Staring at a screen full of alerts can feel like facing a hydra, each notification a new head demanding your attention. New Relic, a powerful tool for observability, offers a robust alerting system. But if you aren’t sure how to use it correctly, you’ll find yourself drowning in noise. The key is to move past just having alerts and move towards having meaningful ones. This means knowing how to use New Relic’s features effectively so you’ll get notified of issues that require your focus, while the rest of the noise gets muted.
This article will show you the best practices for using New Relic Alerts. You will discover tips to refine your alerting strategy. You’ll also learn how to get the most out of the tool.
Understanding New Relic Alerts
New Relic Alerts is a system designed to notify you when your applications and infrastructure go out of bounds. It uses various conditions you set, and then, triggers alerts when those conditions are met. With it, you can monitor metrics. These could be anything from CPU usage to application response time. You can also use it to get notified of anomalies that might point to bigger problems later on.
The system works by using a few key parts:
- Conditions: These are the rules that, when met, start the alert. A condition could be “CPU usage greater than 80%.”
- Policies: These are containers for conditions. They group similar conditions and manage the ways notifications are sent.
- Notification Channels: These are how you get your alerts. They might include email, Slack, or other tools.
Knowing how to configure these parts is vital. This can mean the difference between getting timely alerts and missing vital issues.
Crafting Effective Alerting Policies
A good alerting policy is more than just a list of conditions. It is a plan of action that makes sure you are alerted to issues that matter. It also reduces the chance that you’ll get bothered by alerts that you can ignore.
Here are a few steps for crafting alerting policies:
1. Define Clear Objectives
Before you set up any alert, ask yourself what you want to achieve. You should also ask why you need that alert in the first place. Are you aiming to monitor uptime? Do you need to detect performance issues? Do you need to spot unusual activity?
You could set up alerts that notify you of downtime or spikes in server errors, or perhaps of a sudden increase in web traffic. No matter the case, make sure that each alert ties back to a goal that’s meaningful for your organization.
2. Group Related Conditions
Avoid scattering conditions across many policies. Instead, group conditions that are related to the same service, application, or environment.
For example, a single policy might include conditions related to CPU usage, memory usage, and disk space for your database servers. This will let you manage alerts more smoothly. It will also let you reduce the number of places you need to look when there’s a problem.
3. Start with Broad Alerts and Refine
When you start using New Relic, it is best to set broad alerting parameters. As you learn about your system’s behavior, you can refine them.
For instance, if your goal is to monitor CPU usage, begin by setting alerts for high usage that’s a little lenient. Then, over time, observe what normal usage is for your system. Afterward, you can dial the alerts to better fit your use case.
4. Use Thresholds That Are Meaningful
Thresholds should represent real issues, not normal fluctuations. A spike in CPU usage might be normal during a certain time, or if you’re in the middle of a task. This is why your threshold should indicate a critical issue.
For example, a CPU usage of 70% may be normal for your application, while 95% is when it’s running into trouble. Use the insights from New Relic to set thresholds that are specific to your environment and applications. This way, you’ll get notified of legitimate issues and not routine variations.
5. Prioritize Your Alerts
Not all alerts are made equal. Some problems can wait, and some can’t. It’s best to use New Relic’s priority levels to sort your alerts. High-priority issues should be things like system failures that require action right away. Low-priority alerts can include things like low memory warnings.
If you know which alerts are more critical than others, it will let your team know where to put their time and effort. You’ll also avoid getting sidetracked by less urgent matters.
6. Add Context to Your Alerts
An alert without context is just noise. Make sure your alert messages have enough data so that the person on call will know what the problem is. You must also make sure they know how to act.
Include the name of the service or application, the metric that triggered the alert, the threshold it crossed, and a link to the relevant dashboard in New Relic. That way, the on-call person can quickly understand the situation, and start working on a fix.
Configuring Smart Alert Conditions
The way you set up your alert conditions can make or break your alert setup. It’s not enough to just set thresholds. It’s also crucial to use smart features.
Here’s how to make the most of New Relic’s condition settings:
1. Use Static and Dynamic Thresholds
New Relic lets you set static thresholds which stay the same over time. It also lets you use dynamic thresholds that change based on your system’s normal behavior.
A static threshold is perfect for things like CPU usage. It will trigger an alert when it crosses a specific level. Dynamic thresholds, on the other hand, are good for things like response time. These will trigger alerts when something moves outside the normal pattern.
You should combine static thresholds for core metrics with dynamic thresholds for metrics that are likely to shift. You can also use dynamic alerts for detecting anomalies. You’ll have alerts that are both reliable and flexible.
2. Leverage Loss of Signal Detection
It’s not always a high value that can mean trouble. Sometimes, a lack of data can signal an issue. New Relic’s Loss of Signal setting can detect when metrics stop being reported. This can point to problems with your collection tools or with your system.
If you use this, you won’t only get alerted when something goes wrong. You’ll also get alerted when you lose the data that helps you monitor your systems.
3. Use Time Windows Wisely
The time window setting will affect when an alert is triggered. It tells New Relic how long a condition needs to be met before sending an alert.
