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 three 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. Each pattern has a specified expiration date, after which alerting will no longer be muted on the matching set of traffic. 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 use:
  - a partial condition(s) match (see Pattern Dialog UI);
  - an exact condition(s) match;
  - a policy match.
• Silent Mode by alert: On the Alerting page, you can silence keys that match a specific alert for seven days:
  - on the Action menu of an alert in the Alerts List;
  - on the Alert Details Drawer, under Take Action, click the Silence Alert button.

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, edited, and removed from this list. The work area of the Silent Mode page is made up of the following UI elements:

• Show: A button set with which you can choose which patterns to display in the list: all, active only, or expired only.
• Filter: Enter text into this field to filter the list to patterns whose Pattern column contains the text.
• 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: A table that lists all of the patterns in your organization (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:

• Pattern: The pattern's match type and conditions (dimension/value pairs) or policy as defined in the Add Pattern or Edit Pattern dialog (see Pattern Dialogs).
• Comment: The comment, if any, entered for the pattern when it was added or edited.
• Created: The date on which the pattern was added.
• Expires: The date on which the pattern expires, meaning that alarms on matching traffic will no longer be muted.
• Edit (pencil icon): Opens the Edit Pattern dialog, where you can edit or remove the pattern.
• Remove (trash icon): Opens a confirming dialog that allows you to delete the pattern.

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 Pattern or Edit Pattern):

• Add Pattern: To add a new pattern, open the dialog with the Add Pattern button at upper right.
• Edit Pattern: To edit an existing pattern, click the Edit icon (pencil) 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.
• 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 configured in the Add Pattern and Edit Pattern dialogs:

• Pattern Type: A drop-down menu from which to choose one of the following pattern types:
  - Match Conditions: The pattern is matched if all (exact match) or some (partial match) of the conditions listed in the Conditions section are matched.
  - Match Policy: The pattern is matched if traffic matches the criteria of the selected policy.
• Silence Window (appears when the Never Expire switch is off): A field that shows the period during which alarms on matching traffic will be muted. When clicked, the field expands into the Silence Window Controls.
• Start Time (appears when the Never Expire switch is on): A field that shows date-time from which the pattern will be muted. Clicking the field opens a calendar in which you can set the date-time.
• Never Expire: A switch that, when on, removes the end of the silence window, thereby keeping the pattern active indefinitely.
• Comment: Any text that will make clear to others in your organization why the pattern was created.
• Conditions (appears when Match Conditions is selected): A list of the conditions that make up this pattern (see Pattern Conditions List).
• Add Condition (appears when Match Conditions is selected): Adds another row to the Conditions list.
• Policy (appears when Match Policy is selected): A drop-down menu from which to choose a policy for the pattern.

The following controls, which open by clicking the Silence Window field, are available to set the silence window:

• Start and End Date: Input fields that show the start and end date-times of the silence window, which may be entered either using the calendar or directly in the datetime format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.
• Calendar: A popup in which you can click to set the start and end date-times.
• Apply: A button to set the silence window to the date-times specified in the Start Date and End Date fields.
• Cancel: A button to leave the silence window as it was before the controls were opened.

The Conditions list is a set of key/value pairs in which the key is a dimension. The Include statement for the conditions may be either of the following:

• Exact Match (default): The pattern is matched if all of the conditions specified in the Conditions section are matched.
• Partial Match: The pattern is matched if any of the conditions specified in the Conditions section are matched.

Each row of the Conditions list is a condition whose operator is always "equals" and whose other characteristics are defined by the following settings:

• Dimension: Click on the listed dimension to open a Dimension Selector Dialog from which you can choose a dimension.
• Direction button: A button to the right of the dimension selector that appears only for dimensions that exist for both source and destination. The button toggles the perspective of the dimension between those directions.
• Value: The value of the dimension. Click on the field to see a drop-down list of options.
• Remove: Click the red X to remove the condition from the list.