ConnectWise Automate Alerts

ConnectWise Automate Alert Management

Overview

Alerts in ConnectWise Automate are notifications generated by monitors, scripts, or system events that require attention. This skill covers alert listing, acknowledgment, history tracking, and ticket creation workflows.

Anti-triggers

• The rule that produced the alert — thresholds, templates and assignment are monitor configuration; use connectwise-automate-monitors.
• The PSA ticket raised from an alert — this skill covers dispatching it; the ticket's board, status, priority and SLA clock live in ConnectWise PSA. Use connectwise-psa-tickets.
• Another RMM's alerts — Datto RMM, NinjaOne, Atera and Auvik all use the word; use datto-rmm-alerts, ninjaone-alerts, atera-alerts or auvik-alerts.

Key Concepts

Alert Sources

Alert Severity Levels

Alert Lifecycle

Generated → Active → Acknowledged → Resolved
              │           │
              │           └── Ticket Created
              │
              └── Auto-Cleared (if condition clears)

Alert Status

See references/fields.md for the complete Alert and AlertHistory field reference.

API Patterns

Alerts are managed through /cwa/api/v1/Alerts endpoints using a SQL-like condition query parameter for filtering (not standard REST query params):

GET /cwa/api/v1/Alerts?condition=Status in ('New','Active')&pageSize=100
Authorization: Bearer {token}

Action endpoints (Acknowledge, Resolve, Suppress, CreateTicket) are POST requests to /Alerts/{alertID}/{Action} and most require a Notes field in the body. A bulk acknowledgment endpoint exists at /Alerts/BulkAcknowledge for handling related alerts together.

See references/api.md for the complete endpoint catalog with request/response examples (list, filter by client/severity, acknowledge, resolve, add note, create ticket, get history, suppress, bulk acknowledge).

Workflows

Get Critical Alerts Dashboard

async function getCriticalAlertsDashboard(client) {
  const criticalAlerts = await client.request(
    `/Alerts?condition=Severity >= 3 and Status in ('New','Active')&pageSize=100`
  );

  const dashboard = {
    totalCritical: criticalAlerts.length,
    byClient: {},
    byCategory: {},
    oldest: null
  };

  for (const alert of criticalAlerts) {
    // Group by client
    const clientName = alert.ClientName || 'Unknown';
    if (!dashboard.byClient[clientName]) {
      dashboard.byClient[clientName] = [];
    }
    dashboard.byClient[clientName].push({
      id: alert.AlertID,
      subject: alert.Subject,
      computer: alert.ComputerName,
      severity: alert.Severity,
      age: getAlertAge(alert.TimeGenerated)
    });

    // Group by category
    const category = alert.Category || 'Uncategorized';
    dashboard.byCategory[category] = (dashboard.byCategory[category] || 0) + 1;

    // Track oldest
    if (!dashboard.oldest || new Date(alert.TimeGenerated) < new Date(dashboard.oldest.TimeGenerated)) {
      dashboard.oldest = alert;
    }
  }

  return dashboard;
}

function getAlertAge(timeGenerated) {
  const now = new Date();
  const generated = new Date(timeGenerated);
  const diffMs = now - generated;
  const diffMins = Math.floor(diffMs / 60000);

  if (diffMins < 60) return `${diffMins} minutes`;
  if (diffMins < 1440) return `${Math.floor(diffMins / 60)} hours`;
  return `${Math.floor(diffMins / 1440)} days`;
}

Acknowledge and Create Ticket Workflow

async function acknowledgeAndCreateTicket(client, alertId, options = {}) {
  const {
    notes = 'Acknowledged and ticket created',
    priority = 2,
    boardId = 1
  } = options;

  // Get alert details
  const alert = await client.request(`/Alerts/${alertId}`);

  // Acknowledge the alert
  await client.request(`/Alerts/${alertId}/Acknowledge`, {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify({ Notes: notes })
  });