If you have a shorter window, you will get alerts faster. This is perfect for quick spikes that may signal bigger problems. If you have a longer window, you’ll get less sensitive alerts. This is perfect for steady changes that can signal longer-term trends.
Test the time windows to fit each of your conditions. This will help you find a balance that meets your needs.
4. Combine Conditions With Logic
With New Relic, you can combine conditions using logical operators. You can make an alert fire when several conditions are met.
For example, you can have an alert only fire if both CPU usage and memory usage are high at the same time. This will help you to reduce false positives. And also make sure that you get notified only when something significant happens.
5. Use Baseline Settings for Anomalies
When monitoring something like traffic, a static threshold may not always work. In this case, you should use a baseline. Baseline settings in New Relic will tell you what “normal” looks like for a specific time. That way, the alert will only fire if there’s a big change from the average.
This is really useful for finding the oddities in your traffic, which might be a sign of something going wrong.
Setting Up Notification Channels
Your alerts are only as good as the ways they’re sent. You must make sure you have the right notification channels set up. That way, the right people get the right alerts.
Here’s how to fine-tune your notification setup:
1. Choose the Right Channel for the Right Alert
You shouldn’t treat all alerts the same when it comes to sending notifications. High-priority alerts can be sent directly to your team’s chat channel or as a page to the on-call person. Low-priority alerts can be sent to a less urgent channel, like an email.
Use the notification channels to send your alerts based on what their urgency is. This way, your team will know where to put their time and effort.
2. Connect With Your Team’s Workflow
Make sure the alert channels connect to your workflow. If your team uses Slack, set up a Slack channel for alerts. If your team uses email, set up an email channel.
Do not make your team change their ways to adapt to the alerts. The alerts should match your team’s normal workflow. This way, your team can quickly use these alerts.
3. Implement Notification Routing
New Relic lets you route notifications based on the alert policy. So, alerts for database issues go to the database team, while app alerts go to the app team.
This makes sure that only the relevant people are notified, and not everyone. It also cuts down on needless noise for people who do not need the alert.
4. Use Escalation Policies
Sometimes, a problem is so severe that it needs to be escalated if it’s not addressed quickly. Make sure you set up escalation policies to get help on serious alerts. You could have alerts go to a manager or an on-call person if the first receiver doesn’t respond within a certain time frame.
Escalation will help make sure that critical problems get the quick action they need.
5. Test Your Notifications
After you set up your notification channels, you should send test alerts. Make sure they are being sent to the correct channel and also that they are formatted well.
Testing is vital because it will help to fix any problems early on. It will also make sure that when a real alert is sent, your team will get the information they need.
Maintenance and Continuous Improvement
Setting up alerts is not a one-time job. You should check your alerts, and also adapt them, as your system changes. Here’s how to do just that:
1. Regularly Audit Your Alerts
It is best practice to check up on your alerts often. You might find some are not relevant or useful, and others might need some changes.
Doing this often will help make sure that your alerts are up-to-date, and still offer real value to your team.
2. Monitor Alert Fatigue
If your team is getting so many alerts that they start to ignore them, it means you have an issue. Try to find out what is causing the alert fatigue. You might need to adjust alert thresholds or add filters.
It is best practice to take alert fatigue seriously. This is because it can cause your team to overlook serious issues.
3. Use Feedback to Improve
Your team is your best source of feedback. They can tell you if alerts are noisy, inaccurate, or not clear.
Make sure you talk with your team often. This way, you will be able to improve your alerts and also keep them relevant to your needs.
4. Keep Up With New Relic Updates
New Relic often releases new features and updates to its alerting system. Make sure you check their release notes and also test new features that can help with your workflow.
Using the newest features will let you enhance your alerting setup, and keep it as useful as possible.
5. Automate Alert Setup
As your system grows, it can be hard to manually set up all your alerts. This is why New Relic offers automation features. You can use their API to manage your alerts at scale.
If you automate the alert setup, you will save time. You’ll also make sure your alerting setup is stable and repeatable.
Alerting Best Practices: A Practical Summary
To make sure your New Relic alerts are as effective as they can be, it’s best to keep these best practices in mind:
- Be clear about your goals. Make sure each alert maps back to what you want to achieve with it.
- Keep things organized. Group similar alert conditions to keep your policies clear.
- Use real data. Set thresholds that make sense based on the patterns you see in your data.
- Use dynamic settings. Mix static and dynamic thresholds to get more value from your alerts.
- Give context. Make sure your alerts give enough info so that people know what’s going on and how to fix it.
- Use routing. Send the alerts to the right teams to make sure they act on them.
- Keep improving. Review your alerts often to make sure they are relevant, useful, and don’t become a source of alert fatigue.
Getting the Most Out of New Relic Alerts
New Relic’s alerting system is a really useful feature that needs care and maintenance. By following these best practices, you’ll be able to craft alert policies that actually help you keep your system running smoothly.
It’s about moving past getting notifications for anything, and setting up useful alerts that flag real issues that require your attention. If you focus on having the right setup and you focus on ongoing improvement, you’ll see a huge difference in your operations.
It’s time to make your alerts meaningful, and also turn down all the noise.