Introduction to Alerts Management in Octo

Alerts are vital tools designed to notify you when something important or unusual happens, prompting you to take the actions you need to do. They help you stay informed and respond quickly to potential issues ensuring you never miss any crucial updates. For example, when baking cookies, a timer alert beeps to let you know when it’s time to take them out of the oven before they burn. Similarly, if you set a spending limit on your credit card, an alert, usually connected on your phone, will notify you as you approach that limit, helping you manage your finances and avoid extra charges.

In the context of cloud cost management, alert features function similarly. They notify you when your cloud spending deviates from expected patterns, helping you manage costs more effectively and prevent unexpected spikes in your costs.

In Octo, Alerts Management is a feature that covers multiple aspects of your cost control. Currently, Octo provides four types of alerts: cost alerts, anomaly detection alerts, discount expiration alerts, and budget alerts. Each type plays a unique role in keeping you informed and in control of your cloud cost. Make sure that you have at least one channel set up in the Channel Management page to receive your notifications.

If you haven’t set up a channel yet, click the button below to create one:

Navigating your way around in Octo to locate your alerts management page is as easy as pie. If you’re already familiar with the basics, you’ll find this process straightforward. And if you’re new to Octo, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide. It is a great way to familiarize yourself with the tool while having some fun exploring the features. Let’s begin!

To start creating your alerts in Octo, follow these three simple steps:

Now that you are in the Alerts Management page, you can now start creating your alerts. Here, you can create alerts for cost, anomaly detection, discount expiration, and budget.

Starting with Cost Alerts. Cost alerts are your aide in monitoring the daily spend of your cost group. Here, you can monitor multiple cost groups and send alerts to multiple channels per alert.

To create your cost alerts, you have to consider two thresholds available: fixed cost and percentage compared to the previous day.

Here are the steps to create a cost alert:

Fixed Cost Amount

For the fixed amount, enter the spending limit you want to set for the daily spend of the cost group(s). If spending exceeds this limit, Octo will automatically send an alert through your chosen notification channel.

Percentage Compared to Previous Day

For the percentage comparison to the previous day's spend, enter the percentage threshold you'd like to use. If the latest available day's spending exceeds that percentage of the previous day's total, Octo will automatically send an alert through your chosen notification channel.

4. Once you've set the threshold, select a notification channel(s), and then click ‘CREATE ALERT.’ You’ll now see the cost alert(s) you’ve created.

Anomaly Detection is one of the most crucial features here in Octo. Read full details here. That is why, your anomaly detection alerts should be of the same importance as they act as triggers, prompting you to take the necessary actions to address any anomalies detected, ensuring your cloud costs stay under control.

Start creating your anomaly detection alert by following these steps:

You can also create an anomaly detection alert directly from the ‘ANOMALY’ tab in your cost group. Simply click the bell icon to take you to the ‘ANOMALY DETECTION’ tab in the Alerts Management.

The Discount Expiration Alert in Octo helps you keep track of the expiration dates for your purchased discounts, such as Reserved Instances and Savings Plans in AWS. Currently, this feature supports AWS, with plans to integrate Azure and GCP in the future.

To create a discount expiration alert, follow these steps:

Setting up budget alerts is part of the budget creation process, allowing you to configure alerts right after establishing your budget. While setting up these alerts is optional, it is highly recommended to set up budget alerts immediately to help you stay informed about any potential budget overruns.

Here’s how to set up a budget alert DURING the budget creation process:

If you’ve already created a budget but have not set up an alert yet, you can still add a budget alert to the existing budget.

Here’s how to set up a budget alert AFTER the budget creation process:

This edit feature is for modifying existing alerts. For example, if you want to receive notifications from an existing alert, you can use the edit feature to add your preferred notification channel.

You can edit cost, anomaly, and discount expiration alerts directly in the Alerts Management section. However, editing budget alerts involves a slightly different process.

Follow these steps to do this:

There are two ways to edit budget alerts: by going directly to the cost group or through the alerts management section.

Here’s how to edit budget alerts in the Budget tab:

Here’s how to edit budget alerts in the Alerts Management section:

Similar to editing alerts, you can delete alerts for cost, anomalies, and discount expirations directly in the ‘Alerts Management’ section. You can do it by finding the alert that you want to remove and clicking its delete icon.

The process for deleting budget alerts is also slightly different. If you want to delete budget alerts, simply follow the steps for editing them since the delete icon is located right next to the edit icon.

This feature is particularly useful if you want to stop receiving notifications from a specific alert without permanently deleting it, as you might need it again in the future. Instead, you can choose to disable the alert and re-enable it when needed. Enabled alerts remain active and will continue to send notifications when their conditions are met. This option is available for anomaly and discount expiration alerts only.