Why didn’t my downtime reason-based alert trigger?

How to ensure your downtime reason-based alerts fires.

Q: My alert is set to trigger based on a downtime reason, but it didn’t go off. What’s going on?

There’s a caveat when using downtime reasons as a trigger for alerts:
🔔 The alert will only fire if the downtime reason is assigned immediately.
If the reason is assigned after the downtime event has occurred, the alert won’t trigger by default.

Workaround: Use a Trigger Offset

To give users time to assign a downtime reason, you can offset the trigger by a set number of minutes.

Example:

Let’s say you set a 5-minute offset.

  • A downtime event occurs.

  • You now have 5 minutes to assign the reason.

  • If the reason is assigned within those 5 minutes, the alert will fire.

This creates a buffer, ensuring alerts can still be triggered even if the reason isn't assigned instantly.