Skip to main content
Version: NG-3.1

Alert Analytics Dashboard

Overview​

The Alert Analytics Dashboard helps Operations, Infrastructure, and Application teams analyze alert behavior in vuSmartMaps. It provides insights into alert volume, alert frequency, alert severity, repeated alerts, peak alert hours, and alert resolution time.

The dashboard helps teams reduce alert noise and improve alert management. It shows alerts from multiple angles, such as daily alert activity, overall alert trends, severity distribution, occurrence frequency, MTTC, MTTD, and reporting groups. For meaningful insights, the source document recommends analyzing alert data for a minimum of 7 days. A 7-day window helps teams identify recurring alerts, anomalies, and alert behavior patterns.

Why This Feature Is Useful​

In operations and monitoring environments, many alerts can be generated every day. Some alerts may be isolated, while others may occur repeatedly. Without proper analysis, teams may spend time on low-priority alerts and miss alerts that need immediate action.

The Alert Analytics Dashboard helps teams:

  • Identify alerts that occur repeatedly.
  • Find alerts that are becoming more frequent.
  • Compare today’s alerts with yesterday’s alerts.
  • Understand which hours have the highest alert activity.
  • Review severity distribution across Critical, Error, and Warning alerts.
  • Find alerts that take longer to clear.
  • Identify affected nodes, groups, services, or components.
  • Drill down into a specific alert rule for deeper analysis.
  • Improve alert handling and reduce alert noise.
Review Alert Analytics for at least 7 days to identify recurring alerts, anomalies, and long-term alert behavior patterns more accurately.

Example Scenario​

An application team notices that Traces High Duration alerts are reported frequently.

The team opens the Alert Analytics Dashboard and first checks the Recommendations panel. If the alert appears under Prominent Alerts, it means the alert is occurring consistently almost every day.

The team then checks Overall Alert View to review severity, total alert count, affected groups, and MTTC. In the Alert Details section, the team clicks the Traces High Duration alert rule. This opens a drill-down view that shows summary metrics, reporting groups, MTTC details, individual alert instances, trends, and heatmaps. This helps the team understand how often the alert occurs, where it occurs, and how long it takes to clear.

When to Use This Feature​

Use the Alert Analytics Dashboard when:

  • Alert volume is high.
  • Alert noise needs to be reduced.
  • Alerts need to be analyzed over a 7-day period.
  • One-off, emerging, periodic, or prominent alerts need to be identified.
  • Today’s alert activity needs to be compared with yesterday.
  • Peak alert hours need to be reviewed.
  • Alert severity distribution needs to be analyzed.
  • Alerts with high MTTC need attention.
  • Top Critical, Error, or Warning alerts need investigation.
  • A specific alert rule needs drill-down analysis.
  • Reporting groups, nodes, services, or components need to be checked for repeated alerts.

Comprehensive Understanding​

Accessing the Dashboard​

To access the Alert Analytics Dashboard:

  1. Open the Left Navigation Menu.
  2. Go to Dashboards.
  3. Open the Alert Analytics folder.
  4. Click Alert Analytics Dashboard.
important

The names listed below are dashboard sections or panel headings from the source document. They should be treated as panel names, not numbered UI steps. For example, Top 6 Hours with Top 3 Alerts is a panel under Alert Insights - Hour Wise. It should not be shown as “1. Top 6 Hours…” in the final document unless the UI itself displays numbering.

Recommendations Panel​

The Recommendations panel analyzes alerts over the past 7 days. It groups alerts into four categories:

  • One-Off Alerts: Alerts reported on isolated occasions within the past 7 days. These may indicate sporadic issues, errors, or bugs.
  • Emerging Alerts: Alerts that started appearing more frequently in the last 3 days. These may become prominent if they are not reviewed.
  • Periodic Alerts: Alerts reported frequently over the past 7 days. These alerts occur repeatedly and may indicate an underlying issue.
  • Prominent Alerts: High-frequency alerts that occur consistently almost every day. These need immediate attention.
Start with the Recommendations panel to quickly separate isolated alerts from emerging, periodic, and prominent alerts that may need deeper investigation.

Today’s Alert View​

The Today’s Alert View gives a snapshot of alert activity for the current day. It helps teams compare today’s alerts with yesterday’s alerts.

