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Alerts

Alerts are how Whisker.io watches your equipment when nobody is looking at a screen. This section covers everything about them: setting them up, deciding who is notified and when, what the texts, emails and calls look like, and what to do when one arrives.

How it fits together

A device sends a reading. If that reading breaks a rule you set on the channel (too high, too low, an input changed state, or no readings at all for a while), the alert fires. The alert points at a schedule group, which works out who is on call right now and how to reach them: text, email or voice call, everyone at once or one person at a time. Someone acknowledges the alarm (by replying to the text, pressing 1 on the call, or clicking Ack on the Alerts page), which stops the notifications and tells everyone else who is handling it. When the reading returns to normal, the alert clears and the people on call get a short "cleared" message. Afterwards your team documents what caused it and how it was fixed on the Alert Notes page.

The life of an alarm A walk-in cooler alert set to fire above 40 degrees after a 10 minute delay, with hysteresis 5. A brief blip above 40 recovers inside the delay, so nothing is sent. Later the temperature stays above 40 for the whole delay and the alert fires: the person on call is texted. Dana acknowledges and everyone else is told. The temperature falls back under 40 but the alert stays set until it is below 35, then it clears and a cleared message goes to whoever is on call. 30° 35° 40° 45° 0 min 15 min 30 min 45 min 60 min WALK-IN COOLER TEMPERATURE Alert: above 40° Clears below 35° (hysteresis 5) Delay: 10 min,still above 40° Blip: back under 40°before the delay ends. Nothing sent Fires Clears Under 40° but still set:not below 35° yet STATUS Normal Waiting out the delay Firing Acknowledged by Dana Cleared ON-CALL PHONES Cooler above 40°: 42.7°Texted to whoever is on call Acknowledged by DanaEveryone else is told Cleared: 34.6°Sent to whoever is on call now One message when it fires, one when it clears. No reminders.
One alarm from start to finish. [How alerts work](how-alerts-work.md) explains each stage. Click the diagram to pause or play.

The alerting runs on Whisker.io's servers, not on your phone or browser, so it works whether or not anyone is logged in.

Start here

I want to... Go to
Understand what happens from reading to clear How alerts work
Create an alert on a channel, or change one Creating and editing alerts
Add the people who can be notified Alert contacts
Decide who is on call on weekdays, nights and weekends Schedule groups
Have someone cover for a person who is out, or set up holidays Covering and holidays
Stop an alarm from notifying more people Acknowledging alerts
See what the texts, emails and calls say, or deal with STOP and failed texts Texts, emails and calls
Silence a device during maintenance Snoozing alerts
See who was notified, or record cause and resolution Alert history and notes

Where to find alerts in the web portal

Click Alerts in the top menu. The Alerts page has five tabs:

Tab What it is for
Alerts Every alert on the account: create, edit, see which are firing, acknowledge
Alert Notes Past alert occurrences, with the cause and resolution your team wrote
Alert History Every text, email and call that was sent (only shown if you have the View Alert History role)
Alert Schedules Schedule groups, covers and holidays
Alert Contacts The people alerts can notify, and whether their number and email are working

Each location also has its own Alerts tab (next to Map/HMI and Tables) that shows only that location's alerts.

The Alerts page

  1. Alert Notes: causes and resolutions.
  2. Alert History: every text, email and call.
  3. Alert Schedules: who is on call when.
  4. Alert Contacts: the people alerts notify.
  5. New alert.

Note

The mobile app shows alerts and can snooze devices, but it cannot acknowledge alarms, and its alert editor does not know about schedule groups. See Alerts in the mobile app.