Geo alert types
editGeo alert types
edit
[preview]
This functionality is in technical preview and may be changed or removed in a future release. Elastic will work to fix any issues, but features in technical preview are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features.
Two additional stack alerts are available:
Tracking threshold and Tracking containment. To enable,
add the following configuration to your kibana.yml:
xpack.stack_alerts.enableGeoAlerting: true
As with other stack alerts, you need all access to the Stack Alerts feature
to be able to create and edit either of the geo alerts.
See feature privileges for more information on configuring roles that provide access to this feature.
Geo alert requirements
editTo create either a Tracking threshold or a Tracking containment alert, the following requirements must be present:
-
Tracks index or index pattern: An index containing a
geo_pointfield,datefield, and some form of entity identifier. An entity identifier is akeywordornumberfield that consistently identifies the entity to be tracked. The data in this index should be dynamically updating so that there are entity movements to alert upon. -
Boundaries index or index pattern: An index containing
geo_shapedata, such as boundary data and bounding box data. This data is presumed to be static (not updating). Shape data matching the query is harvested once when the alert is created and anytime after when the alert is re-enabled after disablement.
By design, current interval entity locations (current is determined by date in
the Tracked index or index pattern) are queried to determine if they are contained
within any monitored boundaries. Entity
data should be somewhat "real time", meaning the dates of new documents aren’t older
than the current time minus the amount of the interval. If data older than
now - <current interval> is ingested, it won’t trigger an alert.
Creating a geo alert
editBoth threshold and containment alerts can be created by clicking the Create button in the alert management UI. Complete the general alert details. Select Tracking threshold to generate an alert when an entity crosses a boundary, and you desire the ability to highlight lines of crossing on a custom map. Select Tracking containment if an entity should send out constant alerts while contained within a boundary (this feature is optional) or if the alert is generally just more focused around activity when an entity exists within a shape.
With recent advances in the alerting framework, most of the features available in Tracking threshold alerts can be replicated with just a little more work in Tracking containment alerts. The capabilities of Tracking threshold alerts may be deprecated or folded into Tracking containment alerts in the future.
Tracking threshold
editThe Tracking threshold alert type runs an Elasticsearch query over indices, comparing the latest entity locations with their previous locations. In the event that an entity has crossed a boundary from the selected boundary index, an alert may be generated.
Defining the conditions
editTracking threshold has a Delayed evaluation offset and 4 clauses that define the condition to detect, as well as 2 Kuery bars used to provide additional filtering context for each of the indices.
- Delayed evaluation offset
-
If a data source lags or is intermittent, you may supply
an optional value to evaluate alert conditions following a fixed delay. For instance, if data
is consistently indexed 5-10 minutes following its original timestamp, a Delayed evaluation
offset of
10 minuteswould ensure that alertable instances are still captured. - Index (entity)
-
This clause requires an index or index pattern, a time field that will be used for the time window, and a
geo_pointfield for tracking. - By
-
This clause specifies the field to use in the previously provided
index or index pattern for tracking Entities. An entity is a
keywordornumberfield that consistently identifies the entity to be tracked. - When entity
- This clause specifies which crossing option to track. The values Entered, Exited, and Crossed can be selected to indicate which crossing conditions should trigger an alert. Entered alerts on entry into a boundary, Exited alerts on exit from a boundary, and Crossed alerts on all boundary crossings whether they be entrances or exits.
- Index (Boundary)
-
This clause requires an index or index pattern, a
geo_shapefield identifying boundaries, and an optional Human-readable boundary name for better alerting messages.
Tracking containment
editThe Tracking containment alert type runs an Elasticsearch query over indices, determining if any documents are currently contained within any boundaries from the specified boundary index. In the event that an entity is contained within a boundary, an alert may be generated.
Defining the conditions
editTracking containment alerts have 3 clauses that define the condition to detect, as well as 2 Kuery bars used to provide additional filtering context for each of the indices.
- Index (entity)
-
This clause requires an index or index pattern, a time field that will be used for the time window, and a
geo_pointfield for tracking. - When entity
- This clause specifies which crossing option to track. The values Entered, Exited, and Crossed can be selected to indicate which crossing conditions should trigger an alert. Entered alerts on entry into a boundary, Exited alerts on exit from a boundary, and Crossed alerts on all boundary crossings whether they be entrances or exits.
- Index (Boundary)
-
This clause requires an index or index pattern, a
geo_shapefield identifying boundaries, and an optional Human-readable boundary name for better alerting messages.
Conditions for how an alert is tracked can be specified uniquely for each individual action. An alert can be triggered either when a containment condition is met or when an entity is no longer contained.
