In AlertOps, there are two ways to define the delivery of notifications, User settings and Centralized settings. These options are present in Escalation Rules, on the Escalations tab. By default, User settings are applied, but at higher tiers Centralized settings become available.
User settings simply use the Contact Methods configured in the individual User Profile for each member. As you add Contact Methods, you can arrange them in order, add/remove delays and repeats, or turn some methods off or on (Note: Email-Official is a required Contact Method for system messages, and will always be present).
When a User is to have notifications delivered to them, the system will refer to their User Profile and path through the available Contact Methods as configured there. Each User may have completely different notification behavior as a result.
In many case, this is perfectly adequate, even preferrable. However, in many other cases, consistency is paramount. For this, AlertOps offers Centralized notifications.
When Centralized settings are selected, the delivery behavior is defined on the Escalations tab, and is consistent for each member in that role. Each role can be configured separately, so notifications to Primary members can be different from those for Secondary members, or you can make them all the same.
To modify the settings for a Member Role, choose the pencil icon next to that role, under the Action column.
You may then add as many Contact Methods as needed to produce the proper notifications. Contact Methods are presented as agnostic labels, which correspond to the labels in the User profile. As you add Contact Methods, you will choose the label that is appropriate for the method, and the information configured in a User's profile for that same method will be used to notify them.
Furthermore, you may add global or local delays and retries. In the header of the Edit Member Role dialog, Number of Retries and Retry Interval can be configured, and these settings will affect each Contact Method added below. Individual Contact Methods can be configured with a delay or repeat by clicking the pencil icon for that method.
It is important to note that the interval between Primary and Secondary members does not begin until all contact methods for the Primary role have been exhausted, or the alert is assigned. The introduction of delays and repeats, whether global or individual, will affect the overall time before the next member is notified.
In conclusion, User settings will allow each user to determine how they are notified by setting their contacts in their user profile, while Centralized settings allows the Manager to define the notifications in a single place that the team cannot edit without permission.