It includes these panels:

  • Today’s Alert KPIs
  • Today’s Top 5 Alerts Compared with Yesterday
  • Today’s Top 5 Hours Compared with Yesterday

Overall Alert View​

The Overall Alert View provides alert analysis for the selected time period. It helps teams understand alert severity, frequency, affected groups, and resolution behavior.

It includes these panels:

  1. Severity Distribution

  • This panel visualizes the distribution of alerts based on their severity (e.g., Critical, Warning, Error) using a pie chart.
  • It helps teams quickly gauge the overall health of the system by highlighting the proportion of each alert type.
  1. Alert KPIs

  • Displays key performance indicators such as the total number of alerts, cleared alerts by severity (Critical, Error, Warning), and time metrics like the minimum and maximum Mean Time to Clear (MTTC) and Mean Time to Detect (MTTD).
  • This panel provides insights into the alert handling efficiency and system responsiveness.
  1. Top 15 Alerts

  • Lists the top 15 most frequent alerts within the selected time period, along with their severity, count, and the number of groups (e.g., servers, applications) affected.
  • This helps teams identify the most common and potentially problematic alerts that need immediate attention.
  1. Alert Classification by Occurrence Frequency

  • Classifies alerts into categories based on their frequency of occurrence:
    • High Frequent Alerts: Alerts with a high occurrence rate (>30%).
    • Most Frequent Alerts: Alerts occur between 20% and 30% of the time.
    • Frequent Alerts: Alerts occurring between 10% and 20% of the time.
    • Occasional Alerts: Alerts occurring less frequently (<10%).
  • This classification helps prioritize which alerts require immediate action based on their impact and frequency.
  1. Alerts with MTTC > 4 Hours

  • Hghlights alerts with a Mean Time to Clear (MTTC) greater than 4 hours, indicating which alerts took the longest to resolve.
  • This can help identify areas where the response time needs improvement.
  1. Top 3 Critical Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups

  • Shows the top three critical alerts and identifies the top three nodes or groups where these alerts are most frequently reported.
  • This helps teams focus on the most critical issues affecting key components.
  1. Top 3 Error Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups

  • Identifies the top three error alerts and the nodes or groups where they are most commonly reported.
  • This panel helps in pinpointing specific error patterns and areas requiring troubleshooting.
  1. Top 3 Warning Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups

  • Lists the top three warning alerts and highlights the nodes or groups most affected by these warnings.
  • This provides insights into potential areas that might require preventive measures to avoid escalation.

Alert Insights - Hour Wise​

The Alert Insights - Hour Wise section shows alert activity across different hours of the day. It helps teams identify peak alert hours. This section includes the Top 6 Hours with Top 3 Alerts panel.

This panel shows the six hours with the highest alert activity. For each hour, it displays the top three alert types reported during that hour. This helps teams plan focused monitoring during high-alert periods.

The Alert Trends section shows alert activity patterns over different periods.

It includes:

  1. Alert Trend by Day

  • This bar chart displays the total number of alerts reported each day of the week. It helps identify which days experience higher alert activity.
  • For instance, Thursday has the highest alert count with 20 alerts, indicating a possible pattern or issue that needs to be addressed on this day.
  1. Alert Trend by Hour of Day

  • This line and bar chart shows the distribution of alerts by hour throughout the day. It provides insight into peak alert hours, helping teams anticipate and prepare for times of higher activity.
  • The graph highlights both the count of alerts and unique alert occurrences, showing concentrated activity around certain hours, like 15:00 and 18:00.
  1. Alert Distribution Over Time

  • This area chart visualizes the distribution of alerts over a selected period, segmented by severity (Critical and Warning).
  • It shows how alert frequencies change over time, helping teams to monitor trends in alert severity and volume, which can indicate growing issues or improvements.
  1. Alert Occurrence by Day

  • This heatmap presents the occurrence of different types of alerts on specific days.
  • The color intensity reflects the frequency of each alert type, allowing teams to quickly spot which alerts are more frequent and on which days.
  • For example, "Traces high duration" shows more occurrences on certain days, indicating that it is a persistent issue.
  1. Alert Occurrence by Day of the Week

  • This heatmap shows the frequency of specific alerts occurring on different days of the week.
  • It provides a detailed view of which alerts are more common on particular days, helping in planning and resource allocation.
  1. Alert Occurrence by Hour of the Day

  • This heatmap visualizes the occurrence of alerts by hour throughout the day, showing which hours experience higher alert activity for each alert type.
  • It helps teams identify specific times when certain issues are more likely to occur, aiding in scheduling monitoring and troubleshooting efforts.

