With rule-based alerts, also called Custom Alerts, Salesforce admins can receive alerts of unusual Salesforce activity that could be an indicator of malicious events, data corruption, or a failed integration.
As a Spanning Backup for Salesforce admin, you can set alerts when there is a significant activity (adds, deletes, modifications) on any object type.
You can set two types of alerts:
Absolute Alert: Get notified when the number of objects added/deleted/modified goes over or under a preset number. For example, you could set up an alert to notify you when 200 or more accounts are deleted. If you have an integration that normally updates all your accounts every night, and wants to be alerted if it stops working, you could set an alert to notify you when the number of account updates is too low.
Relative Alert: Get notified when the number of objects deleted, modified or added goes up or down vs. the previous backup -- either by a specific number of objects or by a percentage. For example, if you want to spot unusually high deletion activity on contacts, you could set an alert to notify you when the number of contact deletions noted in the most recent backup increases by at least 20% vs. the previous backup.
When a backup completes, Spanning Backup totals the number of objects added, deleted, modified and undeleted for each object type. Then based on the alerts you have configured, it will send you an email or post in chatter for each alert condition that was triggered. The activity log for a backup will also show which objects triggered alerts.
The alerts use the same Notification settings you set up to determine where status reports go. Alerts will go to the status report notification email. And if the Notification settings also include posting to Chatter, Spanning will post any alerts to Chatter.
Example
Suppose you want to receive alerts if at least 100 Contacts get modified between backups.
First, go to the Spanning dashboard and select Settings.
From the Settings tab, scroll down to the Rule-Based Alerts section and click on Edit Alerts.
The Alert panel changes to edit mode, where you can add new rules and edit any existing rules.
Example: To set a rule that alerts when 100 or more contacts are deleted,
- Change the first pulldown to deleted.
- Select the object type to Contact.
- Choose “is at least”.
- Enter 100.
Now you see the rule expressed as The number of deleted Contact records is at least 100.
Press the save icon to save the alert. You will see a confirmation. You can now press Add Alert to add another alert, or press Done when you are finished.
If the most recent backup captures 100 or more contact deletions, then an email goes to the address set in Status Report Notifications.
The Recent Activity log will show a Bell icon next to any backup that triggers one or more alerts. Hover over the alert to see details.
The activity history for your backup will also show a bell next to each object type that triggered one or more alarms.
Notes
- Every time a new rule is added, or an existing rule is deleted or modified, it is logged in the immutable Activity Log. Go to Activity History and select Settings History to see rule editing activity.
- If Chatter posts are enabled, a notification goes to Chatter.
If you have any additional questions, please reach out to Spanning Support.