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AlarmQueueSettings - System Parameter

AlarmQueueSettings controls the retry behaviour of the Alarm Queue: how many times a queued alarm is retried, and how long one send may take. The Monitoring Service reads it when it resends queued alarms through your Alarm Plugins.

At a Glance

Property Value
Key AlarmQueueSettings
Data type json
Default {"MaxRetries":3,"TimeoutSeconds":120}
Read by Monitoring Service
Takes effect Within about 15 seconds; no restart needed.
Status ✅ Active

How It Works

When an Alarm Plugin fails to send an alert, the Monitoring Service adds it to the Alarm Queue as an Alarm Queue Entry and retries it later. AlarmQueueSettings sets the limits for those retries:

  • Each send attempt for a queued alarm may take at most TimeoutSeconds.
  • After MaxRetries failed retries, the Monitoring Service leaves the entry alone: it stops retrying, and the entry stays in the Alarm Queue for an administrator to resolve. Fix the cause (for example, the Alarm Plugin configuration or the target service), then delete the entry or purge the queue in the Alarm Queue Overview.
  • With MaxRetries set to 0, the Monitoring Service retries the entry forever, until it is sent or an administrator deletes it.
graph LR A[fa:fa-bell Alert fails to send] --> B[fa:fa-list Alarm Queue Entry] B --> C{fa:fa-rotate Retry, max TimeoutSeconds per send} C -->|Sent| D[fa:fa-check Entry removed] C -->|Failed, retries left or MaxRetries = 0| B C -->|Failed, MaxRetries reached| E[fa:fa-user-gear Entry stays for the administrator] style D fill:#93d16d style E fill:#FFD525

Retry flow for a queued alarm. Green: the alarm was sent and the entry removed. Yellow: retries are used up and the entry waits for an administrator.

While the Alarm Queue holds entries, Nodinite shows an alert to all users so an administrator can act; see What is an Alarm Queue Entry.

Value Format

Property Type Default Meaning
MaxRetries integer 3 How many times a queued alarm is retried before the Monitoring Service leaves it alone. 0 = retry forever.
TimeoutSeconds integer (seconds) 120 How long a single queued alarm may take to send.

Example that retries five times and allows one minute per send:

{
  "MaxRetries": 5,
  "TimeoutSeconds": 60
}

The value must be valid JSON. The System Parameter editor in the Web Client validates the JSON before you save it.

Editing the AlarmQueueSettings System Parameter in the Web Client (7.11)
The System Parameter edit dialog shows the key, its description, the JSON value, and the 'Json model is valid' result of the validation.

Choosing a Value

  • Keep the default unless alarms queue up often. Three retries cover short outages of a mail server or webhook endpoint.
  • Raise TimeoutSeconds when an Alarm Plugin calls a slow target, such as an HTTP webhook to an issue-tracking system.
  • Use MaxRetries 0 with care: an alarm that can never be delivered, for example because of a wrong address, keeps retrying until an administrator deletes the entry.

Next Steps