Send alerts to a Slack channel

What you'll get

• Every alert in the channel: problems, warnings, recoveries and acknowledgements, each as a coloured card naming the host, the check and what it said, with a link to the host in Gryphon.
• The same alerts everyone else gets, by the same rules. Never a first result, never an unknown, never a recovery nobody was told had failed.
• One channel per client, if you want it. An integration sends for every host, or only for the hosts you choose, and an account can have up to 25.

Integrations are on every plan. Push, email and the inbox carry on as before: a channel is somewhere else the alert goes, not instead.

Before you start

• A Slack workspace where you may add apps. On some workspaces an admin has to approve it.
• In Gryphon, the owner of the account, or a member the owner has allowed to change hosts. Integrations are theirs to set up.

Steps

1Make an incoming webhook in Slack

1. Go to api.slack.com/apps, choose Create New App, then Blank app. Call it Gryphon and pick your workspace.
2. Under Incoming Webhooks, switch on Activate Incoming Webhooks.
3. Choose Add New Webhook, pick the channel the alerts should go to, and allow it.
4. Copy the webhook URL. It starts with https://hooks.slack.com/services/.

The URL is the key. Anyone who has it can post to that channel. Paste it into Gryphon and nowhere else; Gryphon keeps it encrypted and never shows it again in full.

2Add it in Gryphon

On the dashboard, open Integrations and choose Slack. In the iPhone app it is in the account menu; on Android, under Settings.

Name

#ops — whatever tells you which channel it is

Slack webhook URL

https://hooks.slack.com/services/…

What it sends

Problems, Warnings, Recoveries, Acknowledgements — all four to begin with

Which hosts

Every host, or only the hosts you choose

Save it. A URL that is not a Slack incoming webhook is refused with a sentence saying so, before anything is sent.

3Send a test

Press Test on the integration. A message beginning Test from Gryphon appears in the channel within a second or two, and Gryphon shows what Slack answered.

Test it

1. The test card arrives in the channel.
2. For the real thing, add a check to something you can stop, such as a staging site, and stop it. The problem arrives in the channel when Gryphon confirms it, and the recovery when it comes back.

If it stops working

Somebody removes the app, or archives the channel, and Slack starts refusing the webhook. Gryphon marks the integration Failing on the Integrations page with Slack's own answer, such as no_service or channel_is_archived, and emails the people who manage the account once, not once per alert. After a week with no successful delivery it pauses the integration and says so. Make a new webhook, paste it in, and save: saving resumes it.

Variations

One channel per client

Make one webhook per client channel, add each as its own integration, and set Which hosts to that client's hosts. Each client's outages go to their channel and nowhere else.

Only what needs a person

For a busy channel, untick Warnings and keep problems and recoveries. For a channel that tracks who is handling what, keep Acknowledgements: each says who has the outage in hand.