Set alert evaluation behavior

In this milestone, you configure how frequently Grafana Cloud evaluates your alert rule.

Every alert rule and recording rule is assigned to an evaluation group. Each evaluation group contains an evaluation interval that determines how frequently the rule is checked. For instance, the evaluation may occur every 10s, 30s, 1m, 10m, etc.

You can set a Pending period to prevent unnecessary notifications caused by temporary issues.

When the alert condition is met, the alert instance enters the Pending state. It remains in this state until the condition has been continuously true for the entire Pending period.

This ensures the condition breach is stable before the alert transitions to the Alerting state and routed for notification.

You can set a Keep firing for period to avoid repeated firing-resolving-firing notifications caused by flapping conditions.

When the alert condition is no longer met during the Alerting state, the alert instance enters the Recovering state.

To set evaluation behavior, complete the following steps:

1. In the Set evaluation behavior section, click New evaluation group, enter a name, and select an evaluation interval.

   For example, enter the name Infrastructure and select 1m for the system to check the alert condition every minute.

2. In the Pending for field, set how long the condition must be true before firing the alert.

   For example, set to 2m to reduce false positives from temporary spikes.

3. In the Keep firing for field, select a period during which the alert continues to fire even though the threshold condition is no longer breached.

In the next milestone, you learn how to configure notification settings.