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Acknowledgements

An acknowledgement (ACK) means: „I've seen the problem, no more notifications, but the status stays truthfully CRIT until fixed."

Compared to downtime: ACK isn't an expectation („this is maintenance"), but a reaction („I'm dealing with it now").

Setting an ACK

Three paths:

Where How
Web UI Host detail / error overview → service row → Ack
Mobile app Host detail → service → Ack button
Notification channel Slack/Teams have an „Ack" button right in the message

Required field: Comment — what's happening, who's on it.

Effect

  • Further notifications of this alert rule are suppressed
  • Escalation pauses
  • Status visible in UI with ACK badge + author + comment
  • SLA: ACK does not count as downtime — the service is still in outage and counts

Auto-clear on recovery

When the service is OK again:

  • ACK is cleared automatically
  • Status to OK
  • Optional recovery notification (configurable per channel)

What about a new hard state

If an acknowledged service jumps back from OK to CRIT (flapping or new problem):

  • Default: ACK stays, no notification
  • Configurable per alert rule: „auto-clear ACK on new hard after recovery" → flows through as new wave

Variant 2 makes sense when post-recovery incidents are independent.

Sticky ACK

Optional per ACK: Sticky = stays even after recovery. Useful when the issue recurs and you're waiting for a bigger fix (hardware swap in 2 weeks).

Default: not sticky.

ACK + downtime

Both can apply at once. ACK is operator action, downtime is planned maintenance. A service can be acknowledged while a downtime is laid over.

ACK in bulk

In error overview: select multiple services → Ack all with shared comment. One ACK per service with same comment.

Revoke ACK

Service detail → Remove ack. Status stays CRIT, notifications resume, escalation restarts (stage 1).

Audit

ACKs are logged with track_change — author, service, comment, time. Filter in audit log: action = ack.create / ack.clear.

Permission

Permission service.ack (default for operator+). Without it, the Ack button is disabled.

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