Alert Details​

The Alert Details section provides an in-depth view of alert rules and cleared alerts.

It includes:

  1. Alert Details - In-depth View of the Alerts

This panel gives a detailed summary of each alert rule in the selected time period.

It shows details such as:

  • Alert rule name
  • Severity
  • Total number of times the alert occurred
  • Number of days the alert was reported
  • Minimum and maximum MTTD
  • Minimum and maximum alerts per day

Use this panel to understand which alert rules are creating the most impact and which ones need priority attention. Users can click an alert rule, such as Traces High Duration, to open its drill-down view.

  1. Cleared Alerts View by MTTC

This panel shows how quickly different alert rules were cleared.

It includes:

  • Number of cleared alerts
  • MTTC percentiles such as P25, P50, P75, P95, and P99

Use this panel to check alert resolution efficiency. If an alert has a high MTTC, it means the alert is taking longer to clear and may need process improvement or deeper investigation.

Users can click an alert rule, such as Traces High Duration, to open the drill-down view.

Drill-Down View​

The drill-down view provides detailed analysis for a selected alert rule. The source document uses Traces High Duration as the example.

The drill-down view includes:

  1. Summary Panel

  • This panel provides an overview of the alert's severity, total number of occurrences, and key metrics:
    • Severity: Indicates the criticality level (Critical, Error, Warning) of the alert.
    • # of Alerts: Total number of alerts triggered.
    • Min MTTD (Mean Time to Detect) and Max MTTD: The shortest and longest times taken to detect the alerts.
    • Min MTTC (Mean Time to Clear) and Max MTTC: The shortest and longest times taken to resolve the alerts.
  • The alert "Traces high duration" is categorized as Critical, with 15 alerts reported, and has a consistent Min and Max MTTD of 5 minutes.
  1. Alert View by Reporting Group

  • This panel breaks down the alerts by reporting group, showing which groups or services are generating the most alerts:
    • Reporting Group: The specific group or service reporting the alert (e.g., "Internet Banking Mobile Banking, FROM_WEB_CONTEXT").
    • # of Alerts: Number of alerts reported by each group.
    • This helps teams identify specific areas or components within their infrastructure that are more prone to high-duration traces, enabling targeted troubleshooting and optimization efforts.
  1. Alert View of MTTC

  • Displays the distribution of MTTC for the "Traces High Duration" alert across different percentiles:
    • Percentiles of MTTC (P25, P50, P75, P95, P99): These values indicate the distribution and variability in the time taken to resolve the alerts, highlighting any cases that took significantly longer to clear.
    • This panel is useful for understanding the overall efficiency of handling this specific alert and identifying potential bottlenecks in the resolution process.
  1. Detailed Alert View of MTTC by Reporting Group

  • Provides a more granular view of MTTC for each reporting group that has generated the "Traces High Duration" alert.
  • Helps teams understand which groups may require additional resources or focus to improve their alert resolution times.
  1. Individual Alerts Detail View

  • This table provides a detailed list of each individual alert instance for "Traces High Duration":
    • Alert ID, Group Name, Alert Start Time, Alert End Time, MTTC, Summary: Detailed information on each alert, including when it started and ended, and the time taken to clear it.
  • Allows for in-depth analysis of specific alert instances to understand their context, cause, and resolution.
  1. Trends

  • Alert Trend By Day: Shows the number of "Traces High Duration" alerts generated each day, helping teams identify patterns or spikes in alert activity.
  • Alert Trend By Hour of Day: Displays the distribution of alerts by hour, revealing specific times of the day when high-duration traces are more likely to occur.
  1. Alert Distribution Over Time

A graphical representation of alert frequency over a selected period, showing the trend and helping to visualize how often "Traces High Duration" alerts are occurring.

  1. Alert Reporting Groups by Day

This heatmap visualizes which reporting groups are generating "Traces High Duration" alerts on specific days, helping identify trends and target specific days for focused monitoring or intervention.

  1. Alert Reporting Group by Hour of the Day

A heatmap that shows the distribution of alerts by reporting group and hour of the day, providing insights into specific time slots that might need more attention for this particular alert.

