How do you filter and prioritize traps and informs alerts to avoid alert fatigue?

1 Define your alert criteria

The first step is to define your alert criteria, which are the rules and conditions that determine which alerts you want to receive and how you want to handle them. You can use various criteria, such as severity, source, type, frequency, or time, to filter out the noise and reduce the number of alerts. For example, you may want to ignore alerts that are below a certain threshold of severity, or that come from a device or application that is not critical for your network. You can also use regular expressions or patterns to match specific alert content or format.

2 Assign your alert priorities

The next step is to assign your alert priorities, which are the levels of importance or urgency that you assign to each alert based on your alert criteria. You can use different methods to prioritize your alerts, such as scoring, ranking, or categorizing. For example, you may want to score your alerts based on their impact, probability, and cost, and then rank them from high to low. Or you may want to categorize your alerts into different groups, such as critical, major, minor, or informational, and then assign different actions or responses to each group.

3 Configure your alert notifications

The third step is to configure your alert notifications, which are the ways and channels that you use to communicate your alerts to yourself or your team. You can use various notification methods, such as email, SMS, phone call, or dashboard, to deliver your alerts to the right recipients at the right time. However, you should avoid sending too many or too frequent notifications, as this may cause alert fatigue or overwhelm your recipients. You should also customize your notification content and format, such as adding relevant information, context, or instructions, to make your alerts more clear and actionable.

4 Review and refine your alert settings

The final step is to review and refine your alert settings, which are the parameters and configurations that you use to control your alert system. You should regularly monitor and analyze your alert performance and feedback, such as the number, quality, and accuracy of your alerts, and the response time and effectiveness of your actions. You should also update and adjust your alert settings as your network conditions or requirements change, such as adding or removing devices or applications, or changing your alert criteria or priorities. By doing so, you can optimize your alert system and ensure that it meets your network monitoring needs and goals.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?