Manage System Alerts

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System Alert Components

Available System Alerts
Modify Notification Settings for a System Alert
Disable a System Alert

Ops Manager v6.0 will EOL in January 2025. Upgrade to a higher Ops Manager version as soon as possible.

System alerts are internal health checks that monitor the health of Ops Manager itself, including the health of backing databases, Backup Daemons, and backed-up deployments. Ops Manager runs health checks every five minutes.

To view the list of system alerts:

Click the Admin link at the top of the Ops Manager UI.
Click the Alerts tab.
Click the Open Alerts link under System Alerts.

Disabled system alerts are grayed out.

If you have the Global Owner or Global Monitoring Admin roles, you can modify notification settings or disable a system alert.

System Alert Components

Each system alert consists of three components:

Component	Examples
A condition that triggers the alert	A blockstore is using too much disk space. An Ops Manager backing database had startup warnings.
A list of recipients of the alert	Ops Manager user or role: Ops Manager Administrators Email address: `admin@example.com` Slack channel: `#alerts`
A method by which the alert is sent	Email Slack SMS

When the alert is enabled and its trigger condition is met, Ops Manager sends an alert to the specified recipients using the specified medium for that alert. For a list of the notification options, see the Select the alert recipients and delivery methods step in the Modify Notification Settings for a System Alert procedure on this page.

By default, Ops Manager enables all alerts and sends the alerts to the email address specified in the Admin Email Address field in the Ops Manager configuration options.

Available System Alerts

Ops Manager provides the following system alerts:

Alert Processing

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`ORDINARY_ALERT_PROCESSING_DISABLED`	`Ordinary alert processing is disabled`
`ORDINARY_ALERT_PROCESSING_ENABLED`	`Ordinary alert processing is enabled`

Backup

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`OPLOG_TTL_RESIZE`	`Backup oplog TTL was resized`	Sent when the Backup Daemon has fallen so far behind in applying oplog entries that Ops Manager has extended the period of time it stores the oplog entries. By default, Ops Manager stores oplog entries in the Oplog Store for 24 hours. If the Daemon has not yet applied an oplog entry an hour before its expiration, Ops Manager extends the storage period for another three hours. Ops Manager can continue to extend the storage period up to 14 days. If you receive this alert: Check that your Backup Daemon is running. Check that your Backup Daemon runs on sufficiently performant hardware to apply oplog entries in a timely manner.
`THEFT_FAILED`	`Backup was not moved successfully`	Sent when a backup job migration to a new Backup Daemon fails. The backup job continues to run on the original Backup Daemon. For more information on moving jobs, see Jobs.

Backup Daemon

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`DAEMON_DOWN`	`Backup Daemon is down`	Sent when the Backup Daemon has not pinged Ops Manager for more than 15 minutes.
`DAEMON_UP`	`Backup Daemon is up`
`LOW_HEAD_FREE_SPACE`	`Backup Daemon has low free head space`	Sent when the disk partition on which the local copy of a backed-up replica set is stored has less than 1 GB of free space remaining. Follow the Modify Notification Settings for a System Alert procedure to change this space limit.
`LOW_HEAD_FREE_SPACE_PERCENT`	`Backup Daemon has low free head space percentage`	Sent when the disk partition on which the local copy of a backed-up replica set is stored has less than 10 percent of free space remaining. Follow the Modify Notification Settings for a System Alert procedure to change this percentage.
`SUFFICIENT_HEAD_FREE_SPACE`	`Backup Daemon has sufficient free head space`

Blockstore

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`BALANCER_OFF`	`Blockstore does not have a running balancer`
`BALANCER_ON`	`Blockstore has a running balancer`	Sent when a sharded blockstore is running the sharded cluster balancer. You should disable the balancer on a sharded blockstore. To disable the balancer, see Disable the Balancer.
`INSIDE_SPACE_USED_THRESHOLD`	`Blockstore space used within threshold`
`OUTSIDE_SPACE_USED_THRESHOLD`	`Blockstore space used exceeds threshold`	Sent when the disk space the blockstore uses exceeds the configured `threshold` setting. The default threshold is 85% of the total disk capacity on which the blockstore is stored. You can change the `mms.alerts.OutsideSpaceUsedThreshold.maximumSpaceUsedPercent` value in the Ops Manager configuration.

Cron Job

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`CRON_JOB_COMPLETED`	`Cron job has completed successfully`
`CRON_JOB_FAILED`	`Cron job has failed`

Cron Job Status

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`CRON_JOB_DISABLED`	`Cron job disabled`
`CRON_JOB_ENABLED`	`Cron job enabled`

Database Process

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`BACKING_DATABASE_PROCESS_DOWN`	`Detected a problem connecting to a database backing the system`	Sent when Ops Manager cannot connect to a backing database and run the ping command.
`BACKING_DATABASE_PROCESS_NO_STARTUP_WARNINGS`	`Detected no startup warnings on the databases backing the system`
`BACKING_DATABASE_PROCESS_STARTUP_WARNINGS`	`Detected startup warnings on a database backing the system`	Sent when the MongoDB process hosting a backing database contains `startupWarnings` in its log files.
`BACKING_DATABASE_PROCESS_UP`	`Successfully connected to a database backing the system`

Log

Alert Type	Alert Message	Description
`LOG_DEBUG_OVERRIDE_ACTIVE`	`Production logger overridden with a DEBUG level`

Modify Notification Settings for a System Alert

Click the Admin link in the top right corner of Ops Manager.

Ops Manager displays the Admin link only if you have administrative privileges.

Select the Alerts tab and then the System Alert Settings page.

On the line for the alert, click the ellipsis icon and select Edit.

Set the desired alert trigger values (Optional).