Tip: Use the Alert Details section to identify high-impact alert rules, then click an alert rule to drill down into reporting groups, MTTC details, individual alerts, trends, and heatmaps.

Step-by-Step Instructions​

Open the Alert Analytics Dashboard​

  1. Log in to vuSmartMaps.
  2. Open the Left Navigation Menu.
  3. Click Dashboards.
  4. Open the Alert Analytics folder.
  5. Click Alert Analytics Dashboard.

Review Alert Recommendations​

  1. Open the Recommendations panel.
  2. Review One-Off Alerts to find alerts reported only on isolated occasions in the past 7 days.
  3. Review Emerging Alerts to find alerts that started appearing more frequently in the last 3 days.
  4. Review Periodic Alerts to find alerts that repeat frequently over the past 7 days.
  5. Review Prominent Alerts to find alerts that occur consistently almost every day.
  6. Use these categories to decide which alerts need further investigation or tuning.

Review Today’s Alert View​

  1. Go to Today’s Alert View.
  2. Review Today’s Alert KPIs.
  3. Check:
    • Alerts Reported Today
    • Alerts Cleared Today
    • Alerts Reported Yesterday
    • Max MTTD
    • Max MTTC
  4. Review Today’s Top 5 Alerts Compared with Yesterday to identify alerts that increased or reduced compared with yesterday.
  5. Review Today’s Top 5 Hours Compared with Yesterday to identify hours with high alert activity.

Review Overall Alert View​

  1. Go to Overall Alert View.
  2. Review Severity Distribution to understand the proportion of Critical, Error, and Warning alerts.
  3. Review Alert KPIs to check total alerts, cleared alerts, MTTD, and MTTC.
  4. Review Top 15 Alerts to identify the most frequent alerts.
  5. Review Alert Classification by Occurrence Frequency to classify alerts by occurrence rate.
  6. Review Alerts with MTTC > 4 Hours to identify alerts that took longer to clear.
  7. Review Top 3 Critical Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups.
  8. Review Top 3 Error Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups.
  9. Review Top 3 Warning Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups.

Understand Alert Classification by Frequency​

The dashboard classifies alerts by occurrence frequency:

  • High Frequent Alerts: More than 30%.
  • Most Frequent Alerts: Between 20% and 30%.
  • Frequent Alerts: Between 10% and 20%.
  • Occasional Alerts: Less than 10%.

Use this classification to prioritize alerts based on frequency and impact.

Review Hour-Wise Alert Insights​

  1. Open Alert Insights - Hour Wise.
  2. Review the Top 6 Hours with Top 3 Alerts panel.
  3. Identify the six hours with the highest alert activity.
  4. Review the top three alerts reported during each of those hours.
  5. Use this information to plan monitoring during peak alert hours.
  1. Open Alert Trends.
  2. Review Alert Trend by Day to identify days with higher alert activity.
  3. Review Alert Trend by Hour of Day to identify peak hours.
  4. Review Alert Distribution Over Time to understand how alert volume and severity change over time.
  5. Review Alert Occurrence by Day to identify which alerts occur on specific days.
  6. Review Alert Occurrence by Day of the Week to identify weekly patterns.
  7. Review Alert Occurrence by Hour of the Day to identify alerts that occur during specific hours.

Review Alert Details​

  1. Open Alert Details.
  2. Review Alert Details - In-depth View of the Alerts.
  3. Check the alert rule, severity, total occurrences, number of days reported, MTTD, and alert count per day.
  4. Review Cleared Alerts View by MTTC.
  5. Check cleared alert count and MTTC percentiles such as P25, P50, P75, P95, and P99.
  6. Use this section to understand alert impact and resolution efficiency.

Drill Down into a Specific Alert​

  1. Go to Alert Details - In-depth View of the Alerts.
  2. Click the required alert rule, such as Traces High Duration.
  3. Review the Summary Panel.
  4. Review Alert View by Reporting Group.
  5. Review Alert View of MTTC.
  6. Review Detailed Alert View of MTTC by Reporting Group.
  7. Review Individual Alerts Detail View.
  8. Review Trends.
  9. Review Alert Distribution Over Time.
  10. Review Alert Reporting Groups by Day.
  11. Review Alert Reporting Group by Hour of the Day.

