Start an investigation when an alert fires
Rather not read it all? Ask Nova this. It walks you through each step.
Every firing alert starts an investigation, so on-call opens to facts already gathered.
Sam, the SRE (org owner or admin), wants every alert to reach Nova before anyone is paged.
1. Create the alert token
In Nova > Settings > Incidents, optionally set Post results to Slack channel (Enterprise plan) to #incidents, then select Create alert token and copy the token, shown once, and the Alertmanager receiver.
2. Point Alertmanager at Nova
Add the receiver to Alertmanager, or a webhook contact point to Grafana, and name the app in a label (Alerts, which labels).
3. Send a test alert
Send the test alert from Alerts, with your app's name in the app label. The reply is 202, saying whether an investigation started. It is a real investigation, charged like one (Nova Units).
4. See the investigation start
Nova > Investigations shows the test alert's investigation on your app, also in Slack when a channel is set. An alert that started nothing is on Incidents with the reason.
Result: every firing alert opens an investigation; an alert that started nothing is listed on Incidents with the reason.