Alarm rule tutorials

These tutorials walk through common alarm rule configurations using a Thermometer device that sends temperature telemetry. Each example builds on the previous one. For the full configuration reference, see Alarm rules.

Download the setup file and import it before running the examples:

Set the temperature column type to Time series during import.

Goal: Create a Critical alarm when temperature > 10.

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules, click Add (+), and select Create new alarm rule.

2. In General, set Alarm type to High Temperature, Entity type to Device, and select the Thermometer device.

3. In Arguments, click Add argument and set:

   • Entity type: Current entity · Argument type: Latest telemetry · Time series key: temperature · Argument name: temperature

   Click Add.

4. In Trigger condition, click Add trigger condition and set Severity to Critical.

5. Next, click Add condition, then click Add argument filter and set:

   • Argument: temperature · Value type: Numeric
   • In Filters, click Add and set Operation: greater than · Value: 10

   Click Add. Set Type to Simple and click Save.

6. Click Add to save the rule.

ThingsBoard creates a Critical alarm whenever temperature > 10.

Test: Send a telemetry value above the threshold using the device access token:

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 25}'

Replace $THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME with your host (e.g., localhost:8080) and $ACCESS_TOKEN with the Thermometer device access token. After a few seconds, a Critical alarm should appear on the device’s Alarms tab.

Continuation of Example 1.

Goal: Automatically clear the High Temperature alarm when temperature ≤ 4.

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules and click the High Temperature rule, then click Edit (pencil).

2. Scroll to Clear condition and click Add clear condition.

3. Click Add condition, then click Add argument filter and set:

   • Argument: temperature · Value type: Numeric
   • In Filters, click Add and set Operation: less or equal · Value: 4

   Click Add. Set Type to Simple and click Save.

4. Click Apply.

The alarm is created when temperature > 10 and cleared when temperature ≤ 4.

Test: Send a value below the threshold to resolve the alarm:

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 2}'

The first request creates a Critical alarm. The second clears it. Check the device’s Alarms tab to confirm the status changes from Active to Cleared.

Continuation of Example 1.

Goal: Trigger the alarm only when the threshold is exceeded continuously for 1 minute to filter out short spikes.

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules and click the High Temperature rule, then click Edit (pencil).
2. In Trigger condition, click the condition to edit it.
3. Change Condition type from Simple to Duration. Set Duration value to 1 and Time unit to Minutes.
4. Click Save inside the condition block, then click Apply.

Test: Send a value above the threshold and keep sending it for over a minute. The alarm should not appear immediately — it fires only after the condition holds continuously for 1 minute.

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 25}'

Repeat every 10–15 seconds for at least 60 seconds. Check the device’s Alarms tab — the alarm should appear roughly 1 minute after the first reading above the threshold.

Continuation of Example 3.

Goal: Drive the duration threshold from a device attribute so it can be changed per device without editing the rule.

Preparation: Add a server attribute to Thermometer:

• Key: highTemperatureDurationThreshold · Type: Integer · Value: 2

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules and click the High Temperature rule, then click Edit (pencil).

2. In Arguments, click Add argument and set:

   • Entity type: Current entity · Argument type: Attribute · Attribute scope: Server attributes
   • Attribute key: highTemperatureDurationThreshold · Argument name: highTemperatureDurationThreshold

   Click Add.

3. In Trigger condition, click the condition to edit it. Scroll down and set:

   • Type: Duration · Value type: Dynamic · Value: highTemperatureDurationThreshold · Unit: Minutes

4. Click Save, then click Apply.

The alarm fires only when temperature > 10 stays true for the number of minutes stored in highTemperatureDurationThreshold. Update the attribute to change the duration without modifying the rule.

Test: If you ran Example 3’s test, clear or acknowledge the existing High Temperature alarm on the device before proceeding — ThingsBoard will not create a new alarm while one of the same type is already active.

Send a value above the threshold repeatedly:

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 25}'

Repeat every 10–15 seconds for more than 2 minutes (e.g. 2 minutes 30 seconds). The alarm fires when a telemetry reading arrives after the full duration has elapsed — stopping exactly at the 2-minute mark may miss the trigger. Check the device’s Alarms tab after the last send.

To verify the dynamic behavior, update highTemperatureDurationThreshold to a different value and repeat — the new duration takes effect without editing the rule.

Continuation of Example 1.

Goal: Trigger the alarm only after the condition occurs three times in a row to filter out random spikes.

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules and click the High Temperature rule, then click Edit (pencil).
2. In Trigger condition, click the condition to edit it.
3. Change Condition type to Repeating. Set Count of events to 3. Leave Value type as Static — the count can also be driven from an attribute (as shown in Example 4), but here we keep it fixed.
4. Click Save, then click Apply.

Test: Send a value above the threshold three times in a row. The alarm should appear only after the third reading.

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 25}'

Run the command three times. Check the device’s Alarms tab — no alarm after the first or second request, but a Critical alarm after the third.

Continuation of Example 1.

Goal: Restrict the alarm to weekdays 10:00–19:00.

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules and click the High Temperature rule, then click Edit (pencil).
2. In Trigger condition, open Schedule settings.
3. Select Active at a specific time and set:
   • Timezone: Europe/Kiev (UTC+02:00) · Days: Monday–Friday · From: 10:00 · To: 19:00
4. Click Save, then click Apply.

Threshold violations outside this window do not create alarms.

Test: Send a value above the threshold twice — once during the active window and once outside it.

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 25}'

Run the command between 10:00 and 19:00 on a weekday (Europe/Kiev time) — a Critical alarm should appear. Run it outside that window — no alarm should be created.

Continuation of Example 1.

Goal: Allow the alarm to be toggled per device using a server attribute, without editing the rule.

The alarm triggers only when both conditions are true: temperatureAlarmFlag == true and temperature > 10.

Preparation: Add a server attribute to Thermometer:

• Key: temperatureAlarmFlag · Type: Boolean · Value: true

1. Go to Alarms → Alarm rules and click the High Temperature rule, then click Edit (pencil).

2. In Arguments, click Add argument and set:

   • Entity type: Current entity · Argument type: Attribute · Attribute scope: Server attributes
   • Attribute key: temperatureAlarmFlag · Argument name: temperatureAlarmFlag

   Click Add.

3. In Trigger condition, click the condition to edit it. Click Add argument filter and set:

   • Argument: temperatureAlarmFlag · Value type: Boolean · Operation: equal · Value: true

   Click Add.

4. Click Apply.

Setting temperatureAlarmFlag to false on a device suppresses the alarm for that device without modifying the rule. For large fleets where alerting policies vary by device, operators can toggle the flag from a dashboard switch widget.

Test: With temperatureAlarmFlag set to true, send a value above the threshold — a Critical alarm should appear:

curl -v -X POST http://$THINGSBOARD_HOST_NAME/api/v1/$ACCESS_TOKEN/telemetry \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"temperature": 25}'

Then set temperatureAlarmFlag to false on the Thermometer device and send the same request again — no new alarm should be created.