Alert Silent Mode

The alerting system’s silent mode is covered in the following topics:

• About Silent Mode
• Silent Mode Page
• Pattern Dialogs

Silent mode enables you to temporarily mute alarms (and thereby avoid notifications or mitigations) that would otherwise be triggered on traffic matching a given set of criteria. Silent Mode can be enabled in two ways:

• Silent Mode by policy: The General Policy Settings tab of the Add/Edit Alert Policy dialog has a switch that enables you to set a duration for which the alert policy will be muted (prevented from entering alarm state).
• Silent Mode by pattern: The Silent Mode Page enables you to define patterns that, when matched in traffic that would otherwise trigger an alarm, instead causes the alarm to be muted. A pattern is similar to a key (a unique combination of values for a given set of dimensions; see About Keys), but a pattern may be set to enable a partial match (see Pattern Dialog UI). Each pattern has a specified expiration date, after which alerting will no longer be muted on the matching set of traffic.

Note: Patterns are independent of policies. A given pattern may match traffic covered by two or more policies.

The Silent Mode page is covered in the following topics:

• Silent Mode Page UI
• Pattern List

The Silent Mode page displays the Pattern List, which is a list of all patterns that are currently defined in your organization. Patterns can be added, duplicated, and edited from this list. The work area of the Silent Mode page is made up of the following UI elements:

• Filter: A field at upper right that is used to filter the Pattern list. The following columns are searched for a match on the string entered in this field: ID, Name, Metrics, Dimensions.
• Remove Selected (visible only when a checkmark is checked in the Pattern list): Removes from the Pattern list all rows whose checkmark is checked.
• Add Pattern: A button at upper right that opens the Add Pattern dialog (see Pattern Dialogs), where you can configure and save a new pattern.
• Pattern List: See Pattern List.

Notes:
- For information on configuring a pattern, see Pattern Dialogs.
- For information on configuring silent mode for an alert policy rather than a pattern, see General Policy Settings.

The Pattern list is a table that lists all of the patterns that exist in your organization. The list provides the following information and actions for each pattern:

• Checkbox: Enables you to remove multiple patterns at once from the list. Check all rows that you wish to remove, which will show the Remove Selected button
• Conditions: The pattern’s match type and conditions (dimension/value pairs) as defined in the Add Pattern or Edit Pattern dialog.
• Comment: The comment, if any, entered for the pattern when it was added or edited.
• Expires: The date on which the pattern expires, meaning that alarms on matching traffic will no longer be muted.
• Created: The date on which the pattern was added.
• Remove (trash icon): Opens a confirming dialog that allows you to delete the pattern.

Note: Clicking anywhere in a pattern’s row (other than on the checkbox or trash icon) opens the Edit Pattern dialog.

The dialogs used to specify pattern settings are covered in the following topics:

• Accessing Pattern Settings
• Pattern Dialog UI
• Pattern Dialog Settings

Patterns are defined in the pattern dialogs (add or edit):

• Add Pattern: To add a new pattern, open the dialog with the Add Policy button at upper right.
• Edit Pattern: To edit an existing pattern, open the dialog by clicking anywhere in that pattern’s row in the Pattern list.

The Add Pattern and Edit Pattern dialogs share the same layout and the following common UI elements:

• Close button: Click the X in the upper right corner to close the dialog. All elements will be restored to their values at the time the dialog was opened.
• Remove button (Edit Pattern dialog only): Remove the pattern from your organization’s collection of silent mode patterns.
• Cancel button: Cancel the add pattern or edit pattern operation and exit the dialog. All elements will be restored to their values at the time the dialog was opened.
• Add Pattern button (Add Pattern dialog only): Save settings for the new pattern and exit the dialog.
• Save button (Edit Pattern dialog only): Save changes to pattern settings and exit the dialog.

The following settings are made in the Add Pattern and Edit Pattern dialogs:

• Match Type menu: A drop-down menu from which to choose one of the following pattern types:
  - Exact: The pattern is matched if all of the filters applied in the Filters section are matched.
  - Partial (default): The pattern is matched if any of the filters applied in the Filters section are matched.
• Expires: The date on which the pattern expires, meaning that alarms on matching traffic will no longer be muted.
• Comment: Any text that will make clear to others in your organization why the pattern was created.
• Conditions: A list of key/value pairs in which the key is a dimension. Each row of the list contains the following elements:
  - Dimension: Click on the listed dimension to open a selector from which you can choose a dimension.
  - Value: The value of the dimension.
  Note: The operator is always equals.
  - Remove: Click the red X to remove the condition from the list.
• Add Condition: Adds another row to the Conditions list.