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Notification System #

Complete guide to configuring email, SMS, Slack, and webhook notifications for server status changes.

Overview #

The notification system sends alerts when servers cross status thresholds:

  • Success → Failure: Server goes down
  • Failure → Success: Server comes back online

Notifications are smart - they only trigger on meaningful status changes, not every check.

Features #

  • Multi-channel: Email, SMS, Slack, and custom webhooks
  • Per-user configuration: Each admin can have different preferences
  • Plan-based restrictions: SMS/webhooks only available on paid plans
  • Cost tracking: All communications logged with costs
  • Threshold-based: Only alerts on status changes that matter
  • Escalation policies: Auto-escalate unacknowledged incidents
  • Scheduling: Business hours, after hours, or always

Configuring Notifications #

1. Access Notification Settings #

Navigate to Settings → Notifications in the backend.

Access Requirements:

  • Organization administrator privileges
  • Or Albright Labs staff account

2. Add Notification Recipients #

Click Add user notifications to configure alerts for team members:

User Selection #

  • Choose from users in your organization
  • Users must have valid email addresses
  • Phone numbers required for SMS notifications

Email Notifications #

  • Available on all plans (Free, Basic, Pro, Enterprise)
  • No additional cost
  • Rich HTML templates with status badges

SMS Notifications #

  • Not available on Free plan
  • Available on paid plans (Basic, Pro, Enterprise)
  • Costs ~$0.0075 per message (configurable)
  • Requires valid phone numbers

3. Notification Settings Per User #

For each user, configure:

👤 John Doe (john@company.com) (555-123-4567)
  ☑️ Email Notifications
  ☑️ SMS Notifications    [Paid plans only]

Email Configuration #

SMTP Setup #

Configure your email driver in config/mail.php:

'default' => 'smtp',

'mailers' => [
    'smtp' => [
        'transport' => 'smtp',
        'host' => env('MAIL_HOST', 'smtp.mailgun.org'),
        'port' => env('MAIL_PORT', 587),
        'encryption' => env('MAIL_ENCRYPTION', 'tls'),
        'username' => env('MAIL_USERNAME'),
        'password' => env('MAIL_PASSWORD'),
    ],
],

'from' => [
    'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS', 'alerts@yourdomain.com'),
    'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME', 'Your Monitoring Service'),
],

Environment Variables #

MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.mailgun.org
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=your-mailgun-username
MAIL_PASSWORD=your-mailgun-password
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=alerts@yourdomain.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="Your Monitoring Service"

Email Template #

The system uses a responsive HTML template featuring:

  • Status badges with color coding (green/red)
  • Server information (name, status, time)
  • Branded design using your configured branding
  • Mobile-friendly layout

Example email content:

Subject: example.com: status changed to 500!

[❤️ / 💔 Icon based on status]

Albright Heartbeat Alert
example.com: status changed to [500]

[Branded footer with company information]

SMS Configuration #

Twilio Setup #

  1. Create Twilio Account

  2. Get API Credentials

    • Account SID: Found in Twilio Console
    • Auth Token: Found in Twilio Console
    • Phone Number: Your purchased Twilio number

  3. Configure Environment

    TWILIO_SID=your-account-sid
TWILIO_TOKEN=your-auth-token
TWILIO_NUMBER=+1234567890
SERVER_MONITOR_SMS_COST=0.0075

SMS Template #

SMS messages are concise and informative:

example.com: Status changed from 200 to 500.

Cost Management #

SMS costs are tracked per message:

  • Default cost: $0.0075 per message
  • Configurable: Update SERVER_MONITOR_SMS_COST in .env
  • Logged: All SMS costs tracked in communication logs
  • Reportable: View costs in organization management

Slack Integration #

For detailed Slack setup, see the Slack Notifications Guide.

Quick Setup #

  1. Create an Incoming Webhook in your Slack workspace
  2. Add the webhook URL in organization settings
  3. Configure notification schedule

Custom Webhooks #

Overview #

Custom webhooks allow you to send alerts to any HTTP endpoint, enabling integration with:

  • PagerDuty
  • Discord
  • Telegram
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Custom internal systems

Webhook Configuration #

  1. Navigate to Settings → Notifications → Webhooks
  2. Add your webhook URL
  3. Configure the events to trigger
  4. Save and test

Webhook Payload #

Webhooks receive a JSON payload with rich context:

{
  "event": "server.status_changed",
  "server": {
    "id": 123,
    "title": "Production API",
    "endpoint": "https://api.example.com",
    "status": 500,
    "previous_status": 200
  },
  "organization": {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Acme Corp"
  },
  "timestamp": "2025-01-01T12:00:00Z",
  "incident": {
    "id": 456,
    "state": "pending",
    "created_at": "2025-01-01T12:00:00Z"
  }
}

HMAC Signature Verification #

For security, webhooks include an HMAC signature in the X-Signature header:

$signature = hash_hmac('sha256', $payload, $webhookSecret);

Verify incoming webhooks:

$providedSignature = $request->header('X-Signature');
$expectedSignature = hash_hmac('sha256', $request->getContent(), $secret);

if (!hash_equals($expectedSignature, $providedSignature)) {
    return response('Invalid signature', 401);
}

Escalation Policies #

Overview #

Escalation policies automatically escalate unacknowledged incidents to backup recipients after a configurable delay.

