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Advanced Configuration for Prometheus Alerts

Prometheus Alertmanager provides some additional useful features around the management of alerts. These features allow you to customize and tweak your alerts so they are more useful in real-world situations. In this lab, you will have the opportunity to practice using some of these Alertmanager features, including alert grouping, inhibitions, and silences.

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Labs

Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 45m
Published
Clock icon Jun 12, 2020

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Combine the Web Server Down Alerts into a Single Group

    1. Log in to the Prometheus server.

    2. Edit the Alertmanager configuration file:

      sudo vi /etc/alertmanager/alertmanager.yml
      
    3. Add a new node to routing tree to combine the WebServer.*Down alerts:

      route:
      
        ...
      
        routes:
        - receiver: 'web.hook'
          group_by: ['service']
          match_re:
            alertname: 'WebServer.*Down'
      
    4. Load the new configuration:

      sudo killall -HUP alertmanager
      
    5. Check Alertmanager in a web browser at http://<PROMETHEUS_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:9093. You should see the Web Server alerts grouped together under the group service="webserver".

  2. Challenge

    Create an Inhibition to Stop the `WebBadGateway` Alert When a `WebServerDown` Alert Is Already Firing

    1. Edit the Alertmanager configuration file:

      sudo vi /etc/alertmanager/alertmanager.yml
      
    2. Add a new inhibit rule:

      inhibit_rules:
      
        ...
      
        - source_match_re:
            alertname: 'WebServer.*Down'
          target_match:
            alertname: 'WebBadGateway'
      
    3. Load the new configuration:

      sudo killall -HUP alertmanager
      
    4. Check Alertmanager in a web browser at http://<PROMETHEUS_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:9093. The WebBadGateway should no longer appear. You can click the Inhibited box to make it appear again.

  3. Challenge

    Silence the `WebServer1Down` Alert

    1. Access Alertmanager in a web browser at http://<PROMETHEUS_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:9093.

    2. Expand the service="webserver" group.

    3. Locate the alert with alertname="WebServer1Down", and click the Silence button for that alert.

    4. Fill out the Creator and Comment fields, and then click Create.

    5. If you return to the main Alertmanager page, the WebServer1Down should no longer appear.

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Did you know?

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