Alert channels and settings for Terraform

Configure alert settings and alert channels for your Terraform-managed monitoring setup

Alerting is organised around alert settings and alert channels.

Alert settings

Alert settings determine when and how many times alerts should be sent out. You can set the alert settings at check level:

resource "checkly_check" "get-books" {
  name                   = "GET /books"
  type                   = "API"
  
  // ...

  alert_settings {
    escalation_type = "RUN_BASED"   // Whether to alert after a certain number of runs or time

    run_based_escalation {
      failed_run_threshold = 1      // (RUN_BASED escalation only) after how many failed runs to send an alert
    }

    time_based_escalation {
      minutes_failing_threshold = 5 // (TIME_BASED escalation only) after how many minutes spent in failing state to send an alert
    }

    ssl_certificates {
      enabled         = true        // Whether the SSL certificate will be checked for expiry
      alert_threshold = 30          // At which number of days remaining before expiry should the alert be sent
    }

    reminders {
      amount   = 2                  // How many reminders to send after the first alert
      interval = 5                  // How many minutes to wait between reminders
    }

    parallel_run_failure_threshold {
      enabled = true                // Applicable only for checks scheduled in parallel in multiple locations
      percentage = 50               // What percentage of regions needs to fail to trigger a failure alert, supported values: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 & 100
    }
  }

  // ...
}

Or at group level:

resource "checkly_check_group" "key-shop-flows" {
  name      = "Key Shop Flows"
  activated = true
  
  // ...
  
  alert_settings {
    escalation_type = "RUN_BASED"

    run_based_escalation {
      failed_run_threshold = 1
    }

    time_based_escalation {
      minutes_failing_threshold = 5
    }

    ssl_certificates {
      enabled         = true
      alert_threshold = 30
    }

    reminders {
      amount   = 2
      interval = 5
    }

    parallel_run_failure_threshold {
      enabled = true
      percentage = 50
    }
  }
}

Alert channels

Alert channels determine how (as in “to which alert systems”) alerts are sent out. They can be created as standalone resources:

resource "checkly_alert_channel" "email_ac" { 
  email {
    address = "[e-mail]"      // The email address to notify
  }
  send_recovery = true                // Whether email will be sent when a check recovers
  send_failure = false                // Whether email will be sent when a check fails
  send_degraded = true                // Whether email will be sent when a check's performance degrades
}

Checkly supports a variety of alert channels, from email and SMS to Pagerduty and custom webhooks. For all available alert channels, see the corresponding resource page.

Alert channel subscriptions

Checks or groups are subscribed to one or more alert channels:

resource "checkly_check" "get-books" {
  name                   = "GET /books"
  type                   = "API"
  
  // ...

  alert_channel_subscription {      // This subscribes the check to the alert channel
    channel_id = checkly_alert_channel.email_ac.id
    activated  = true
  }

  // ...

}

resource "checkly_check_group" "key-shop-flows" {
  name      = "Key Shop Flows"
  activated = true
  
  // ...

  alert_channel_subscription {      // This subscribes the group to the alert channel
    channel_id = checkly_alert_channel.email_ac.id
    activated  = true
  }
}

Checks and groups need to be explicitly subscribed to an alert channel as shown above - they will not be autosubscribed.

Checks which are part of a group inherit the group’s alert subscriptions. If you know a check will be part of a group, you can avoid needlessly subscribing it to alert channels and just handle everything at the group level.