Smart Alerts for Service Level Objectives

You can create Smart Alerts for Service Level Objectives (SLO) to send an alert when a percentage of the error budget is used up or when the SLO status is less than the configured threshold. To send a Smart Alert, the conditions that are configured must persist over a specified amount of time.

Permissions

No permission is required to create Smart Alerts for SLOs. However, you are limited by the permissions in place for any entities (applications or websites) associated with your SLO. If you have permission to view an application or website, you can create Smart Alerts for them.

Creating Smart Alerts for SLOs

To create a Smart Alert for SLOs, complete the following steps:

  1. From the navigation menu in the Instana UI, select Service Levels. The Service Levels page shows an overview of all SLOs including their status in alphanumeric order.

  2. Click + ADD.

  3. Click Add Smart Alert. You can also create a Smart Alert from a specific SLO's dashboard. To do that, go to the dashboard of the SLO and click ADD SMART ALERT.

  4. Smart Alert configuration modal is displayed.

  5. Select the type of the SLO to create a Smart Alert for the selected SLO.

  6. Select one or multiple SLOs from the list to create a Smart Alert for the selected SLOs.

  7. Select the type of blueprint to be alerted on.

    • Error budget: An alert is sent when the specified percentage of the error budget is used.
    • Status: An alert is sent when the SLO status is less than the specified threshold.

  8. Set the percentage for the error budget or SLO status respectively.

  9. Set the time threshold condition that is to be met.

  10. Click Select Alert Channels.

  1. The list of available alert channels is displayed.

  1. Select one or more Alert Channels. If no channels appear, create one by clicking Create Alert Channel.

  2. Click Add.

  3. Set the Alert Properties.

  • Title: Title for the smart alert. Title is used to identify the Smart Alert.
  • Alert Level: Defines the style of the alert. You can set the alert to Critical or Warning.
  • Triggers Incident: Choose whether the Smart Alert triggers an incident or not.
  • Description: Give the Smart Alert a description to provide more context.

Incident triggering is only supported for application entities.

  1. Optional: Add Custom Payload to the Smart Alert. To add Custom Payload, click Add Row and specify the key-value pairs for each added row.

  1. Click Create.