Configuration #

  1. Navigate to Settings → Notifications → Escalation
  2. Set escalation delay (e.g., 15 minutes)
  3. Configure backup recipients
  4. Save settings

How It Works #

  1. Incident created → Primary recipients notified
  2. If not acknowledged within delay → Backup recipients notified
  3. Continues until acknowledged or resolved

Notification Scheduling #

Schedule Options #

  • Always: Notifications sent 24/7
  • Business Hours: Only during configured hours
  • After Hours: Only outside business hours
  • Custom Schedule: Define specific windows

Configuration #

// Example schedule configuration
$settings->schedule = [
    'type' => 'business_hours',
    'start' => '09:00',
    'end' => '17:00',
    'timezone' => 'America/New_York',
    'days' => ['monday', 'tuesday', 'wednesday', 'thursday', 'friday']
];

How Notifications Work #

Threshold Detection #

The system only sends notifications when status crosses meaningful thresholds:

Triggers Notification:

  • 200 → 500 (Success to Failure)
  • 404 → 200 (Failure to Success)
  • null → 500 (First check fails)

Does NOT Trigger:

  • 200 → 201 (Success to Success)
  • 500 → 404 (Failure to Failure)
  • 200 → 200 (No change)

Success/Failure Codes #

Success Codes: 100, 200, 201, 204, 300, 301, 302, 304 Failure Codes: 400, 401, 403, 404, 500, 502, 503

Processing Flow #

  1. Server check completes with new status
  2. Log entry created with status change
  3. Threshold analysis determines if notification needed
  4. Recipient lookup finds configured administrators
  5. Email dispatch to users with email enabled
  6. SMS dispatch to users with SMS enabled (paid plans only)
  7. Slack/Webhook dispatch if configured
  8. Communication logs record all sent messages

Plan Restrictions #

Free Plan Limitations #

  • Email notifications included
  • SMS notifications not available
  • Custom webhooks not available
  • 1 notification recipient maximum
  • No escalation policies
  • Email notifications included
  • SMS notifications available
  • Custom webhooks available
  • Unlimited notification recipients
  • Full communication logs and cost tracking
  • Escalation policies

Communication Logs #

Viewing Logs #

For Organization Admins:

  • Logs visible in individual server details
  • Shows last 20 notifications per server

For Albright Labs Staff:

  • Complete logs in organization management
  • Cost summaries and analytics
  • Cross-organization reporting

Log Details #

Each communication log includes:

  • Timestamp: When notification was sent
  • Type: Email, SMS, Slack, or Webhook
  • Recipient: Email address, phone number, or webhook URL
  • Content: Message content sent
  • Status: Delivery status (sent, delivered, failed)
  • Cost: Cost in USD (SMS only)

Troubleshooting #

Email Issues #

Emails not sending:

# Test mail configuration
php artisan tinker
>>> Mail::raw('Test', function($m) { $m->to('test@example.com')->subject('Test'); });

Check logs:

tail -f storage/logs/laravel.log | grep -i mail

Common fixes:

  • Verify SMTP credentials
  • Check firewall rules (port 587)
  • Validate DNS/SPF records

SMS Issues #

SMS not sending:

# Enable debug mode
SERVERMONITOR_NOTIFICATION_DEBUG=true

Check Twilio credentials:

php artisan tinker
>>> $client = new \Twilio\Rest\Client(env('TWILIO_SID'), env('TWILIO_TOKEN'));
>>> $client->messages->create('+1234567890', ['from' => env('TWILIO_NUMBER'), 'body' => 'Test']);

Common fixes:

  • Verify Twilio credentials
  • Check phone number format (+1XXXXXXXXXX)
  • Ensure sufficient Twilio balance
  • Validate webhook URLs

Debug Mode #

Enable detailed notification logging:

SERVERMONITOR_NOTIFICATION_DEBUG=true

This logs:

  • Threshold crossing analysis
  • Recipient selection process
  • Email sending attempts
  • SMS API responses
  • Delivery confirmations

Important: Disable in production to avoid log spam.

Testing Notifications #

Manual Testing #

  1. Add a test server with a URL that will fail
  2. Configure notifications for your email/phone
  3. Wait for status change or manually trigger check
  4. Verify notifications arrive properly

Console Testing #

# Test notification system
php artisan servermonitor:testalerts

Note: This requires a server with endpoint https://albrightlabs.com for testing.

Best Practices #

Recipient Management #

  • Keep current: Remove users who leave the organization
  • Test regularly: Verify phone numbers and emails work
  • Plan limits: Stay within user limits for your plan

Cost Control #

  • Monitor usage: Check communication logs regularly
  • Optimize recipients: Don't over-notify
  • Plan accordingly: Factor SMS costs into plan selection

Performance #

  • Avoid loops: Don't set servers that monitor the monitoring system
  • Batch updates: System automatically handles burst notifications
  • Queue health: Monitor worker performance to ensure timely delivery

Next Steps #

After configuring notifications:

  1. Add Your First Server - Start monitoring
  2. Set Up Slack - Configure Slack integration
  3. Monitor Performance - Ensure reliable delivery

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