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Configure silences

Silences stop notifications from getting created and last for only a specified window of time.

Note

  • Inhibition rules are not supported in the Grafana Alertmanager.
  • The preview of silenced alerts only applies to alerts in firing state.

Add silences

To add a silence, complete the following steps.

  1. In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.

  2. Click Silences.

  3. From the Alertmanager dropdown, select an external Alertmanager to create and manage silences for the external data source. Otherwise, keep the default option of Grafana.

  4. Click Create silence to open the Create silence page.

  5. In Silence start and end, select the start and end date to indicate when the silence should go into effect and expire.

  6. Optionally, in Duration, specify how long the silence is enforced. This automatically updates the end time in the Silence start and end field.

  7. In the Label and Value fields, enter one or more Matching Labels. Matchers determine which rules the silence will apply to. Any matching alerts (in firing state) will show in the Silenced alert instances field

  8. In Comment, add details about the silence.

  9. Click Submit.

Edit silences

To edit a silence, complete the following steps.

  1. In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
  2. Click Silences to view the list of existing silences.
  3. Find the silence you want to edit, then click Edit (pen icon).
  4. Make the desired changes, then click Submit to save your changes.

When linking to a silence form, provide the default matching labels and comment via matcher and comment query parameters. The matcher parameter should be in the following format [label][operator][value] where the operator parameter can be one of the following: = (equals, not regular expression), != (not equals, not regular expression), =~ (equals, regular expression), !~ (not equals, regular expression). The URL can contain many query parameters with the key matcher. For example, to link to silence form with matching labels severity=critical & cluster!~europe-.* and comment Silence critical EU alerts, create a URL https://mygrafana/alerting/silence/new?matcher=severity%3Dcritical&matcher=cluster!~europe-*&comment=Silence%20critical%20EU%20alert.

To link to a new silence page for an external Alertmanager, add a alertmanager query parameter with the Alertmanager data source name.

Remove silences

To remove a silence, complete the following steps.

  1. In the left-side menu, click Alerts & IRM and then Alerting.
  2. Click Silences to view the list of existing silences.
  3. Select the silence you want to end, then click Unsilence.

Note: You cannot remove a silence manually. Silences that have ended are retained and listed for five days.

Rule-specific silences

Rule-specific silences are silences that apply only to a specific alert rule. They’re created when you silence an alert rule directly using the Silence notifications action in the UI.

Note

As opposed to general silences, rule-specific silence access is tied directly to the alert rule they act on. They can be created manually by including the specific label matcher: __alert_rule_uid__=<alert rule UID>.

Aggregation operators