Mute timings

This documentation topic is designed for Grafana workspaces that support Grafana version 10.x.

For Grafana workspaces that support Grafana version 9.x, see Working in Grafana version 9.

For Grafana workspaces that support Grafana version 8.x, see Working in Grafana version 8.

A mute timing is a recurring interval of time when no new notifications for a policy are generated or sent. Use them to prevent alerts from firing a specific and reoccurring period, for example, a regular maintenance period.

Similar to silences, mute timings do not prevent alert rules from being evaluated, nor do they stop alert instances from being shown in the user interface. They only prevent notifications from being created.

You can configure Grafana managed mute timings as well as mute timings for an external Alertmanager data source.

Mute timings vs Silences

The following table highlights the differences between mute timings and silences.

Mute timing	Silence
Uses time interval definitions that can reoccur.	Has a fixed start and end time.
Is created and then added to notification policies.	Uses labels to match against an alert to determine whether to silence or not.

Adding a mute timing

You can create mute timings in your Grafana workspace.

To add a mute timing

1. From your Grafana console, in the Grafana menu, choose Alerts & IRM, Alerting.

2. Choose Notification policies, and then select the Mute Timings tab.

3. From the Alertmanager dropdown, select the Alertmanager you want to edit.

4. Choose the + Add mute timing button.

5. Fill out the form to create a time interval to match against for your mute timing.

6. Save your mute timing.

Adding a mute timing to a notification policy

Once you have a mute timing, you use it by adding it to notification policy that you want to mute at regular intervals.

To add a mute timing to a notification policy

1. From your Grafana console, in the Grafana menu, choose Alerts & IRM, Alerting.

2. Choose Notification policies, and then select the Notification Policies tab.

3. Select the notification policy you would like to add the mute timing to, and choose ..., Edit.

4. From the Mute timings dropdown, select the mute timings you would like to add to the policy.

5. Save your changes.

Time intervals

A time interval is a specific duration during which alerts are suppressed. The duration typically consists of a specific time range and the days of the week, month, or year.

Support time interval options are:

• Time range – The time inclusive of the start and exclusive of the end time (in UTC, if no location has been selected, otherwise local time.

• Location – Sets the location for the timing—the time range is displayed in local time for the location.

• Days of the week – The day or range of days of the week. For example, monday:thursday.

• Days of the month – The dates within a month. Values can range from 1-31. Negative values specify days of the month in reverse order, so -1 represents the last day of the month.

• Months – The months of the year in either numerical of full calendar month name. For example, 1, may:august.

• Years – The year or years for the interval. For example, 2023:2024.

Each of these elements can be a list, and at least one item in the element must be satisfied to be a match. Fields also support ranges, using :. For example, monday:thursday.

If a field is left blank, any moment of time will match the field. For an instant of to match a complete time intervale, all fields must match. A mute timing can contain multiple time intervals.

If you want to specify an exact duration, specify all the options needed for that duration. For example, if you want to create a time interval for the first Monday of the month, for March, June, September, and December, between the hours of 12:00 and 24:00 UTC, your time interval specification could be:

• Time range:

  • Start time: 12:00

  • End time: 24:00

• Days of the week: monday

• Months: 3, 6, 9, 12

• Days of the month: 1:7