You can edit the values that trigger certain system alerts. These values are found in the Alert If section of the following alerts:

Alert	Field	Default
`Backup Daemon has low free head space`	Backup daemon free head space is below	1 GB
`Backup Daemon has low free head space percentage`	Backup daemon free head space percentage is below	10

Select the alert recipients and delivery methods.

In the Send to section, configure notifications. To add notifications or recipients, click Add and select from the options listed below. To test a notification, click the test link that appears after you configure the notification and ensure that the service you are testing receives the message.

Which alert notification methods can be set depend on the scope of the alert:

Project alerts: Apply to one or more individual Organizations and Projects only.
Global alerts: Apply to all Organizations and Projects.
System alerts: Apply to the health of Ops Manager and its backing databases.

The alert notifications methods are as follows:

Notification Method

Project

Global

System

Description

Ops Manager Project

Sends the alert by email or text message to users with specific roles in the Project.

Select the Project roles that should receive the alerts from the Select Role(s) check boxes or select All Roles for all users in the Project to receive the alert.
Select SMS to send these alerts to the mobile number configured for each Ops Manager Project user in their Account page.
Select Email to send these alerts to the email address configured for each Ops Manager Project user in their Account page. Email is checked by default.

Ops Manager Organization

Sends the alert by email or text message to users with specific roles in the Organization.

Select the Organization roles that should receive the alerts from the Select Role(s) check boxes or select All Roles for all users in the Organization to receive the alert.
Select SMS to send these alerts to the mobile number configured for each Ops Manager Organization user in their Account page.
Select Email to send these alerts to the email address configured for each Ops Manager Organization user in their Account page. Email is checked by default.

Ops Manager User

Sends the alert to a Ops Manager user, either by email or text message.

Select SMS to send these alerts to the mobile number configured for the Ops Manager user's account.
Select Email to send these alerts to the email address configured for the Ops Manager user's account. Email is checked by default.

Ops Manager Team

Sends the alert to a Ops Manager user, either by email or text message.

Select SMS to send these alerts to the mobile number configured for the Ops Manager user's account.
Select Email to send these alerts to the email address configured for the Ops Manager user's account. Email is checked by default.

SNMP Host

Specify the hostname that will receive the v2c trap on standard port 162. The MIB file for SNMP is available for download.

Important

Ops Manager 6.0.0 deprecates SNMP alerts. Ops Manager 7.0.0 will not include SNMP alerts. To learn more about other alert options, see Third-Party Service Integrations.

Sends the alert to a specified email address.

SMS

Sends the alert to a phone number. Ops Manager removes all letters and punctuation except the +.

For international (non-U.S.) phone numbers, format phone numbers using the E.164 standard. For example, for New Zealand, enter +64 before the phone number.

Ops Manager uses the U.S.-based Twilio to send text messages.

If you want to use a non-U.S. phone number, try using a Google Voice phone number.

Configure Ops Manager for Twilio integration to use SMS.

HipChat

Sends the alert to a HipChat room message stream. Enter the HipChat room name and API token.

Slack

Sends the alert to a Slack channel in the authorized Slack workplace for the Organization.

Enter the channel name and either an API token or a Bot token.
To create an API token, see the API page in your Slack account.

To learn more about Bot users in Slack, see the Slack documentation.

PagerDuty

Sends the alert to a PagerDuty account. Enter only the PagerDuty integration key. Define escalation rules and alert assignments directly in PagerDuty.

Acknowledge PagerDuty alerts from the PagerDuty dashboard.

PagerDuty decommissioned their REST API v1 key in October 2018. If you have a v1 key, you can continue to use that key with Ops Manager. All new PagerDuty keys use their REST API v2, but Ops Manager does not support their v2 keys. If you don't have their REST API v1 key, use the PagerDuty Events API v1 instead.

Webhook

Sends an HTTP POST request to an endpoint for programmatic processing. The request body contains a JSON document that uses the same format as the Ops Manager API Alerts resource.

To configure this option, configure the Webhook settings on the Project Settings page.

To use this method at the Global level:

Navigate to the Ops Manager Config Miscellaneous tab of the Administration console.
Update the Webhook URL and Webhook Secret settings.

Ops Manager adds a request header called X-MMS-Event to distinguish between various alert states. The possible values for this header are:

`alert.open`	The alert was just opened.
`alert.close`	The alert was resolved.
`alert.update`	A previously opened alert is still open.
`alert.acknowledge`	The alert was acknowledged.
`alert.cancel`	The alert became invalid and was canceled.
`alert.inform`	Represents an informational alert, which is a point-in-time event, such as "Primary Elected."

If you specify a key in the Webhook Secret field, MongoDB Ops Manager adds the X-MMS-Signature request header. This header contains the base64-encoded HMAC-SHA-1 signature of the request body. MongoDB Ops Manager creates the signature using the provided secret.

Datadog

Sends the alert to a Datadog account as a Datadog event.

When the alert first opens, Ops Manager sends the alert as an "error" event. Subsequent updates are sent as "info" events. When the alert closes, Ops Manager sends a "success" event.

If prompted, enter your DataDog API key under API Key and click Validate Datadog API Key.

Find your DataDog API Key in your Datadog account.

Administrators

Sends the alert to the email address specified in the Admin Email Address field in the Ops Manager configuration options.

Global Alerts Summary Email

Sends a summary email of all global alerts to the specified email address.

Click Save.

Disable a System Alert

Click the Admin link in the top right corner of Ops Manager.

Ops Manager displays the Admin link only if you have administrative privileges.

Select the Alerts tab and then the System Alert Settings page.

Disable the alert.

On the line for the system alert that you want to disable, click the ellipsis icon and select Disable.

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Manage Global Alerts

Resolve Alerts