Observability

Observability in Tessell lets you monitor your databases and servers in real time and get notified through email, Slack, or webhook when something needs attention. You set up policies that watch either performance metrics or platform operations, and Tessell sends a notification whenever the conditions you define are met.

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Prerequisites

Ensure that you have registered your cloud subscription and added your network details in the Subscriptions application under Governance. For more information on cloud subscriptions, see Subscriptions.

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What are the two types of alert policies in Tessell?

Every alert policy in the Observability app is built around one of two rule types:

Rule type	What it does	Use it when
Metric	Monitors and alerts on DB and OS metric thresholds	You want to know when a value (like CPU usage or replication lag) crosses a limit you define
Operation	Triggers alerts based on operation outcomes and failures	You want to know when a platform action (like provisioning, cloning, or patching) starts, succeeds, or fails

You choose one rule type per policy at creation time. A single policy can contain multiple rules of that type, but you cannot mix Metric and Operation rules in the same policy — a policy is either entirely Metric-based or entirely Operation-based.

Figure 1 — Selecting Metric or Operation as the rule type

What severity levels are available?

Every rule, regardless of rule type, is assigned a severity. Severity determines how an alert is labeled and prioritized when it's triggered.

Severity	Typical use
Info	Informational — tracks an event that doesn't need action, such as an operation completing successfully
Warning	Flags a condition worth keeping an eye on, but not urgent
High	Flags a condition that needs attention soon
Critical	Flags a severe condition that needs immediate attention

You can assign different severities to different conditions within the same rule. For example, a Metric rule can fire as Warning at one threshold and escalate to Critical at a higher threshold, and an Operation rule can fire as Info on success and Critical on failure.

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Channel Settings

Channel Settings is where you configure how and where alert notifications are delivered. It has two tabs: Channels and Channel Groups.

What is a channel?

A channel is a single notification destination — an email address, a Slack channel, or a webhook endpoint. You can add as many channels as you need.

Add a channel

1. Go to Channel Settings > Channels.
2. Select + Add Channels.
3. Select a channel type: Email, Slack, or Webhook.
4. Enter a Display Name to identify the channel.
5. Fill in the fields specific to the channel type:

   Channel type	Fields
   Email	Email Id
   Slack	Slack Channel Name, Slack API URL
   Webhook	Endpoint URL, and Headers — either HTTP Basic Auth (Authorization, Token) or API Key (Key, Value)

6. Select Add Channel.

Figure 2 — Add Channel dialog

Delete a channel

1. Go to Channel Settings > Channels.
2. Select the ellipsis icon next to the channel, then select Delete.
3. Review the warning: deleting a channel permanently removes it, and any groups or policies attached to it will be affected.
4. Select Delete Channel to confirm.

What is a channel group?

A channel group bundles one or more channels together so you can attach them to a policy as a single unit, instead of selecting individual channels every time. For example, a channel group named "DBA On-Call" might include two email channels and a Slack channel that should all receive the same alerts.

Create a channel group

1. Go to Channel Settings > Channel Groups.
2. Select + Create Channel Group.
3. Enter a Group Name.
4. Under Select Channels, expand Emails, Slack, or Webhook and select the channels to include.
5. Select Create Channel Group.

Edit a channel group

1. Go to Channel Settings > Channel Groups.
2. Select the ellipsis icon next to the group, then select Edit.
3. Update the Group Name or change the selected channels.
4. Select Save Changes.

Delete a channel group

1. Go to Channel Settings > Channel Groups.
2. Select the ellipsis icon next to the group, then select Delete.
3. Review the warning: any policies attached to this group will stop delivering alerts and notifications immediately.
4. Select the I understand the consequences, continue to action check box.
5. Select Delete Group to confirm.

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Policies

The Policies page lists every alert policy in your account, along with its status, rule type, subscriptions, and attached channel group.

Column	Description
Policy name	The name given to the policy
Status	Active or Inactive
Rule type	Metric or Operation
Subscriptions	The subscription(s) the policy monitors
Channel Group Attached	The channel group notifications are sent to, or "No group attached"
Last Modified On	Date and time of the last change
Created by	The user who created the policy

You can filter the list by Status, Subscription, Rule type, and Created by, or search by policy name.

How do I create an alert policy?

Creating a policy in the Observability app is a three-step process: Configure Rules, Policy Details, and Review Policy.

1. Go to Policies and select + Create Policy.
2. Complete Step 1: Configure Rules (see below).
3. Complete Step 2: Policy Details (see below).
4. Complete Step 3: Review Policy and select Create Policy.

Step 1: Configure Rules

Define the monitoring scope by selecting a rule type and adding one or more rules.

1. Under Rule type, select either Metric or Operation. This choice applies to the entire policy — you cannot add both Metric and Operation rules to the same policy.
2. Select Add Rules > Select a Metric (or Select a Operation) to open the rule picker.
3. Configure the rule as described below, then select Add Rule.
4. Repeat to add more rules. Each added rule appears as a card showing its name, category, and configured severities, with Edit and Delete options.
5. Select Continue to Details.

How do I configure a Metric rule?

1. In the metric picker, filter by DB Metrics or OS Metrics.

   • For DB Metrics, further filter by engine: All, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, or MySQL.
   • For OS Metrics, further filter by OS: All, Linux, or Windows.
2. Select a metric category (for example, CPU, Memory, Storage) to see the available metrics, then select one.
3. Review the metric description shown on the rule card.
4. Under Severity, Condition, and Threshold, set the trigger logic — for example, Severity Critical, Condition Equal to (=), Threshold 0.
5. Optionally, select Add New Severity to define multiple severity levels with different thresholds for the same metric.
6. Set the Evaluation Window (in mins) — how long a condition must hold before the alert fires.
7. Select Add Rule.

