Notify / Alert next on rotation when there are gaps in schedule
Asked by Rosa M Fossi:

Hello Everyone,

I can't seem to quite wrap my head around how to handle alerts when there is no one on schedule.... Scenario: I've created a schedule with gaps. No coverage between 11pm and 6am. But I would like the alerts that come in overnight to then "ring" for the next person that goes on call. Would I be able to achieve this via an alert policy using this type of "gapped" schedule?

![emma-gap-schedule.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/210142i2209F0FE094015B2/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "emma-gap-schedule.png")

In reading the docs and brainstorming, it seems the only solution might be to create a 24 hour schedule instead and suppress/delay the notifications with a policy between 11pm until 5am the next morning. Is this the right approach, or am I missing something on how alerts behave when there is no one on the sched?

Thanks in advance for any insight :)


Answers:
author: Nick H
body: Hi [@Rosa M Fossi](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/153802) ,

It seems like you'd want to configure a workflow that manages after hours alerts, and this would entail adding another rotation that also manages on-call after hours.

This might be a duplicate of the present on-call rotation with different hours / same users - but in a different order offset by one user. As well, a combination of a routing rule + escalation that manages alerts after hours and corresponds with the after hours rotation of the schedule - since they would be on-call.

You can easily duplicate a rotation like so, and rearrange the order of the participants that account for the after hours on-call or "next user" on-call in the business hours rotation:

![sched1.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/210143i191678CA97546E05/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sched1.jpg")

![sched2.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/210144iEDE194B39DF39C8A/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sched2.jpg")![sched3.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/210145i6FB777AEF0443919/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sched3.jpg")

Final schedule:

![sched4.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/210146i62EB6AE25ECA90D9/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sched4.jpg")

Final workflow:

![sched5.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/210148iA7CB2D117B4EA505/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "sched5.jpg")

You'll notice that cloned after hours rotation has the on-call user matching along with the same next on-call user of the biz hours rotation. And a routing rule / escalation to manage the after hours afters - sending alerts to the same schedule, but during those hours - a different user based on the rotation.

It's important to note that if you send an alert to an on-call schedule with no user on-call, there technically isn't a next user on-call as well. So this additional rotation would help with managing that!

Hope that all makes sense. But of course let us know if you have any other questions.

comments: author: Rosa M Fossi
body: [@Nick H](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2540930) Thanks so much for the detailed post! I've reviewed your steps, and I think I understand about making the additional rotation ?... but I'm not certain we're talking about the same thing. ? I don't want anyone to receive a notification at 2:00am.

Scenario:

* Ticket comes in at 2:00am Aug 11th.
* Comm RR rules are checked, ELSE is triggered. The alert gets routed to: *Community After Hours Escalation*.
* That Escalation points to the On-Call Schedule: *Community Schedule Example*.

So based on this scenario, using the Community Schedule Example, U2 would receive a notification at 2:00am, correct?

If so, what I would like instead is for that 2:00am alert to message U1 when his rotation starts at 8:00am.


author: Nick H
body: Hi [@Rosa M Fossi](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/153802) ,

Thanks for clarifying. If you are subscribed to a Standard or Enterprise plan, you should be able to configure a [notification policy](https://support.atlassian.com/opsgenie/docs/create-and-manage-team-alert-policies/#Notification-Policy) to delay / suppress after hours alerts and notifications. Might look something like this:

![np1.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/211467i38E802F6E1C28F3C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "np1.jpg")![np2.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/211468i823ABE6586E243FB/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "np2.jpg")

If your plan does not have this functionality (Free or Essentials), then there really isn't a way to delay / suppress notifications. You'd have to route alerts to No-one during after hours, and have your team review them manually in the morning:

![np3.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/211469i58F861C7FF453BE9/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "np3.jpg")


author: Rosa M Fossi
body: [@Nick H](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2540930) thanks once again for the detailed response! I do believe we're on Standard and I should have access to notification policy. ?

So if I understand correctly: I just need to make a notification policy that covers the Off Hours schedule "gap" with a Delay / Suppress... So when the delay ends, the alert then "fires" and triggers the normal Schedule since at that point, there is someone On-Call.


Tags: cloud