Configure Monitor Notifications and Ownership

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Alation Data Quality lets you configure who is notified when a monitor’s checks fail, who can manage a monitor, and who can edit it. You configure these settings when you create a monitor, in the Schedule & Launch step, or after creation, in the monitor’s Manage tab under Settings. Both locations use the same options and behave the same way.

Notification Channels

You can send monitor alerts to one or more of the following channels at the same time: Email, Slack, or Teams. Each channel has its own configuration block.

Notification Channel Configuration

Channel	Configuration Options
Email	Search for and add recipients. Both individual users and groups are supported.
Slack	Select Channel to post to a public channel, or Users to message specific people directly.
Teams	Select a Teams Workspace, then select Channel to post to a channel within that workspace, or Users to message specific people directly.

Note

If you do not select any channel, only the monitor creator is alerted on failures.

Configure Notifications

To configure monitor-level notifications:

1. Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and from the left-pane menu, click the Monitors tab.

2. Open an existing monitor, or create a new monitor and proceed to the Schedule & Launch step.

3. In the Notifications section, select one or more channels.

4. Configure each selected channel.

5. To configure the Teams channel, select a Teams Workspace. This list only shows Teams that have had the Alation app successfully added.

   Note

   If the Teams Workspace dropdown displays No channels available, no Team in your organization has completed the one-time Alation app setup. For setup steps, see Configure Microsoft Teams to Receive Data Quality Notifications.

6. If you are editing an existing monitor, click Save Changes.

7. If you are creating a new monitor, click Launch Monitor.

Override Notifications for Specific Checks

By default, all checks in a monitor use the same notification settings. You can override this for specific checks so that critical checks alert one set of recipients while informational checks alert another.

Warning

Configuring a per-check override for any check turns off monitor-level notifications for the entire monitor. As long as at least one check has a configured override, only checks with an override send notifications. Checks without an override do not send any notifications until you configure one for them.

Monitor-level notifications resume for all checks only when no check on the monitor has an override configured.

The location of this control differs slightly depending on whether you are creating or editing a monitor:

• When you create a monitor, Per-check Routing appears inside the Notifications section of the Schedule & Launch step.

• When you edit an existing monitor, Per-check Routing appears in the Checks tab within Manage, above the list of tables and checks, and not in the Notifications block on the Settings tab.

To configure per-check routing while creating a monitor:

1. In the Schedule & Launch step, in the Notifications section, turn on the Per-check Routing toggle.

2. Optionally, in the search field, search for a check by column name or description.

3. Optionally, click a category chip, such as Completeness, Timeliness, Uniqueness, or Validity, to filter the list to that check category.

4. Select the checkbox next to each check you want to route differently.

5. Optionally, select the checkbox next to a column or table to select all of its checks at once.

6. Click Set notifications.

7. In the panel that appears, configure the channels and recipients for the selected checks.

8. Click Apply.

To configure per-check routing on an existing monitor:

1. Navigate to the Alation Data Quality application and from the left-pane menu, click the Monitors tab.

2. Click the monitor name to open the Monitors page.

3. Click the Manage tab, then click Checks.

4. Turn on the Per-check Routing toggle.

5. Follow steps 2 through 8 in the creation procedure above.

Note

The Set notifications for N check(s) panel that opens after you click Set notifications uses the same Email, Slack, and Teams configuration blocks described in Notification Channels above, including the Teams Workspace requirement and the Channel / Users toggle.

Note

The counter above the check list, for example 0 selected of 3 available, shows how many checks remain eligible for a new override. Checks that already have an override are not counted as available.

Each overridden check displays a Custom Routing pill. Checks without an override do not display this pill.

To modify an override, click the pencil icon on the Custom Routing pill.

To remove an override, click the trash icon on the pill.

• If other checks on the monitor still have an override configured, the check you removed the override from stops sending any notifications. It does not fall back to monitor-level routing while other overrides remain.

• If this was the last remaining override on the monitor, monitor-level notifications resume for all checks.

To collapse all expanded tables and columns in the list, click Collapse all.

Note

Notification routing for anomaly metrics is not configurable per metric. Anomaly metrics always inherit the monitor-level notification settings.

Manage Monitor Owners

An owner can edit or delete a monitor. Ownership is separate from notifications. Adding someone as an owner does not add them as a notification recipient.

When you create a monitor, you are added as its owner by default. You can add additional owners at any time.

To add an owner:

1. In the Owners section, search for a user or group.

2. Select the user or group from the search results.

To remove the default creator as an owner, first add at least one other owner. Alation Data Quality requires every monitor to have at least one owner and prevents you from removing the last remaining owner.

Note

If owners want to be notified when checks fail, add them as recipients in the Notifications section. Ownership alone does not trigger any alerts.

Grant Edit Permissions

Edit permissions grant a user or group the ability to modify a monitor without making them an owner. Server Admins, Catalog Admins, Source Admins, and monitor owners always have edit access and do not need to be added here.

To grant edit permissions:

1. In the Edit Permissions section, search for a user or group.

2. Select the user or group from the search results.

If no users or groups have been granted edit permissions, this section displays descriptive text only.

Use User Groups for Notifications and Ownership

You can add a user group as a notification recipient, an owner, or an edit-permission grantee, in addition to individual users. A group appears as a single entry representing all its members. When a notification is sent, Alation resolves the group to its current membership at that time.