Sematext

Sematext is a cloud monitoring solution that brings metrics from all of your apps, tools, and services into one place. When events meet predetermined criteria, this integration with xMatters relays critical insight data to the correct people and systems to help them coordinate and resolve incidents faster.

This workflow lets you send actionable alerts to on-call resources when xMatters gets a signal from Sematext. Responders can initiate an incident with the press of a button, or you can build on the flow to perform automated resolution tasks.

How it works

When an alert is generated in Sematext, it sends a JSON-formatted webhook to xMatters, based on user-defined alert rules. A Sematext Monitor Alert trigger in xMatters parses the webhook and initiates a flow. The webhook includes essential alert data you can use to enrich notifications to users or when building automated tasks.

Install the workflow

The following instructions describe how to install the workflow through the xMatters one-click installation process.

  1. Go to the Workflow Templates page and click the Sematext tile.
  2. On the Set up the Workflow tab, give the workflow a name that identifies its purpose (this must be unique in your instance), add an optional description, and set the default incident type (if applicable). Any built-in Initiate Incident steps in the workflow will automatically be set to the selected incident type.
    • You can edit these later, if needed.

  3. Click Next to set up the connection.
  4. Choose the authentication method. A trigger URL is generated based on the selected authentication method.
  5. Copy the trigger URL — you’ll use this to configure the webhook in Sematext.
    • The trigger URL includes the recipients parameter, which specifies who should be notified. By default, this parameter is set to notify you (the logged in user), but you can set it to target any user or group you want.

  6. You can copy the Configuration Payload to configure the signal in the source application.
  7. Send a test signal to the trigger URL to test the connection.
  8. Click Open Workflow to view and customize the workflow, or Close to return to the Workflows page.

Configure Sematext to send requests to the trigger URL

To have Sematext send alerts to the flow trigger, you need to configure a webhook and set it to use the trigger URL. 

Create an integration between Sematext and xMatters.

  1. In Sematext, navigate to the Alerts tab and select Notification Hooks.

  2. If you don't have any notification hooks, click Create Notification Hook. If you have existing notification hooks, click New Notification Hook.

  3. Select the Custom webhook icon.

  4. Fill in the following fields for the webhook: 
    • Hook Name: xMatters
    • URL: Paste the trigger URL you copied from the Sematext Alerts trigger in Flow Designer.
    • Send data as: Json
    • HTTP method: Post

  5. Add the target names of any recipients you want xMatters to notify when the alert fires to the end of the URL.
    • For URL authentication, use an ampersand to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Emma Pearson and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Antares service, you'd add &recipients=epearson,antares to the URL.
    • For other authentication types, use a question mark to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Barry Gull and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Cassiopeia service, you'd add ?recipients=bgull,cassiopeia to the URL.
    • You must URL-encode any special characters or spaces in the target names.
  6. In the Parameters section, click Add Parameter, and fill in the following fields: 
    • Key: alert
    • Value: Paste the Configuration Payload you copied from the Sematext Alerts trigger in Flow Designer.
  7. Optional: If you use Basic Authentication, click Add Header and fill in the following fields: 
    • Key: Authorization
    • Value: Basic <your-Base64-encoded-username:password>

      • You can create a Base64 encoded username and password at https://www.base64encode.org/ or by typing echo “username:password” | base64 into a terminal

  8. Click Send Test Notification.
  9. In Flow Designer, check the Activity panel log to ensure the notification came through.
  10. In Sematext, click Save Notification Hook.

Now that the notification hook is created, attach it to an alert.

  1. Go to Alert Rules and select an existing alert to edit, or click New Alert Rule to create a new alert.

  2. On the Edit Rule window, select Notifications.

  3. In the Send to: field, add the new xMatters notification hook you just created.
  4. Save the alert rule.

You're ready to use the webhook to trigger automated flows, including steps such as sending alerts and initiating incidents, though we always recommend testing before putting things into use.

Set recipients in the trigger URL

The trigger expects the recipients in the trigger URL. When you copy the URL from xMatters, it includes the recipients parameter: recipients=<yourname>. Of course, you don’t want to receive all the alerts.

To change the recipients for alerts from this webhook, swap out your name for the people or groups you want to target.

  • For URL authentication, use an ampersand to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Emma Pearson and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Antares service, you'd add &recipients=epearson,antares to the URL.
  • For other authentication types, use a question mark to attach recipients. For example, if you want to notify Barry Gull and the on-call members in the group responsible for the Cassiopeia service, you'd add ?recipients=bgull,cassiopeia to the URL.

Remember to URL-encode any special characters, including spaces, in your group names.

We recommend using groups so you can take advantage of the xMatters group features — rotations, escalations, and absences — to reach the right on-call people to jump on an issue.

How to use the workflow

When a condition you've set fires, it sends a signal to xMatters, which creates an alert and notifies the individual or the on-call members of the people or groups you set as recipients in the webhook URL. When the trigger receives a signal saying the issue is resolved, it automatically terminates related alerts in xMatters.

The person responding to the notification has the following response options:

  • Acknowledge: Acknowledges the notifications and stops escalations.
  • Escalate: Immediately escalates the alert to the next on-call resolver in a targeted group.
  • Close: Ends the xMatters alert and stops notifying all targeted recipients.
  • Initiate Incident: Initiates an incident in xMatters.

Next Steps

Now that you've installed the workflow, you can use it as-is, or customize it to suit your needs better. Here are some examples of things you can add to the workflow to customize it:

If you choose to use Basic instead of URL authentication, you need to update the webhook in Sematext to include an authorization header with the base64-encoded username and password of an authenticating user or integration user.

You can create this value by following the instructions below:

  1. Go to https://www.base64encode.org/
  2. In the “Encode to Base64 format” area, type the username and password separated by a colon (for example, if the username is datadog and the password is 5x>W!AkdfaHJd6092D, you'd enter datadog:5x>W!AkdfaHJd6092D).
  3. Click Encode, and copy the result.

    Example: ZGF0YWRvZzo1eD5XIUFrZGZhSEpkNjA5MkQ=

  4. Use the encoded username/password in Step 7 of the instructions.