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What are the different Alert Severities?

Overview​

While setting up policies to trigger alerts, you can specify the severity levels based on the seriousness of the event which in turn indicates how quickly it needs to be dealt with.

The alerts can be categorized into 4 different severity levels. These severities may have different meanings as per the requirements of your organization but as per the general understanding they may mean as written below.

Detailed Explanation of Alert Severities​

Critical​

This severity level is reserved for the most severe and critical issues that require immediate attention. Critical alerts indicate that there is a major problem in your network that is causing significant disruption and needs to be resolved as soon as possible. For example, a critical alert might indicate that a critical application or service is down, causing a significant impact on your business operations.

Major​

This severity level indicates an issue in your network that requires attention but may not be as severe as a critical alert. Major alerts may indicate potential problems that could impact your network's performance, security, or reliability. For example, a major alert might indicate that a network device is experiencing a high CPU or memory usage, which could lead to performance issues if not addressed.

Warning​

This severity level indicates that there might be a potential issue in your network that you need to be informed about, but it may not be causing a problem as of now. Warning alerts may indicate potential problems that could affect your network's performance, security, or reliability in the future. For example, a warning alert might indicate that a network device is running low on disk space, which could cause issues in the future if not addressed.

Clear​

This severity level indicates that there is no issue in your network, and everything is running fine. Clear alerts are useful to confirm that a previously generated alert has been resolved and no further action is required.

Down​

This severity level indicates that the service or monitor in question is down and not available for monitoring. Down alerts are generated when a device or service is unreachable or not responding to monitoring requests. This alert is useful for troubleshooting connectivity issues or identifying devices that are not functioning as expected.

In conclusion, configuring different alert severities helps to prioritize the issues and take the necessary actions accordingly. It also ensures that critical issues are not missed, and the relevant teams are notified immediately for the prompt resolution of the issues.