  // Create ticket
  const ticketResponse = await client.request(`/Alerts/${alertId}/CreateTicket`, {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify({
      TicketSubject: alert.Subject,
      Priority: alert.Severity >= 3 ? 1 : priority,
      BoardID: boardId,
      Notes: `Auto-created from Automate alert\n\n${alert.Message}`
    })
  });

  return {
    alert: {
      id: alertId,
      subject: alert.Subject,
      status: 'Acknowledged'
    },
    ticket: {
      id: ticketResponse.TicketID,
      number: ticketResponse.TicketNumber
    }
  };
}

Alert Triage by Client

async function triageAlertsByClient(client, clientId) {
  const alerts = await client.request(
    `/Alerts?condition=ClientID = ${clientId} and Status in ('New','Active')&pageSize=200`
  );

  const triage = {
    client: clientId,
    total: alerts.length,
    critical: [],
    error: [],
    warning: [],
    info: []
  };

  for (const alert of alerts) {
    const summary = {
      id: alert.AlertID,
      subject: alert.Subject,
      computer: alert.ComputerName,
      source: alert.SourceName,
      age: getAlertAge(alert.TimeGenerated)
    };

    switch (alert.Severity) {
      case 4: triage.critical.push(summary); break;
      case 3: triage.error.push(summary); break;
      case 2: triage.warning.push(summary); break;
      default: triage.info.push(summary);
    }
  }

  return triage;
}

Bulk Alert Resolution

async function bulkResolveAlerts(client, alertIds, notes) {
  const results = [];

  for (const alertId of alertIds) {
    try {
      await client.request(`/Alerts/${alertId}/Resolve`, {
        method: 'POST',
        body: JSON.stringify({ Notes: notes })
      });
      results.push({ alertId, status: 'resolved' });
    } catch (error) {
      results.push({ alertId, status: 'failed', error: error.message });
    }

    // Respect rate limits
    await sleep(100);
  }

  return {
    resolved: results.filter(r => r.status === 'resolved').length,
    failed: results.filter(r => r.status === 'failed').length,
    details: results
  };
}

Alert Escalation Check

async function checkAlertEscalation(client) {
  const alerts = await client.request(
    `/Alerts?condition=Status = 'Active' and Severity >= 2&pageSize=500`
  );

  const escalations = [];
  const now = new Date();

  for (const alert of alerts) {
    const generated = new Date(alert.TimeGenerated);
    const ageMinutes = (now - generated) / 60000;

    // Escalation rules based on severity and age
    let shouldEscalate = false;
    let reason = '';

    switch (alert.Severity) {
      case 4: // Critical
        if (ageMinutes > 15) {
          shouldEscalate = true;
          reason = 'Critical alert unacknowledged for 15+ minutes';
        }
        break;
      case 3: // Error
        if (ageMinutes > 60) {
          shouldEscalate = true;
          reason = 'Error alert unacknowledged for 1+ hour';
        }
        break;
      case 2: // Warning
        if (ageMinutes > 240) {
          shouldEscalate = true;
          reason = 'Warning alert unacknowledged for 4+ hours';
        }
        break;
    }

    if (shouldEscalate) {
      escalations.push({
        alertId: alert.AlertID,
        subject: alert.Subject,
        client: alert.ClientName,
        computer: alert.ComputerName,
        severity: alert.Severity,
        ageMinutes: Math.round(ageMinutes),
        reason
      });
    }
  }

  return escalations;
}

Error Handling

Common Alert API Errors

See references/examples.md for a sample error response, a safe-resolve helper that checks status before resolving, and a full multi-step alert response workflow template.

Best Practices

1. Acknowledge promptly - Shows someone is working on it
2. Add meaningful notes - Document investigation steps
3. Create tickets for tracking - Long-running issues need tickets
4. Use bulk operations - Handle related alerts together
5. Set up escalation rules - Don't let alerts age
6. Filter by severity - Focus on critical first
7. Review alert history - Understand recurring patterns and audit old/stale alerts
8. Suppress during maintenance - Avoid alert fatigue
9. Link to documentation - Reference runbooks in notes

Related Skills

• ConnectWise Automate Monitors - Alert sources
• ConnectWise Automate Computers - Alert targets
• ConnectWise Automate Scripts - Remediation scripts
• ConnectWise Automate API Patterns - Authentication and pagination