Alerting responders via OpsGenie when added to an incident

[Alex John]

I am setting up IR for my company and want to use OpsGenie to generate a phone alert when someone is added as an individual responder or stakeholder.  The whole point is to wake them up or get their attention when they are added, but right now I am stuck with OG sending an email as their notification.  I cannot find where to chage this or automate this.  Please help!

[Shashwat Khare]

Hi @Alex John ,

This is currently happening because the responder account would not have Voice notifications enabled in the Profile settings.

To fix this, please ask the responder user to add a Voice contact and a notification rule in the "My Profile" page for Opsgenie.

You can watch this tutorial video on how to add notification rules in Opsgenie:
How to add notification rules in Opsgenie 

Here's a document link that talks about how to manage notification preferences in Opsgenie:
Create and Manage notification Preferences in Opsgenie 

I hope this helps, please check and let us know!

Best,
Shashwat

[Alex John]

From what I can see, I can only trigger being alerted via OpsGenie for the 8 types associated with Alerts.  I am looking to notify people if they are added as a responder to an incident, but it does not show up as one of my options.  How can I make that work?  For instance:

Wwe have someone from our support team who is saying that a customer is experiencing issues but we have no alerting related to those issues.  Our response policy dictates that they open an incident in OpsGenie and add the responders and stakeholders necessary.  We want that to trigger someone's Voice Notification.

[Shashwat Khare]

Hi @Alex John,

Yes, this can be done for Responders, when added to an Incident.

You will have to check that the Responder account being added to the Incident, has the Voice Notifications  enabled in their User Profile.

To check this, please navigate to Settings > Users > User account > Notification > Contact methods > Voice and check that a valid number is added for the responder user account and enabled as in the below screenshot:


I hope this helps, please check and let us know.

Best, 
Shashwat

[Alex John]

I have tested enabling this, putting in the Voice information, but when people are added as responders to an incident it still only sends them an email.  Where can I change preferences to be notified when added to an incident to be Voice instead of Email?

[Shashwat Khare]

Hey @Alex John ,

Yes, this can be done by visiting the Responder User's profile and verifying that an Incident Rule is configured in place for the New Alert to notify via Voice immediately.

To do this, please navigate to Settings > Users > User account > Notification > Notification rules >New alert and check that a valid rule is configured for the notification as
"Notify me via voice at **-********** immediately" (example screenshot below)


I hope this helps, please check and let us know.

Best,
Shashwat

[Alex John]

Thank you for all of your help so far, I appreciate it.  My question here is - won't this alert them for all new alerts that they may be associated with, not just incidents?  Is this the only way that this can be done?  Or, is this a feature I am asking for that doesn't exist?

[Shashwat Khare]

Hey @Alex John ,

Yes, it's correct that once you enable this Incident rule for the Alert notification, it will alert the user account for all the New Alerts that are yet to be notified for the responder user account.

To avoid multiple notifications, you can Bulk Acknowledge or Close existing Alerts from the Opsgenie UI.

Best,
Shashwat

[Alex John]

So it is sounding to me that there is no specific alerting rule associated with incidents?  Should I submit a feature request?

[Shashwat Khare]

Hi @Alex John ,

Incident rules are available on Opsgenie's Standard and Enterprise plans.

After an incident is opened, alerts matching the incident rules automatically become associated alerts of that incident.
Opsgenie doesn’t send alert notifications for these alerts. This aims to reduce alert fatigue.

If an alert automatically matches an incident because of an incident rule, after the incident status is resolved, the incident status will be changed from resolved to reopened.

Therefore, it is important to close your incidents in a timely manner, because notifications are not sent for alerts matching an open incident.

Best,
Shashwat