Mute alerts during maintenance

Create a suppression window so planned maintenance on a site or system does not call anyone, and preview exactly which rules and incidents it affects.

In the sidebar, open Critical Alerts, then Setup, then Suppressions. The page address is /critical-alerts/suppressions.

A suppression window is a start time, an end time and a scope. While it is in effect, matching signals are still recorded, but Nova does not call, text or email anyone about them.

Before you start

• Your admin has to give your role permission to create suppression windows.
• Know the scope: which sources, rules, source types or severities the work touches. A window with no scope mutes everything.

Steps

1. Press New suppression. The Create suppression window drawer opens.
2. Type a Name and a Reason such as "Boiler replacement at Main St". The Key fills in from the name.
3. Set Starts at and Ends at. Press Now beside either field to use the current time, or pick a length under Window: 1hr, 1 day, 1 week or 1 month. Sync lines the end up with the start again so the window keeps its length.
4. Choose the scope: Sources, Rules, Source types and Severities. Leave a field empty to mean "any".
5. Under Policy mode, keep the default, which holds back delivery, or choose the mode that only notes the suppression on the incident and still delivers.
6. Under Bypass severities, pick any severities that should still get through, for example Critical.
7. Press Preview impact. Nova shows how many sources, rules, active incidents and suppressed incidents the window would touch, plus any warnings.
8. Press the create button at the bottom of the drawer (it reads "Create suppression"). The window takes effect at its start time.

What you see

• Each row shows the window's state (upcoming, active, expired or archived), its scope, the reason, and the start and end times.
• The Filters button narrows by Status and Visibility; Visibility hides archived windows unless you change it.
• Change reason in the drawer is a note kept with this edit in the audit history.
• Advanced scope JSON and Advanced policy JSON appear only for roles allowed to edit them. Everyone else sees a note that advanced editing is hidden for their role.

If something looks different

• An alert still came through during the window: its severity is in Bypass severities, or its rule or source is outside the scope. Press Preview impact to check.
• The window did not start: its Status is draft or disabled. See End, disable or archive a suppression window.
• New suppression is greyed out: your role cannot create suppression windows.

Open Suppressions