Custom Categories

Learn how to use your own SolarWinds Service Desk categories and subcategories for incidents created by Alert Bridge.

Overview

By default, Alert Bridge uses:

• Category: Infrastructure
• Subcategory: Azure Monitor

You can customize these to match your organization’s incident categorization system.

SolarWinds Categories

What are Categories?

Categories help organize incidents in SolarWinds:

• Filter and Search - Find incidents by category
• Reporting - Generate category-based reports
• Routing Rules - Auto-assign based on category
• SLA Management - Different SLAs per category

Category Hierarchy

Category
  └── Subcategory

Example:

Cloud Services
  ├── Azure Monitor
  ├── Azure Resources
  └── AWS CloudWatch

Setting Up Categories in SolarWinds

For Alert Bridge to use custom categories, they must first exist in your SolarWinds instance:

Category Structure

Categories follow a two-level hierarchy:

Category
  └── Subcategory

Example:

Cloud Services
  └── Azure Monitor

Creating Categories

Your SolarWinds administrator can create categories:

1. Setup → Incidents → Categories
2. Add the desired category
3. Add subcategories under that category
4. Note the exact names (case-sensitive)

Configuring Alert Bridge

Alert Bridge can be configured to use your custom SolarWinds categories during deployment.

To use custom categories, provide the exact category and subcategory names during deployment or contact support@cynteocloud.com to update your configuration.

Category Examples

Alert Bridge supports various categorization strategies:

Example 1: Infrastructure-Based

• Category: Infrastructure
• Subcategory: Cloud Monitoring

Example 2: Department-Specific

• Category: IT Operations
• Subcategory: Azure Platform

Example 3: Service-Based

• Category: Platform Services
• Subcategory: Monitoring & Alerting

Example 4: Environment-Based

Different environments can use different categories:

• Production: Production / Azure Alerts
• Development: Development / Azure Alerts

Advanced Categorization

Alert Bridge supports dynamic categorization strategies:

By Resource Type

Different Azure resource types can route to different categories:

• Virtual Machines → Infrastructure / Compute
• SQL Databases → Databases / Azure SQL
• Storage Accounts → Storage / Azure Storage
• App Services → Applications / Web Apps

By Subscription

Alerts from different Azure subscriptions can use different categories for clear separation.

By Resource Tags

Azure resource tags can influence category assignment, enabling fine-grained control based on your tagging strategy.

Category-Based Assignment

Categories enable powerful routing capabilities in SolarWinds:

Automatic Team Assignment

SolarWinds assignment rules can use categories to automatically route incidents:

Example Rule:

IF category = "Infrastructure"  
AND subcategory = "Azure Monitor"
THEN assign to "Cloud Operations Team"

Benefits

• ✅ Automatic routing to the right team
• ✅ No manual triage needed
• ✅ Consistent incident handling
• ✅ Clear ownership from creation

Verifying Categories

Once configured, you can verify categories are being applied correctly:

Check SolarWinds Incidents

1. Open an incident created by Alert Bridge
2. View the Category and Subcategory fields
3. Confirm they match your configuration

The category and subcategory determine how the incident is routed and tracked in your SolarWinds system.

Best Practices

Naming Conventions

Use clear, consistent names:

• ✅ Cloud Services → Azure Monitor
• ✅ IT Operations → Cloud Alerts
• ❌ Misc → Other
• ❌ Test → Test123

Category Strategy

Option 1: By Platform

Cloud Services
  ├── Azure
  ├── AWS
  └── Google Cloud

Option 2: By Service Type

Infrastructure
  ├── Compute
  ├── Storage
  └── Networking

Option 3: By Environment

Production
  └── Azure Monitoring
Development
  └── Azure Monitoring

Documentation

Document your category strategy:

1. Create a mapping table
2. Share with all teams
3. Include in onboarding docs
4. Review quarterly

Reporting with Categories

SolarWinds Reports

Generate reports by category:

1. Go to Reports → Incidents
2. Filter by category
3. See incident volumes, resolution times, etc.

Useful Reports

• Incidents by Category - Volume trends
• Resolution Time by Category - Performance metrics
• Team Performance - By assigned category
• SLA Compliance - Category-specific SLAs

Questions About Categories?

To configure custom categories for your deployment, contact support@cynteocloud.com with your desired category structure.

See Also

• SolarWinds Setup - SolarWinds prerequisites
• Configuration Options - Available settings
• Priority Mapping - Priority configuration

Questions? Contact support@cynteocloud.com