Alert automation
Handling an alert by hand takes time. A technician has to find the affected device, check its status, review earlier alerts and activities, and check the client's policies, before deciding what to do. Many alerts turn out to need no action at all.
Alert automation does this work for you. AI agents investigate supported alerts, fix the problems that are safe to fix, and record everything on a Service Desk ticket. Alerts that do not need attention are suppressed, and repeated alerts are deduplicated. When your technicians open the ticket list, it has already been triaged: some tickets are already resolved, and the rest come with a diagnosis and recommended next steps, so technicians can focus on the tickets that need their judgment.
You decide how far the automation goes:
- The Automation level, which sets the maximum level of automation for all alerts. Each alert type runs at this level or lower, depending on what can be safely automated.
- The effective automation level of each alert type, which you can customize within that maximum. This lets you match the automation to your clients' requirements and your team's processes. For example, you can suppress spam email alerts from an email security integration, so that your team is not notified about them at all.
Alert automation is processed by a workflow that Acronis manages for you. You do not need to build or maintain a workflow. For more information, see How alert automation works.
The Diagnose and Diagnose and remediate levels create Service Desk tickets. Whether an alert creates a new ticket or is added to an existing one is decided by the same rules as for other alert tickets. For more information, see Alert-to-ticket automation.
Requirements and availability
-
Service Desk must be active for your organization. You cannot enable alert automation without Service Desk. If Service Desk is not available, the Alert automation page is not shown.
-
Alert automation is currently available to partner tenants only, and is configured at the partner level. Settings for individual clients are not currently available.
-
During the Early Access Program (EAP), alert automation is available to Service Desk EAP partners at no additional charge. For more information, see Early Access Program (EAP).
Supported alerts
Not every alert type supports every level. For some alert types, Diagnose or Diagnose and remediate is not available. In this release, automatic remediation is available for backup alert types.
Each alert type shows whether it is:
- Diagnosable – AI can investigate the alert and suggest a resolution plan.
- Remediable – AI can also fix the problem automatically, by using steps that Acronis has approved for that alert type.
Automation levels
The overall automation level applies to all alert types.
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Diagnose and remediate |
AI investigates every supported alert, and applies a fix when one is safe and verified. A Service Desk ticket is always created. Anything that AI cannot resolve goes to a technician with the full findings. Non-actionable alerts are suppressed. This is the recommended level. |
| Diagnose |
AI investigates every supported alert, and creates a Service Desk ticket with its findings for a technician. No changes are made automatically. Non-actionable alerts are suppressed. |
| Alert noise reduction |
Alerts behave as they do today, with no diagnosis, remediation, or ticket. Non-actionable alerts are still suppressed. |
| No automation |
AI diagnosis and remediation are off for all clients. Alerts keep their existing behavior, and are not suppressed. |
Which level to choose depends on how much you want to hand over. Alert noise reduction cuts down unnecessary alerts without involving AI. Diagnose turns supported alerts into tickets that already contain the AI's findings, while your technicians stay in control of every change. Diagnose and remediate goes furthest, and resolves tickets automatically when the actions are safe.
Effective automation level of each alert type
For each alert type, the effective automation level decides what happens to alerts of that type. It cannot be higher than the overall Automation level. Acronis sets a default for each alert type, and you can customize it. Only the levels that an alert type supports are available.
To make it easier to get started, Acronis suppresses some alert types by default. So when you first select an overall level, alerts of those types are dismissed, even if you have not customized anything.
| Effective automation level | Description |
|---|---|
| Suppress |
The alert is dismissed automatically. No AI processing runs, and no ticket is created. |
| Alert only |
The alert is shown as normal. No AI processing runs, and no ticket is created. |
| Diagnose |
A ticket is always created for a technician, with an AI-generated problem summary and possible root causes. If the diagnosis agent can investigate the alert type, it also adds a detailed diagnosis to the ticket. Nothing is changed automatically. |
| Diagnose and remediate |
The same as Diagnose. In addition, if the remediation agent can fix the problem and the fix passes the safety checks, the problem is fixed automatically. The ticket is resolved automatically after the fix is verified, or when the diagnosis shows that no fix is needed. |
Each alert type shows whether its behavior is the Acronis default or has been customized. If Acronis later adds support for an alert type, alert types that you have not customized can follow the new default within your overall level. Your customizations are kept.
Ticket priority, category, and assignee
When alert automation creates a ticket, the ticket priority is based on the alert severity by default:
| Alert severity | Default ticket priority |
|---|---|
| Critical | Critical |
| Error | High |
| Warning | Medium |
| Information | Low |
The default ticket category is based on the alert type. You can override the priority and category for each alert type. The alert severity itself does not change.
Tickets are assigned to the ticket pool. You cannot change the assignee in the alert automation settings.
When changes take effect
Changes on the Alert automation page are saved automatically and take effect immediately. They apply to new alerts. Alerts that are already being processed continue with the settings that were in place when processing started.