Figure 3 — Configuring a Metric rule

How do I configure an Operation rule?

1. In the operation picker, select a category to see the available operations, then select one.
2. For each rule, add one or more Outcome and Severity pairs — for example, Outcome Success with Severity Info, Outcome Failed with Severity Warning, Outcome Running with Severity High.
3. Optionally, select Add New Severity to add more outcome-severity pairs. Available severities are Info, Warning, High, and Critical.
4. Select Add Rule.

Available Operation categories:

Category	Operations
Provisioning	Provision Service
Cloning	Clone Service
Backup	DB Service Backup, Exadata DB Service Backup, DB Service Snapshot
Switchover	Switchover Service
Patching	Patch Service
Resizing	Resize Service

Figure 4 — Configuring an Operation rule

Step 2: Policy Details

Name your policy, select a subscription, attach a channel group, and configure your alert message.

1. Enter a Policy name.
2. Under Subscriptions, select one or more subscriptions this policy applies to. Selected subscriptions appear as removable chips.
3. Under Channel group, select the channel group that should receive notifications from this policy.
4. Review the Default annotations — these are automatically included in every alert message and vary based on the rule type (for example, Source Version, New Primary, Engine, Target Version, DB Service, Old Primary).
5. Optionally, turn on Custom annotations to add extra context to alert messages, such as a team name or escalation contact:

   1. Choose Static for a fixed label and value, or Dynamic for a value that changes based on context.
   2. Enter a Label and Value — for example, Label "Team", Value "DBA On-Call".
   3. Select Add Annotation.
6. Select Review Policy.

Step 3: Review Policy

Review the full policy configuration before it goes live. The policy becomes active as soon as you create it.

The review page shows:

• Configured Rules — the rule type and the list of rules added in Step 1.
• Policy Details — the policy name, subscriptions, channel group, and annotation counts.
• View Preview — expand this to see exactly what the alert notification will look like (see What does an alert notification look like?).

Select Create Policy to finish, or Back to make changes.

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How do I view or manage an existing policy?

Select a policy from the Policies list to open its details page. Here you can see its status, review who created and last updated it, and manage its rules, channel group, message, and subscriptions — all without recreating the policy.

The policy details page has four tabs: Rules, Channel Group Attached, Message, and Subscriptions.

Rules tab

View all rules configured on the policy. Use Search, filter by Severity, or Sort By name to find a specific rule.

• Select + Add Rules to add more rules to the policy, following the same steps as in Configure Rules. New rules must match the policy's existing rule type — Metric or Operation.
• Select Edit Rules to open the Edit Rules page:

  1. Use Search, Severity, or Sort By to locate the rule you want to change.
  2. Select Edit next to the rule, then update its severity, condition, threshold, or evaluation window as described in Configure Rules.
  3. Select Save Changes to confirm the rule, or select the trash icon to remove the rule entirely.
  4. After making all your changes, select Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Channel Group Attached tab

View the channel group currently attached to the policy, including its name, channels, and when it was last modified.

• Select the ellipsis icon next to the group, then select Replace Group to switch to a different channel group. Select a new group from the Channel group dropdown and select Save Changes.
• Select the ellipsis icon, then select Detach Group to remove the channel group from this policy. Review the warning — members of the group will stop receiving alerts and notifications immediately, though the channel group itself is not deleted, only detached — then select Detach group to confirm.

Message tab

See a summary of the annotations included in the alert message: how many Default fields are auto-included, and how many Custom annotations have been added.

• Select View Alert Preview to see exactly what the notification looks like across Email, Slack, and Webhook (see What does an alert notification look like?).
• Select Edit to open the Edit Message dialog:

  1. Review the Default annotations — these vary depending on the rule type and metric or operation selected. For example, a metric-based policy might include fields like service_instance_role, threshold, service_name, severity, tenant_name, alert_profile_name, tenant_id, alertname, and service_instance_id.
  2. Optionally, add a Custom annotation: choose Static or Dynamic, enter a Label and Value (for example, Label "Team", Value "DBA On-Call"), and select Add Annotation.
  3. Select Save Changes.

Subscriptions tab

View the subscriptions this policy monitors, including their status, cloud provider, and number of DB services.

• Select + Add Subscription to attach another subscription:

  1. From the Subscriptions dropdown, select the check box next to each subscription to add.
  2. Select Add Subscriptions.
• Select the ellipsis icon next to a subscription, then select Detach Subscription to remove it from the policy. Review the warning — any alerts currently firing for resources in this subscription will stop, though the subscription itself is not deleted, only detached — then select Detach Subscription to confirm.

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What does an alert notification look like?

Select View Preview during policy review to see a live preview of the alert message across Email, Slack, and Webhook formats.

A typical alert message includes:

• A severity badge (INFO, WARNING, HIGH, or CRITICAL)
• A summary line describing what triggered the alert, including the current value and threshold — for example, "Clone Service - has increased to 95% (threshold: 80%)"
• The timestamp the alert was triggered
• Key details: DB Service, Node role, Policy name, and Rule name
• A View details button, plus links to View Runbook and View Documentation
• A Suggested Next Steps section with recommended troubleshooting actions specific to the alert

Figure 5 — Alert notification preview

How do I delete an alert policy?

1. Go to Policies.
2. Select the ellipsis icon next to the policy, then select Delete Policy.
3. Review the warning: all rules, subscriptions, and configurations under this policy will be permanently removed. The channel group is not deleted — only detached.
4. Review the listed impact, such as which subscriptions will be removed and which channel group will be detached.
5. Select the I understand the consequences, continue to action check box.
6. Select Delete Policy to confirm.

Note: Deleting a policy does not delete the channel group attached to it. The channel group remains available to attach to other policies.