Notifications - Polystack Documentation

Overview

Ironcore Backup Solution (IBS) routes events from backup jobs, verification runs, sync jobs, and access control changes to a configurable notification system. Targets include SMTP email, webhooks (for chat platforms and incident tools), and external metric servers for time-series monitoring. This page covers building notification groups, choosing the right delivery channel, and rule-based routing.

Prerequisites

Administrator role on the Polystack platform
SMTP endpoint and credentials for email delivery
Webhook URLs for chat or incident management integrations
Metric server endpoint for time-series export

Event Sources

Source	Events
Backup job	Started, completed, failed, warning
Restore task	Started, completed, failed
Sync job	Started, completed, failed, integrity error
Verification job	Completed (per snapshot result), failed
Datastore	Free-space threshold, status change
Authentication	Failed login, MFA lockout, new API token
Configuration	Permission grant, role create, key rotation
System	Service start / stop, certificate renewal

Notification Targets

Email (SMTP)

Standard authenticated SMTP delivery. Templates support HTML and plaintext. Best for human recipients.

Webhook

HTTP POST to any endpoint. Standard JSON body. Integrates with chat platforms, incident management, and ticket systems.

Metric Server

Pushes events as time-series metrics to an external metric server such as InfluxDB or a Prometheus push gateway.

In-Dashboard Inbox

All events appear in the Dashboard notification inbox regardless of external delivery. Useful for operators reviewing recent activity.

Configure SMTP Delivery

Deployment Console
CLI

Open Notification Targets

Navigate to Backup Solution > Notifications > Targets.

Add an SMTP target

Click Add SMTP Target. Enter:

Name: ops-smtp
Server: smtp.<your-domain>
Port: 587
From: ironcore-backup@<your-domain>
Auth method: PLAIN or LOGIN
Username / Password: SMTP credentials
TLS: STARTTLS or implicit TLS

Test delivery

Click Test. A sample message is sent to a configurable test address.

Save

Click Save.

The SMTP target is registered and ready to use in notification groups.

ironcore-backup notification target create \
  --name ops-smtp \
  --type smtp \
  --server smtp.<your-domain> \
  --port 587 \
  --from ironcore-backup@<your-domain> \
  --auth-method plain \
  --username ibs-svc \
  --password-file /etc/ironcore/smtp-password \
  --tls starttls

Configure Webhook Delivery

A webhook target sends a JSON payload to any HTTP endpoint when an event matches the routing rule.

Deployment Console
CLI

Add a webhook target

Open Notifications > Targets > Add Webhook.

Configure the endpoint

Enter:

Name: chat-ops
URL: https://chat.<your-domain>/webhooks/ironcore-backup
Method: POST
Headers: Authorization: Bearer <token>
Body template: a JSON template

Customise the body template

Use the template variables provided by IBS:

{
  "type": "{{event.type}}",
  "severity": "{{event.severity}}",
  "subject": "{{event.subject}}",
  "summary": "{{event.summary}}",
  "task_id": "{{event.task_id}}",
  "actor": "{{event.actor}}",
  "timestamp": "{{event.timestamp}}"
}

Save

Click Save.

Test webhook receives a sample payload.

ironcore-backup notification target create \
  --name chat-ops \
  --type webhook \
  --url "https://chat.<your-domain>/webhooks/ironcore-backup" \
  --method POST \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  --body-template /etc/ironcore/templates/chat-ops.json

Webhook Body Template

The standard webhook payload includes:

{
  "event_id": "evt-2026-05-21-001",
  "type": "backup.failed",
  "severity": "error",
  "subject": "Backup failed for vm/12345",
  "summary": "Task failed at chunk upload step: connection refused",
  "task_id": "UPID:backup:00C123:6643:abc...",
  "actor": "alice@polystack!backup-job",
  "resource": "ibs-primary:production/vm/12345",
  "timestamp": "2026-05-21T02:14:35Z",
  "task_url": "https://ibs.<your-domain>/#tasks/<task-id>",
  "links": {
    "task_log": "https://ibs.<your-domain>/api2/json/tasks/<task-id>/log"
  }
}

Configure Metric Server Export

Push events to an external metric server for long-term retention, dashboards, and cross-system correlation.

Deployment Console
CLI

Open Notifications > Targets > Add Metric Server. Enter the endpoint URL and protocol (InfluxDB v2, Prometheus push gateway).

InfluxDB v2 metric target

ironcore-backup notification target create \
  --name metrics-influx \
  --type metric-server \
  --protocol influxdb-v2 \
  --url https://metrics.<your-domain> \
  --org polystack \
  --bucket ibs-events \
  --token-file /etc/ironcore/influx-token

Notification Groups

A notification group combines one or more targets with a rule that decides when each target is dispatched.

