This FAQ explains how Alerts and Threshold Profiles work in Atera, guiding you through creating, assigning, and managing profiles for customers, sites, folders, and devices. Learn how to configure alerts for hardware, software, network, and custom metrics, set severity levels, and use auto-healing scripts for automated remediation. Discover how to manage notifications, prevent alert fatigue, troubleshoot missing or duplicate alerts, and leverage reporting and AI features to monitor your IT environment effectively and maintain proactive system oversight.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section presents common questions and answers about Atera alerts
Q: What are Alerts and Threshold Profiles in Atera?
A: Alerts notify you when device health or status conditions exceed values set in a Threshold Profile. Threshold Profiles define what to monitor (CPU, RAM, disk, services, event logs, SNMP, etc.) and set alert severity—Information, Warning, or Critical—across Windows, Mac, Linux, and SNMP devices.
Q: Can I pause or snooze alerts for devices?
A: Yes, you can pause alerts for a device (useful for maintenance) or snooze individual alerts to temporarily stop notifications; however, snoozing only applies to the specific alert instance and new alerts for the same issue will still generate notifications.
Q: How can I disable the "Machine status unknown" alert?
A: The "Machine status unknown" alert is triggered when a device is detected as offline or unavailable. This alert is generated by the Availability Monitoring feature, which monitors whether a device is online and responsive.
If you want to disable this alert, follow the steps in the article below:
Q: Why do I keep receiving the same alert after snoozing it?
A: Snoozing applies only to the specific alert entry you snoozed, not to future alerts.
If the same condition occurs again, even on the same device and with the same event log error, Atera generates a new alert, which will trigger a new notification. To reduce or stop repeated alerts, you’ll need to adjust the threshold configuration.
Q: How do I create and assign a Threshold Profile?
A: Go to Admin > Thresholds, create or clone a profile, add preset, custom, or script-based items, then assign it to a customer, site, folder, or device. Only assigned profiles generate alerts.
Q: What types of alerts can I configure?
A: Performance (CPU, RAM, disk), software/antivirus/firewall, services/process monitoring, Windows events, S.M.A.R.T., Exchange, network metrics, and custom/script-based items. Auto-healing scripts can also be attached to many triggers.
Q: How do I receive and manage alerts?
A: Alerts appear in the Dashboard, Alerts page, Agent Console, and Site/Customer Alerts tabs. You can filter, snooze, resolve, assign, or link alerts to tickets. Email notifications can be set globally or per customer/folder, and mobile notifications and sound alerts are available.
Q: Can alerts generate support tickets?
A: You can manually or automatically create tickets from alerts, with automatic ticket creation controlled per site, device, or alert severity via settings.
Q: Why wasn’t a ticket created for an alert?
A: A ticket may not be created for an alert due to one or more of the following reasons:
The alert is snoozed
If the alert has an active snooze period, no ticket will be created until the snooze expires.Auto-ticketing is disabled
Auto-ticketing must be enabled globally.
Check: Admin > Alerts > Auto Ticket by Severity is turned ON.Alert severity is not configured for auto-ticketing
The specific alert severity (e.g., Critical, Medium) must be enabled for the affected customer.
Check: Admin > Alerts > Alert Severity Settings for the relevant customer.The device or agent is not found
The device or agent associated with the alert no longer exists or cannot be retrieved.The customer is not found
The customer associated with the device cannot be identified in the system.No valid contact is available
The customer does not have any contacts configured, so a ticket cannot be created.
Q: Can I automate actions from alerts?
A: Yes. Alerts can automatically create tickets or run up to three auto-healing scripts per threshold item (Windows/Mac) when conditions are breached. Automation rules can filter by severity, device, or alert description.
Q: Can I assign multiple Threshold Profiles to a device?
A: No, only one profile is active per device. Assignment precedence is: Agent > Folder > Customer/Site > Global Default.
Q: How do I prevent alert fatigue?
A: Tune thresholds, adjust severity levels, add delays to suppress transient alerts, and route critical alerts to specific recipient lists. Review and prune profiles periodically to remove outdated or noisy items.
Q: How do I troubleshoot missing, duplicate, or false alerts?
A: Ensure profiles are correctly assigned, agents are online and up-to-date, scripts have proper permissions, and alert recipients are set correctly. Windows Event alerts require manual resolution, and repeated events are limited to one alert per 60 minutes.
Q: Can I report on alerts and threshold profile performance?
A: Yes. Alerts, their history, and auto-healing actions are reportable and exportable. Advanced reporting and API access allow tracking frequency, MTTR, and script response rates for performance benchmarking.
Q: How is Atera evolving alerts with AI?
A: AI Copilot & Autopilot analyze alert data to automate triage, summarize issues, suggest or execute fixes, and escalate critical problems—reducing MTTR, workload, and risk of missed alerts.
Q: Why does a device show as offline when it’s actually online?
A: False offline alerts often occur due to agent connectivity hiccups, outdated agent versions, network/firewall interruptions, or antivirus interference. To fix this, restart the Atera Agent service, ensure the agent is up to date, check firewall/AV exclusions, verify required whitelisting/ports, or run a removal and reinstall script if needed. Many customers resolve the issue simply by restarting the agent or reinstalling it.
Q: Why don’t Windows Event Log alerts auto-resolve?
A: Unlike threshold-based alerts (CPU, RAM, etc.), Windows Event Log alerts do not have a reset state and must be manually resolved. Users can mark them as resolved in the dashboard after addressing the incident. This prevents confusion around persistent alerts.
Q: Why am I receiving multiple alerts for the same issue?
A: Repeated alerts often result from brief network disruptions, agent restarts, or outdated/unsupported agent versions. Updating agents to the latest version, rebooting, and troubleshooting network issues usually reduces duplicate alerts. In stubborn cases, a full reinstall may be required.
Q: Why are alerts creating tickets under the wrong user or a random contact?
A: When Atera generates a ticket from an alert, the system must associate that ticket with a requester.
If the device that triggered the alert does not have a contact assigned, Atera will automatically assign the first created main contact in your account (the one with the lowest ContactID).
Q: Why am I missing alert notifications or receiving incorrect alerts?
A: This typically occurs due to misconfigured alert recipient settings or email severity levels. Check customer/folder alert settings, ensure only the correct recipients are selected, verify severity thresholds, and confirm firewalls or email filters are not blocking notifications.
Q: Why do devices have alert issues after an agent update?
A: Devices may appear offline after mass updates or fail to reconnect. Common fixes include restarting the agent service, running a cleanup and reinstall script, or ensuring devices are online during updates.
Q: Can I assign threshold profiles via the API?
A: No, threshold profiles cannot be assigned to agents through the API. This action must be done manually within the platform.
