Phone Call Notifications for Grafana Alerts via Echobell

Set up phone call notifications for Grafana alerts using Echobell webhooks: step-by-step setup, best practices, and troubleshooting.

Phone Call Notifications for Grafana Alerts via Echobell

Email and chat notifications are easy to miss during incidents. For critical alerts, Echobell can turn Grafana webhook notifications into actual phone calls with escalation and retry support. This guide walks through the full setup.

Relevant docs:

Prerequisites

  1. Echobell account with an active channel and webhook URL (see /docs/webhook)
  2. Admin access to your Grafana instance
  3. At least one alert rule configured

Setup

Step 1 — Create a Webhook contact point in Grafana

  1. Go to Alerting → Contact points
  2. Click New contact point and choose Webhook
  3. Name it something identifiable, e.g. "Echobell Phone Calls"

Step 2 — Add your Echobell webhook URL

Set the URL to your channel's webhook:

https://hook.echobell.one/t/xxxxxxxx

Copy this from your channel settings in Echobell (details at /docs/webhook). Treat it as a secret and rotate if leaked.

Step 3 — Test the integration

Click Test in Grafana to send a sample alert. You should receive an Echobell phone call within seconds.

Step 4 — Attach to notification policies

  1. Go to Alerting → Notification policies
  2. Create or edit a policy that targets your critical alerts
  3. Add the "Echobell Phone Calls" contact point

Grafana will now route matching alerts to Echobell.

Best practices

  • Reserve phone calls for high-priority alerts; use chat or email for lower severities
  • Configure retries and timeouts in Echobell to limit alert fatigue (/docs/notification)
  • Set up escalation to teammates if the first call goes unanswered
  • Use quiet hours to prevent low-urgency wake-ups
  • Share the channel with your on-call team and keep the roster current

Advanced options

  • Share channels with teammates for broader coverage
  • Customize voice content per alert type using templates
  • Configure retry attempts and escalation paths
  • Set backup contacts for resilience

Full reference: /docs/developer/grafana

Troubleshooting

  • No call received: confirm the notification policy routes to your Echobell contact point
  • 4xx on webhook: verify the exact webhook URL and that the channel is active
  • Too many calls: narrow the policy scope or reduce alert severity thresholds
  • Too few calls: raise severity or add label filters so critical alerts match the policy

By

Nooc

on

Apr 12, 2025