Alert channels


Alert Channels

Alert channels are used to route alerts triggered by Lenses to 3rd party systems. You can configure multiple different systems ie. Slack for the development team and PagerDuty for the support team. In this guide you'll learn how to configure alert channels

Introduction 

Alerts work by running checks on a specific resource to detect conditions. When conditions are met, the alert rule will trigger an event. Events can be routed to to different alert channels to notify the appropriate team about incidents.

Channels are attached to multiple alert rules. Lenses offers several channels out of the box. You can choose from predefined channel types like Slack, PagerDuty, DataDog, Alert Manager, CloudWatch, or use custom Webhook to connect to any external service of your choice.

alerts channels to Lenses.io

Required permission 

PermissionTypeDescription
Alert Rules / ViewAdminTo view available rules, events, channels
Alert Rules / ManageAdminTo create/update/delete rules and channels
Connections / ManageAdminTo create connection to be used by a channel type

Channels require a connection to the 3rd party system in order to be created. Connections to Lenses subject to a different permission so you can separate the responsibility. Connections are reusable, for example, you can have a connection to your company’s Slack and multiple different channels mapping to slack channels.

Access Management & permissions

Alert Rules to channel 

All alert rules can be associated with channels:

  • Infrastructure, built-in rules you can switch on/off
  • Data Produced, custom rules you can set for specific Kafka topics
  • Consumer Rules, custom rules you can set for specific consumer-topic combinations
  • Apps, currently applies to Kafka Connectors
alert channels select to Lenses.io

Create alert channel 

To create a new channel navigate to Admin, Alert Channels and New Alert Channel.

You will be prompt to select the alert channel integration type:

alert channels select to Lenses.io

Change channel settings 

You can edit the channel at any point:

alert channels select to Lenses.io

Delete alert channels 

If you don’t need a channel anymore, you can remove it by clicking on the trash icon that is visible next to each channel. A check will be made if there are any alerts assigned to this channel and information presented to you in such a case, so you can be sure you don’t delete any channel that is being used.

Delete Alert Channel

Switch-off channel 

To enable or disable an alert channel, just click on the toggle under the Route Alerts column.

Toggle Alert Channel