Deployment Console
CLI

Open Groups

Navigate to Notifications > Groups.

Create a group

Click Add Group. Enter:

Name: ops-team
Description: “Daily operations team”

Add targets and rules

For each target, define when it should receive events:

SMTP ops-smtp — every event
Webhook chat-ops — only severity=error or higher
Metric server — every event

Save

Click Save.

The group is selectable when configuring backup jobs, datastore alerts, and verification jobs.

Build a notification group

ironcore-backup notification group create \
  --name ops-team \
  --description "Daily operations team"

ironcore-backup notification group target add \
  --group ops-team \
  --target ops-smtp \
  --rule "*"

ironcore-backup notification group target add \
  --group ops-team \
  --target chat-ops \
  --rule "severity in (error, critical)"

ironcore-backup notification group target add \
  --group ops-team \
  --target metrics-influx \
  --rule "*"

Rule Expressions

Rule Atom	Meaning
`severity in (error, critical)`	Severity match
`type = backup.failed`	Exact event type match
`type starts-with sync.`	All sync events
`actor matches "*!automation"`	Token-based actors
`resource starts-with /datastore/ibs-primary/production`	Resource path
Combined with `and` / `or`	Composite rules

Examples:

severity in (error, critical)
type starts-with verify. and severity in (warning, error, critical)
type = backup.failed and resource starts-with /datastore/ibs-primary/production

Event Severity

Severity	When Used
info	Routine events — backups completed successfully
notice	Notable but expected — large amount of pruned data
warning	Recoverable issue — verification stale, partial backup
error	Failed operation — failed backup, restore, or sync
critical	Service-impacting — datastore offline, verification CORRUPT

Recommended Notification Configuration

Group	Events	Targets
ops-team	All operational events	SMTP, chat, metric server
on-call	`severity >= error`	SMS-gateway webhook, chat
compliance	Permission changes, key rotation, verification results	SMTP, metric server
executive-sponsor	`severity = critical` only	SMTP digest, weekly summary

Rate Limiting and Digesting

To prevent noisy notification storms during incidents:

Setting	Default	Effect
Per-group rate limit	60 events / minute	Excess events queued
Daily digest	Opt-in	Aggregates routine `info` events into one daily summary
Deduplication window	5 minutes	Suppresses identical events within window

Configure digest mode for routine events

ironcore-backup notification group update \
  --name compliance \
  --digest-rule "severity in (info, notice)" \
  --digest-frequency daily \
  --digest-time "09:00"

Troubleshooting

Email not arriving

Check the Tasks panel for notification dispatch failures. Confirm SMTP credentials, port, and TLS settings. Look at the SMTP target’s last result.

ironcore-backup notification target test ops-smtp \
  --recipient admin@<your-domain>

Webhook returns 401 or 403

The webhook target’s authorisation header may be stale or wrong. Update the header value:

ironcore-backup notification target update chat-ops \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <new-token>"

Too many notifications during incidents

Enable per-group rate limiting and the daily digest for info events. Consider routing low-severity events to the metric server only, not chat.

Missing events for a specific datastore

Confirm the datastore is attached to a notification group. Check the datastore detail panel under Alerts.

Next Steps

Access Control

Notification events generated by access changes

Verification and Validation

Verification jobs whose results dispatch to notification groups

Monitoring Jobs

Operator view of jobs and notifications

Troubleshooting

Admin-level diagnostic procedures

​Overview

​Event Sources

​Notification Targets

Email (SMTP)

Webhook

Metric Server

In-Dashboard Inbox

​Configure SMTP Delivery

Open Notification Targets

Add an SMTP target

Test delivery

Save

​Configure Webhook Delivery

Add a webhook target

Configure the endpoint

Customise the body template

Save

​Webhook Body Template

​Configure Metric Server Export

​Notification Groups

Open Groups

Create a group

Add targets and rules

Save

​Rule Expressions

​Event Severity

​Recommended Notification Configuration

​Rate Limiting and Digesting

​Troubleshooting

​Next Steps

Access Control

Verification and Validation

Monitoring Jobs

Troubleshooting

Overview

Event Sources

Notification Targets

Configure SMTP Delivery

Configure Webhook Delivery

Webhook Body Template

Configure Metric Server Export

Notification Groups

Rule Expressions

Event Severity

Recommended Notification Configuration

Rate Limiting and Digesting

Troubleshooting

Next Steps