Quick start guide

Get up and running with ilert's incident management platform in 5 minutes with this step-by-step guide.

This guide will help you set up ilert's incident management platform and create your first incident alert in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

• An ilert account (sign up here)

• A monitoring tool or service you want to connect (optional for testing)

Step 1: Sign Up and Log In

1. Go to app.ilert.com

2. Create your account with your email address

3. Verify your email and log in to the ilert dashboard

Step 2: Create Your First Alert Source

An alert source connects your monitoring tools to ilert for reliable incident alerting. Let's create one:

1. In the ilert dashboard, click Alert sources → Alert sources

2. Click Create new alert source

3. Choose your integration type:

   • For testing: Select "Email" or "Event API"

   • For production: Select your monitoring tool (e.g., Prometheus, CloudWatch, Datadog)

4. Give your alert source a descriptive name (e.g., "Production Server Monitoring")

5. Click Next

Step 3: Set Up Escalation Policy

An escalation policy defines who gets notified when incidents are triggered to ensure reliable incident response:

1. Click Create new escalation policy

2. Name your policy (e.g., "Primary On-Call")

3. Add yourself as the first responder

4. Set escalation delays (e.g., 5 minutes)

5. Click Save and then Next

Step 4: Configure Alert Grouping

Choose how alerts should be grouped to reduce noise:

1. Select Do not group alerts for now (you can change this later)

2. Click Continue setup

Step 5: Configure Notifications

Set up how you want to receive incident notifications for reliable alerting:

1. Go to User settings → Notification settings

2. Add your phone number for SMS/calls

3. Configure your preferred notification channels

4. Set up notification rules (when to use high vs low priority)

Step 6: Test Your Setup

Send a test alert alert to verify everything works:

Option A: Using Email Integration

1. Copy the email address from your alert source

2. Send a test email to that address

3. Check your notifications

Option B: Using Event API

curl -X POST https://api.ilert.com/api/events \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "integrationKey": "<paste key here>"
    "eventType": "ALERT",
    "summary": "Test alert from Quick Start Guide",
    "details": "This is a test alert to verify your ilert incident management setup"
  }'

Step 7: Install the Mobile App

Download the ilert mobile app for iOS or Android to manage incidents on the go:

• iOS: App Store

• Android: Google Play

What's Next?

Now that you have the basics set up, explore these incident management features:

• Connect more monitoring tools - Add your existing monitoring stack for comprehensive incident coverage

• Set up on-call schedules - Create rotation schedules for your team

• Configure status pages - Communicate incidents to stakeholders and customers

• Explore ChatOps - Integrate with Slack or Microsoft Teams for incident collaboration

• Set up heartbeat monitoring - Monitor connectivity to ilert for reliable incident response

Need Help?

• Support: Contact us at [email protected]

• Live Chat: Available in the ilert app

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Congratulations! You've successfully set up ilert's incident management platform and are ready to respond to incidents faster and more effectively.