Create a metric alert

Metric monitors analyze continuous streams of data. When collecting metrics through Kloudfuse or APIs, you can configure alerts to trigger on specified conditions:

To create a metric alert, complete these tasks:

Start defining a metric 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 Metric.

  3. The Create Metric Alert interface appears.

Step 1 Choose the detection method

Metric alerts have these detection options:

Threshold alert

select Threshold alert

Change alert

select Change alert

Outliers alert

select Outliers alert

Anomaly detection

select Anomaly detection

Forecast Alert

select forecast alert

Step 2 Pick metric

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

  2. 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.

    • Threshold Alert

    • Change Alert

    • Outliers Alert

    • Anomaly Detection Alert

    • Forecast alert

    Condition for Threshold Metric Alerts

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

    2. From the second drop-down, select the evaluated query (Query (a), Query (b), and so on) or formula (Formula (1), Formula (2), and so on).

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

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

    5. In the fourth (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.

    Condition for Change Metric Alerts

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

    2. From the second drop-down, select either absolute Change (default), or Change %.

    3. From the third drop-down, select the evaluated query (Query (a), Query (b), and so on) or formula (Formula (1), Formula (2), and so on).

    4. In the fourth drop-down, specify the start time of interval in terms of how long ago to start: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, or 1 month.

    5. In the fifth drop-down, specify the end time of interval in terms of when to stop: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, or 1 month.

    6. From the six (and last) drop-down, select the comparison operator: above (default), below, equal to, not equal to, above or equal to, or below or equal to.

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

    Condition for Change Metric Alerts

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

    2. From the second drop-down, select the evaluated query (Query (a), Query (b), and so on) or formula (Formula (1), Formula (2), and so on).

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

    4. In the fourth drop-down, select the algorithm.

      We support DBSCAN to detect outliers.

    5. In the fifth drop-down, specify the tolerance of the DBSCAN algorithm: 0.33, 0.5, 0.6 (default), 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, or 5.0.

    Condition for Change Metric Alerts

    1. From the first drop-down, select the evaluated query (Query (a), Query (b), and so on) or formula (Formula (1), Formula (2), and so on).

    2. In the text entry field, specify the percentage of time above or below the threshold.

    3. In the second 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.

    4. In the third drop-down, select the algorithm.

      Kloudfuse implements basic, agile, robust, and agile-robust algorithms for anomaly detection. Depending on the algorithm, set these options:

      Basic

      Window (time interval): 1 minutes, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, or 1 day.

      Bound: 1 (default), 2, or 3.

      Band: upper, lower, or both

      Agile

      Bound: 1 (default), 2, or 3.

      Band: upper, lower, or both

      Robust

      Window: (time interval): 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 1 day.

      Bound: 1 (default), 2, or 3.

      Seasonality: Hourly (default), Daily, or Weekly.

      Band: upper, lower, or both

      Agile-robust

      Seasonality: None, Hourly, Monthly, or Quarterly.

      Bound: 1 (default), 2, or 3.

      Band: upper, lower, or both

    Condition for Change Metric Alerts

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

    2. From the second drop-down, select the evaluated query (Query (a), Query (b), and so on) or formula (Formula (1), Formula (2), and so on).

    3. From the third drop-down, select the comparison operator: above (default), or below.

    4. In the text entry field, specify the percentage of values.

    5. In the fourth drop-down, select the algorithm.

      Kloudfuse implements Linear and Seasonal algorithms in forecasting. Depending on the algorithm, set these options:

      Linear

      Forecast duration: 4 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 7 days.

      Seasonal

      Forecast duration (time interval): 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, or 3 weeks.

      Seasonality: Hourly, Daily (default), or Weekly. Interval: 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes.

  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.