Up/Down Policy Settings

Settings for Up/Down alert policies are covered in the following topics:

• Up/Down Settings Page
• Up/Down Alert Conditions
• Select Interfaces Dialog

Notes:
- For an overview of Up/Down policies, see About Up/Down Policies.
- For general information about policy-based alerting, see Policy Alerts Overview.
- For information on policy templates, see Policy Templates.
- For information on active or historical alerts, see Alerting.
- For information on alert-related notifications, see Notifications.
- For information on mitigation for alerts, see Mitigations.

For an Up/Down policy, the settings page includes the following configuration options:

• Help: Click ? in the top right corner to open the Alert Policies KB article in a new tab.
• Name: The name of the policy. Maximum of 50 characters; must include at least one letter.
• Description (optional): A description of the policy; used to summarize what the policy looks at and indicate what it is used for.
• Data source type ("What are you trying to alert about?"): Radio buttons that set the type of data sources covered by this policy to devices, interfaces, or BGP neighbors.
• Data sources: Controls that determine which specific data sources are monitored by this policy (see Data Source Settings).
• Filters: A two-part control set:
  - Filters: A list of the filters, each represented in a tile, that have been applied to this policy using the Filtering Options dialog. To remove a listed filter, click the red X in its tile.
  - Edit Filters: A button that opens the Filtering Options Dialog.
• Conditions: A control set whose specifics vary depending on the policy's Data source type (see Up/Down Alert Conditions), but which is made up of two settings in sentence form:
  - Alert condition: When and how to generate an alert.
  - Clear condition: How soon to clear the alert when its conditions no longer exist.
• Acknowledgment Required: A switch that, when enabled, requires that to clear an alert that is no longer in an alarm state you must acknowledge it manually from the Alerts List on the Alerting page.
• Notification Channels: A field that shows lozenges for each of the notification channels (see About Notifications) that you’ve assigned to this policy:
  - To assign a channel, click in the field to drop down a filterable list of channels in your organization and click a notification channel. Repeat as needed.
  - To remove a channel from this policy, click the X in the channel’s lozenge.
• Add New Channel: A button that opens the Add Notification Channel dialog (see Notification Dialogs UI) where you can create a new notification and add it to the policy automatically.
• Test Notification Channels: A button, present when there's at least one selected notification channel, that sends test notification to all selected notification channels.
• Cancel: A button that returns you to the Policies page without saving the policy (if adding) or saving any changes to policy settings (if editing).
• Save: A button that saves changes to policy settings and returns you to the Policies page. This button will be active only when all required settings are complete and correct.

The data sources monitored by the policy depend on the setting of the Data source type radio buttons:

• Devices: The following controls are present when Data source type is set to Devices:
  - Devices: A list of lozenges that each represent one or more data sources, which can be chosen with the Select Devices dialog. The default is “All Data Sources.”
  - Edit Devices: A button that opens the Select Devices dialog (see Data Sources Dialog UI).
• Interfaces: The following controls are present when Data source type is set to Interfaces:
  - Interfaces: A list of criteria, set in the Select Interfaces dialog, that narrows the list of interfaces to monitor for this alert.
  - Edit Interfaces: A button that opens the Select Interfaces Dialog.
• BGP neighbors: The following controls are present when Data source type is set to BGP neighbors:
  - Local routers: A list of lozenges that each represent one or more BGP neighbor devices, which can be chosen with the Select Local Routers dialog. The default is “Use all local routers.”
  - Edit Devices: A button that opens the Select Local Routers dialog, which is functionally identical to the Select Devices dialog.

For Up/Down policies, the wording of the two sentences in the Conditions section of the settings page varies depending on the policy's Data source type setting (see Up/Down Settings Page).

When the data source type is Devices the following settings in the Conditions section determine what constitutes a match:

• Alert condition: "Alert me if devices [are/are not] in the state [status] for at least [##] [time unit]."
  - Are (default)/are not: Whether or not the devices are in the selected state.
  - Status: The status of the devices. Down is the only option currently available.
  - ##: Length of the time range. Enter the desired value (default is 1).
  - Time unit: Minutes (default) or hours.
  Note: The time window must be between one minute and 24 hours.
• Clear condition: "Clear alarm if conditions are not met for [##] minutes."
  - ##: Length of time range. Enter the desired value (default is 5).
  Note: This value must be at least 1 minute.

When the data source type is Interfaces, the following settings in the Conditions section determine what constitutes a match:

• Alert condition: "Alert me if interfaces [are/are not] in the state [oper status] for at least [##] [time unit]."
  - Are (default)/are not: Whether or not the interfaces are in the selected state.
  - Oper Status: The operational status of the interfaces. Options include Down (default), Testing, Unknown, Dormant, NotPresent, or LowerLayerDown.
  - ##: Length of the time range. Enter the desired value (default is 1).
  - Time unit: Minutes (default) or hours.
  Note: The time window must be between one minute and 24 hours.
• Only interfaces where Admin Status is up: When enabled, the policy will only alert on interfaces with an Admin Status of "Up."
• Clear condition: "Clear alarm if conditions are not met for [##] minutes."
  - ##: Length of time range. Enter the desired value (default is 5).
  Note: This value must be at least 1 minute.

