condition

    condition threshold apm

    1. From the first drop-down, select the condition function: Mean, Min, Max (default), Sum, Count, or Last.

    2. From the second drop-down, select the comparison operator: above (default), below, equal to, not equal to, above or equal to, or below or equal to.

    3. [Optional] In the text box, specify the unit of the measurement.

    4. In the third (last) drop-down, specify the time interval: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, or 1 month.

  2. Expand the Configure no data and error handling option.

    alerts no data error handling
    No data

    What to do when data is missing.

    In the first drop-down, select one of the options: Alerting, No data, or OK (default).

    Error handling

    What to do when there is an execution error, or a timeout.

    In the second drop-down, select one of the options: Alerting, OK, or Error (default).

Step 4 Add details

  1. In the Folder name drop-down, select one of the folders.

    alerts choose folder

    Alternatively, click the Create new folder (Create new folder) icon.

    Then, in the Create Folder dialog, specify Folder name, and click Create new folder (Create new folder).

    create folder dialog

  2. In Rule name, specify the name of your rule.

  3. [Optional] In Title, enter the title of your rule.

  4. [Optional] In Runbook URL, enter the location of the runbook that specifies how to handle the alert.

  5. [Optional] Under Desription, specify the purpose of the rule, what conditions it should catch, and so on.

  6. [Optional] Under Custom labels, click Add (plus), and specify the custom label name, and its value.

    To add more custom labels, click Add (plus), and specify more custom labels.

    To remove a custom label, click Trash (Trash) next to it.

    alerts custom labels

  7. [Optional] Under Custom annotations, click Add (plus), and specify the custom annotation name, and its value.

    To add more custom annotations, click Add (plus), and specify more custom annotations.

    To remove a custom annotation, click Trash (Trash) next to it.

    alerts custom annotations

    Use annotations to show different alerts and their visualizations.

Step 5 Add contacts

Choose contact points

  1. Choose one or more of the existing contacts from the drop-down, so they can receive the alert.

    alerts choose contact points

  2. To remove a contact you previously selected from the alert notification, click delete (Delete) icon on their tile.

    alerts remove contact point

  3. To remove all contacts that you previously selected, click the delete (Delete) icon on the right side of the drop-down.

    alerts remove contact point all

Create new contact points

  1. Click Create New Contact Points (Create New Contact Points).

    alerts create contact points

  2. Kloudfuse opens the Create Contact points interface.

    Specify, configure, test, and save new contact points. See Alerts contact points for details.

Create rule

  1. To finalize, click Create Rule (Create Rule).

  2. Depending on your choice of calculation when you Set condition (query a, query b, formula 1, formula 2, and so on) Kloudfuse generates a Confirm Query Selection dialog.

  3. In the Confirm Query Selection dialog, click Confrim and Create(Confirm and Create)

  4. You get a confirmation message.