What Happens After the Steps​

After reviewing the Alert Analytics Dashboard, users can understand alert behavior across different views.

They can identify:

  • Which alerts are one-off, emerging, periodic, or prominent.
  • How today’s alert activity compares with yesterday.
  • Which alerts occur most frequently.
  • Which severity type contributes most to the alert volume.
  • Which alerts take more than 4 hours to clear.
  • Which nodes or groups are most affected.
  • Which hours and days show the highest alert activity.
  • How quickly alerts are cleared.
  • Which alert rules need deeper drill-down analysis.

Users can continue analysis by clicking an alert rule in Alert Details - In-depth View of the Alerts and reviewing the drill-down panels.

Troubleshooting​

  1. Issue: Alert insights are not meaningful.

    • Possible cause: The selected time period may be too short.
    • Solution: Analyze alert data over a minimum period of 7 days, as recommended in the source document.

  2. Issue: Too many alerts are appearing repeatedly.

    • Possible cause: Alerts may be periodic or prominent.
    • Solution: Review Periodic Alerts and Prominent Alerts in the Recommendations panel. Investigate the underlying cause, fine-tune alert settings, optimize resource allocation, or consider infrastructure upgrades where needed.

  3. Issue: A new alert is appearing more frequently.

    • Possible cause: The alert may be an Emerging Alert.
    • Solution: Review Emerging Alerts and monitor them before they become prominent.

  4. Issue: A critical alert is affecting specific components.

    • Possible cause: The alert may be concentrated on specific nodes or groups.
    • Solution: Review Top 3 Critical Alerts with Top 3 Nodes/Groups and drill down into the affected alert rule.

  5. Issue: Alert resolution is taking too long.

    • Possible cause: MTTC is high for one or more alert rules.
    • Solution: Review Alerts with MTTC > 4 Hours and Cleared Alerts View by MTTC. Use MTTC percentiles to identify alerts that consistently take longer to clear.

  6. Issue: Alerts occur during specific hours.

    • Possible cause: Alert activity may be concentrated during peak hours.
    • Solution: Review Today’s Top 5 Hours, Top 6 Hours with Top 3 Alerts, and Alert Trend by Hour of Day.

  7. Issue: A specific alert rule needs detailed investigation.

    • Possible cause: The alert may be frequent, severe, or slow to clear.
    • Solution: Click the alert rule in Alert Details - In-depth View of the Alerts and review the drill-down panels.

FAQs​

What is the Alert Analytics Dashboard used for?

The Alert Analytics Dashboard helps teams analyze alert behavior, alert frequency, severity, trends, repeated alerts, and resolution time. It helps reduce alert noise and improve alert management.

Who should use the Alert Analytics Dashboard?

It is useful for Operations, Infrastructure, and Application teams who need to understand alert patterns, identify recurring issues, and improve system reliability.

What is the recommended time period for meaningful alert analysis?

The document recommends analyzing alert data for at least 7 days. This helps identify recurring alerts, anomalies, and long-term alert behavior.

How do I access the Alert Analytics Dashboard?

Go to Left Navigation Menu > Dashboards, open the Alert Analytics folder, and click Alert Analytics Dashboard.

What are One-Off Alerts?

One-Off Alerts are alerts reported on isolated occasions within the past 7 days. These may be caused by specific issues, errors, or bugs that occurred on a single day.

What are Emerging Alerts?

Emerging Alerts are alerts that have started appearing more frequently in the last 3 days. They may not be significant yet, but they can become prominent if not reviewed.

What are Prominent Alerts?

Prominent Alerts are high-frequency alerts that occur consistently almost every day. These alerts need immediate attention because they may indicate recurring operational issues.

What is MTTC and why is it important?

MTTC means Mean Time to Clear. It shows how long it takes to clear or resolve alerts. High MTTC may indicate delays in troubleshooting or resolution.

What does the Top 6 Hours with Top 3 Alerts panel show?

This panel shows the six hours with the highest alert activity. For each hour, it shows the top three alerts reported during that hour. This helps teams plan focused monitoring during peak alert periods.

How can I drill down into a specific alert?

In Alert Details - In-depth View of the Alerts, click the required alert rule, such as Traces High Duration. The drill-down view shows summary metrics, reporting groups, MTTC details, individual alerts, trends, and heatmaps.