When the data source type is BGP Neighbors, the following settings in the Conditions section determine what constitutes a match:

• Alert condition: "Alert me if neighbors [are/are not] in the state [status] for at least [##] [time unit]."
  - Are (default)/are not: Whether or not the interfaces are in the selected state.
  - Status: The status of the BGP neighbors. Options include Idle, Connect, Active, OpenSent, OpenConfirm, and Established (default).
  - ##: Length of the time range. Enter the desired value (default is 1).
  - Time unit: Minutes (default) or hours.
  Note: The time window must be between one minute and 24 hours.
• Clear condition: "Clear alarm if conditions are not met for [##] minutes."
  - ##: Length of time range. Enter the desired value (default is 3).
  Note: This value must be at least 1 minute.

The Select Interfaces dialog (a.k.a. "Which interfaces do you want to monitor?") is used to set the criteria that will determine which interfaces are covered by the policy. The dialog opens from the Edit Interfaces button on the settings page for an Up/Down policy.

The Select Interfaces dialog includes the following main UI elements:

• Information pane: This pane tells you how to use the dialog. To close it, click the X at the right.
• Filters pane: A set of fields, drop-downs, and checkboxes that define filter criteria and are used to narrow the set of interfaces that display in the Matching Interfaces pane.
• Matching Interfaces pane: A list of the interfaces that match all criteria currently defined in the Filters pane. If no filters are set, the list will include the interfaces on all of your Kentik-registered devices (see Matching Interfaces Pane).
• Cancel: Buttons — a Cancel button at lower right and an X in the upper right corner — that close the dialog without changing the filter criteria listed under Interfaces on the policy settings page.
• Save: Save the dialog's current filter criteria, exit the dialog, and return to the policy settings page. The updated criteria will be listed under Interfaces.

The Filters pane of the Select Interfaces dialog includes the following types of controls:

• Clear all (present only when a filter is set): Click to clear all current filters.
• Text box: Enter a full or partial text string by which you’d like to filter your interfaces.
• Selection fields: Click to drop down a filterable list from which you can choose an item, which will appear as a lozenge in the field. Repeat to add more items. To remove an item, click the X at the right of its lozenge.
• Checkboxes: Click checkboxes in a given category to choose one or more filter criteria in that category. To remove a filter, uncheck its box.

Note: The Filters pane shows only controls (checkboxes and selectors) for which there is a match with the interfaces shown in the Matching Interfaces list. As the list is filtered, the number and type of controls displayed in the Filters pane may change.

Filter criteria for interfaces fall into the following categories:

• Interface Name (text field): Match interfaces whose name contains the entered. Regular expressions are allowed.
• Interface Description (text field): Match interfaces whose description contains the entered text (case insensitive). Regular expressions are allowed.
• IP (text field): Match interfaces with the entered IP/CIDR address range.
• Device (selection field): Match interfaces to the device(s) selected from the drop-down menu.
• Device Name (text field): Match interfaces whose device name contains the entered string. Regular expressions are allowed.
• Device Label (selection field): Match interfaces to the device label(s) selected from the drop-down menu.
• Site (selection field): Match interfaces to the site(s) selected from the drop-down menu.
• Capacity (selection field): Match interfaces whose capacities match the entered value(s).
• Provider (selection field): Match interfaces whose source/destination traffic reaches the Internet via the entered provider(s).
• Network Boundary (checkboxes): Match interfaces whose network boundary is checked (see Network Boundary Attribute).

You can use the above filter controls to narrow the set of available interfaces. The Matching Interfaces list will update to show only the interfaces that match the current filters.

Kentik applies the following rules to filter categories and criteria:

• Criteria are ORed (match any) within categories and ANDed (match all) between categories.
• When criteria are selected in more than one category, an interface is displayed only if it matches at least one of the selected criteria in all of the categories with criteria selected.
• When no criteria are selected for a category, the interface may match any of the category’s listed criteria.

The Matching Interfaces pane (to the right of the Filters pane) includes the following elements:

• Matching interfaces list: A list that is populated based on the current filters in the Filters pane and grouped by device:
  - Interface rows: The top line is the interface’s SNMP alias, the middle line (if present) is the interface’s description, and the bottom line shows indicators for the interface’s capacity, connectivity type, and network boundary.
  - Device rows: A heading row giving the name and site (in parentheses) of a device precedes each group of rows whose interfaces are common to that device. Heading rows are collapsible using the arrow at left.
• Interface count: An indicator at the bottom right stating the total number of interfaces that match your current filter criteria and the number(up to 1000) that are shown in the list.