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The CFEngine Enterprise Mission Portal has no webhook notification method, but an alert can be associated with a custom action script: when the alert triggers, clears, or sends a reminder, the hub runs the script and passes it one argument, the path of the alert parameter file. This integration provides a script that posts that parameter file to Flashduty as is. Each CFEngine alert maps to one Flashduty alert: it opens when the alert triggers and closes automatically when it clears.
Alerts and custom actions are only available in the Mission Portal of CFEngine Enterprise (including the free edition for up to 25 hosts). CFEngine Community does not have them.

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In Flashduty On-call

You can get the integration push URL in either of the following ways.

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Use a dedicated integration

  1. In the Flashduty console, select Channel and open a channel
  2. Select Configuration → Integrations → Private integration, then click Add an integration
  3. Select CFEngine and click Save
  4. Open the new integration card and copy the Push URL

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Use a shared integration

  1. In the Flashduty console, select Integration Center → Alert Events
  2. Select CFEngine and enter an integration name
  3. Configure the default route and select a channel. You can add more rules under Routes after creation
  4. Click Save and copy the generated Push URL

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Configure CFEngine

The steps below are based on CFEngine Enterprise 3.27. Uploading custom action scripts and associating them with alerts requires the admin role in Mission Portal. The script only needs bash and curl on the hub.
1

Prepare the custom action script

Create a file named flashduty_custom_action.sh on your workstation and replace <push URL> with the full push URL of the Flashduty integration:
The script does not parse the parameter file. It sends every KEY='VALUE' line as is, and Flashduty parses them. If Flashduty rejects the request or the network is unreachable, curl exits with a non-zero code.
2

Upload the script

  1. Log in to Mission Portal, click Settings in the top right, and open Custom notification scripts
  2. Click Add a script, upload flashduty_custom_action.sh, and enter a name (for example Flashduty) and a description
  3. Click Save
3

Associate the script with alerts

On the Dashboard, create an alert or edit an existing one, tick Custom action in the notification settings, tick the Flashduty script uploaded in the previous step, and save. One script can be associated with many alerts; associate it with every alert that should reach Flashduty.To keep notifying while an alert stays triggered, choose a reminder interval after ticking Set reminders in the alert. Reminders also run the script, and Flashduty merges them into the existing alert.
4

Verify

Run the script by hand on the hub with a parameter file to confirm connectivity. First create alert_parameters_test:
Run bash flashduty_custom_action.sh alert_parameters_test. An Info alert appears in Flashduty. Change ALERT_STATUS in the file to 'success' and run it again; the alert closes. The test file uses an ALERT_ID that belongs to no real alert, so it does not affect real alerts.CFEngine has no “send test notification” button. To verify a real alert, make the alert condition actually hold once (for example, change a file managed by policy so that the promise status becomes Repaired), wait for the hub’s next alert check, and confirm that Flashduty receives the alert. After the condition clears, confirm that the alert closes.

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Alert Key

Flashduty uses the CFEngine alert ID ALERT_ID as the Alert Key. The CFEngine documentation describes it as the alert’s unique ID. The trigger, reminder, and clear deliveries of one alert carry the same ALERT_ID, so they land on the same Flashduty alert. Changes to the alert name, severity, failed host count, or timestamps do not change the Alert Key. ALERT_ID is only unique within one hub. If you run several hubs, create a separate Flashduty integration for each hub, so that alerts with the same ID on different hubs do not merge into or close each other. Flashduty rejects a request that has no ALERT_ID, or whose ALERT_STATUS is not fail or success.

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Alert lifecycle

One CFEngine alert covers all the hosts it is defined for. Flashduty creates one alert for it and records the failed host count in the description and labels.

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Alert severity

The severity comes from the severity selected when the alert was created, ALERT_SEVERITY: A recovery event keeps the alert’s severity.

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Alert content

  • Title: the alert name ALERT_NAME
  • Description: the condition description ALERT_CONDITION_DESCRIPTION, followed by Triggered on <failed hosts> of <total hosts> hosts.
  • Labels: check (the alert name), plus the other parameters in the file with lowercase keys, for example alert_id, alert_name, alert_severity, alert_failed_host, alert_total_host, alert_condition_name, alert_condition_type. Parameters of policy, inventory, and software update conditions follow the same rule, for example alert_policy_condition_filteritemname
Timestamp parameters (ALERT_LAST_CHECK, ALERT_LAST_EVENT_TIME, ALERT_LAST_STATUS_CHANGE), ALERT_STATUS, and the condition description are not written to labels, and neither are empty parameters. Each alert holds at most 50 labels; if there are more, the ones beyond the limit in name order are dropped.

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Troubleshooting

  • The script reports HTTP 4xx: confirm that FLASHDUTY_URL is the full push URL and includes integration_key
  • The script cannot be selected in Mission Portal: confirm that the current user has the admin role and that the script is saved under Custom notification scripts
  • Alerts are not pushed: confirm that the alert is associated with the script. The script only runs when the alert changes state or sends a reminder, so an alert that was already triggered before the association waits for its next state change or reminder
  • The alert does not recover: confirm that the alert has cleared in CFEngine. An alert deleted and recreated in CFEngine is a different alert; close any Flashduty alert left open from before the deletion by hand
For the meaning of each parameter in the file, see the CFEngine documentation Custom actions for alerts.