Send alert messages to a WeChat Enterprise group

You can set a chatbot to send alert messages to a WeChat group and all group members can view the alert messages.

Scenarios

Alert messages of OceanBase Cloud Platform (OCP) are pushed to the WeChat Enterprise chatbot. Then, the chatbot sends the alert messages to the WeChat group. To enable alert messages to be pushed to the chatbot of WeChat Enterprise, you only need to provide the webhook URL of the chatbot of WeChat Enterprise.

You can use the following enhanced features:

• Mention (@) a member: You must configure the mobile number of the member to be mentioned.
• Define the Markdown format for messages: You can apply boldface for alert names and display alert messages in a list.
• Set a proxy: If network communication between the intranet and the Internet is not supported, you must set a network proxy. This way, alert messages are sent to the proxy first, and then the proxy forwards the alert messages to the WeChat group.

Prerequisites

• Make sure that you have the following permissions:

  • Resource Permissions: Cluster Read-only, Tenant Read-only, OBProxy Read-only, Arbitration Service Read-only, Binlog Service Read-only, or Host Read-only permission
  • Menu Permissions: Permission on the All menu of the Alert Center

• You have created and configured a WeChat Enterprise chatbot. Each chatbot can send at most 20 messages to a group per minute

  For more information about how to connect to a WeChat Enterprise chatbot, see the WeChat Enterprise chatbot documentation.

  1. Manage chatbots in group settings.

     In an enterprise WeChat group, click the More icon, and then choose Group Robot > Add Group Robot.

  2. View the webhook URL.

• You have obtained the webhook URL of the WeChat Enterprise chatbot. After you configure the WeChat Enterprise chatbot, you will obtain its webhook URL, which is required when you configure a WeChat alert channel in OCP. To ensure the security of alert messages, keep this webhook URL confidential.

  After you obtain the webhook URL of the WeChat Enterprise chatbot, make sure that the network connection is normal. You can run the following command to send a test message for verification:

  curl -XPOST 'https://qyapi.weixin.qq.com/cgi-bin/webhook/send?key=webhook URL of your chatbot' \
  -H 'Content-Type:application/json; charset=utf-8' \
  --data '{"msgtype":"text","text":{"content":"WeChat Enterprise test message"}}' \
  --compressed \
  --insecure
  

Procedure

1. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Alert Center.

2. On the alert details page, click the Alert Channel tab.

3. On the Alert Channel tab, click Create Channel.

4. Configure the WeChat Enterprise alert channel.

   1. Basic settings

      Parameter	Required?	Description
      Channel Type	Yes	Select WeChat Enterprise from the drop-down list.
      Channel Name	Yes	The name of the channel for identification.
      Webhook URL	Yes	The access URL of the WeChat Enterprise chatbot. For information about how to obtain the access URL, see the WeChat Enterprise chatbot documentation.
      Signature Key	No	The WeChat Enterprise chatbot provides three security setting methods. You can obtain the signature key after you choose the signature security setting method.
      @Specified User	No	The entered mobile number must be the one used by the member to log on to WeChat Enterprise. When an alert is generated, this member will be mentioned in the group. You can enter multiple mobile numbers separated with commas (,).
      Proxy	No	The network proxy. The format is http:ip:port in OceanBase Cloud of a version earlier than V4.2.0, and is http://ip:port in OceanBase Cloud V4.2.0 and later. Notice If the HTTP proxy does not support HTTPS, you must change https in the webhook URL of the WeChat Enterprise chatbot to http.

   2. Message settings

      1. The default message format is text in OceanBase Cloud of a version earlier than V4.2.1, and it is in Markdown format since OceanBase Cloud V4.2.1.

      2. You can modify the message structure. Here is a sample of the message structure of the default format:

         Set Alert Message Format to Markdown. You can enter ${} to introduce a variable.

         ### OCP alert notification ${alarm_name}
         - Level: ${alarm_level}
         - Alert object: ${alarm_target}
         - Summary: ${alarm_summary}
         - Generation time: ${alarm_active_at}
         - Description: ${alarm_description}
         - OCP link: ${alarm_url}
         

5. You can use other features.

   Alert message aggregate: You can enable the channel aggregate feature to avoid repeatedly sending the same alert within a period. Since OCP V4.1.0, an alert is generated every 3 minutes by default. After you enable channel aggregate, an alert is sent only once every 10 minutes (600 seconds).

6. Click Submit.

FAQ

Message throttling

What do I do to handle issues caused by throttling?

Each WeChat Enterprise chatbot can send at most 20 messages to a group per minute. If many alert strategies are configured, we recommend that you create more chatbots and bind them with the alert strategies. This ensures that you can receive all alert notifications when multiple alert strategies are triggered at the same time. If alert messages are throttled, you can view the reason of the failure to send alert messages. After message throttling is started, all messages destined for the WeChat Enterprise group will fail. This incurs risks. You can take the following actions to resolve the issue:

• Enable the alert channel aggregate feature. This way, similar and identical alerts are sent only once within the aggregate period.
• Configure push throttling. You can configure throttling by day or hour in the push settings of OCP. You must configure push settings and the alert channel.
• Change the value of the ocp.alarm.event.resend-interval-seconds system parameter in the CLI. By default, an alert event is generated every 3 minutes.

The preceding actions can effectively reduce the number of alert messages and the probability of alert messages being throttled. However, if a large number of different alerts are generated instantaneously (more than 20 alert messages are sent within 1 minute), alert messages will be throttled.

Network disconnection

What do I do if I cannot directly access the API of WeChat Enterprise?

Use curl to check whether a test message can be sent. If no, click Create Channel on the alert details page and configure a network proxy in the Proxy field in the Basic Settings section.

Upgrade and migration

What do I do to update the alert push settings after an upgrade or migration?

In OCP of a version earlier than V4.0.1, alert messages are pushed to WeChat Enterprise through the HTTP or script channel. In OCP V4.0.1 and later, we recommend that you add a built-in WeChat Enterprise channel. To avoid verification result sending failures, observe the following rules:

• If you use the HTTP or script channel and alert messages are sent to a WeChat Enterprise group, we recommend that you use the built-in WeChat Enterprise channel and configure the channel based on this topic.

• If alert messages are sent to the alert platform of the customer and then to the WeChat Enterprise group, you can use the original alert channel and do not need to change it to the built-in WeChat Enterprise channel.

Response verification failure

What do I do if response verification fails?

Alert messages may fail to be received or may not be sent when an invalid alert script is used. To avoid these issues, response verification will fail if the script is nonstandard. The alert script provides only one valid response, which can be a response code or response body of the API. OCP verifies whether the response matches the specified regular expression or JSON key-value pair. The response returned by the API of the WeChat Enterprise chatbot is in the JSON format. Therefore, you must specify a JSON key-value pair for verification. The response verification information of the DingTalk alert channel must be in the {"errcode":0,"errmsg":"ok"} format. The script channel should not output other content except the response. For example, you must add the -s parameter in the curl command to avoid generating progress information.