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Pagerduty Training

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What this covers

This training material will cover the following topics:

Pagerduty user management

Creating a user in Pagerduty

The steps to create an user in Pagerduty are:

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click Users to go to the users page
  3. Click the blue + Add Users button at the top-right of the page
  4. Input the first and last name of the user in the first box
  5. Input the email address of the user in the second box
  6. Select the appropriate role
    • Limited User for Support Engineers, Support Managers, and Support Directors
    • Admin for Support Readiness
  7. Click the blue Add button on the right-hand side

Editing a user in Pagerduty

NOTE The user in question should be doing this for everything they are able. We should only do this for things requiring admin capabilities, such as Role.

The steps to edit an user in Pagerduty are:

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click Users to go to the users page
  3. Search for the user (email works best). Once you locate them, click on their name.
  4. Go the appropriate tab for the changes you need to make
    • Contact Information for editing name, title, timezone, phone number, email address
    • Notification rules for various notification rules
    • User settings for login email, password, role, and schedule color
  5. Click the edit box on the right-hand side of the item being modified
  6. Make the changes and click the blue Save button

Removing a user in Pagerduty

NOTE: User must not be present in any schedule or escalation policy to be deleted.

The steps to remove an user from Pagerduty are:

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click Users to go to the users page
  3. Search for the user (email works best). Once you locate them, click on their name.
  4. Click the red Delete User button on the right-hand side

Pagerduty escalation policy management

Creating an escalation policy

The steps to create an escalation policy in Pagerduty are:

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click Escalation Policies to go to the escalation policies page page
  3. Click the blue New Escalation Policy button on the top-right of the page
  4. Enter a name for your escalation policy
  5. For the description, enter something sensible that makes it clear what it is for. Ensure you add the issue link that caused the creation.
  6. Set Send On-Call Handoff Notifications: to when in use by a service
  7. For the first escalation rule:
    1. Set the Notify the following users or schedules to use the schedule or persons for the first level of escalation (if the schedule does not exist yet, use Support Ops Bot as a placeholder).
    2. Set the escalates after xx min. (must be at least 1 minute for a single target.) value to what is appropriate for the request.
  8. Click the blue plugs button (or the blue Add a new Escalation Rule to add a second escalation rule
    1. Set the Notify the following users or schedules to use the schedule or persons for the first level of escalation (if the schedule does not exist yet, use Support Ops Bot as a placeholder).
    2. Set the escalates after xx min. (must be at least 1 minute for a single target.) value to what is appropriate for the request.
  9. Repeat step 8 to add more escalation rules is needed
  10. Click the checkbox next to If no one acknowledges, repeat this policy xx times and set it to 5
  11. Click the blue Save button on the bottom-right of the page
  12. Update our Pagerduty documentation page

Editing an escalation policy

The steps to edit an escalation policy in Pagerduty are:

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click Escalation Policies to go to the escalation policies page page
  3. Use the search on the right-hand side of the page to search for the escalation policy you wish to edit
  4. Click the blue text of the escalation policy once located
  5. Click the Edit Escalation Policy button on the top-right of the page
  6. Make the needed modifications
  7. Click the blue Save button at the bottom-left of the page
  8. Update our Pagerduty documentation page

Deleting an escalation policy

NOTE No schedule or user can be using the escalation policy for it to be deleted. You might need to edit it first to remove rules and persons first.

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click Escalation Policies to go to the escalation policies page page
  3. Use the search on the right-hand side of the page to search for the escalation policy you wish to edit
  4. Click the blue text of the escalation policy once located
  5. Click the Edit Escalation Policy button on the top-right of the page
  6. Click the red Delete button on the bottom-right of the page
  7. Update our Pagerduty documentation page

Pagerduty schedule management

Creating a schedule

NOTE This does not add the schedule to an escalation policy. Until that is done, he scehdule is classified as "unused".

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click On-Call Schedules to go to the schedules page
  3. Click the blue New Schedule button at the top-right of the page
  4. Enter a name for your schedule
  5. For the description, enter something sensible that makes it clear what it is for. Ensure you add the issue link that caused the creation.
  6. Set the timezone to something appropriate
    • For schedules used only by AMER, the timezone should be Pacific Time (US & Canada)
    • For schedules used only by APAC, the timezone should be Brisbane
    • For schedules used only be EMEA, the timezone should be Amsterdam
    • For schedules used by multiple regions, the timezone should be either UTC (preferred) or Pacific Time (US & Canada)
  7. Configure your first layer
    1. Add the users to the layer (the order you add them is very specific, as it will determine the oncall order)
    2. Set the rotation type to Weekly
    3. Set the Handoff time to the first day of the rotation (set the time to the start time for the rotation of that specific day)
    4. If the layer is does not have persons oncall for every day of the week:
      1. Click the checkbox next to Restrict on-call shifts to specific times, which should cause a pop-up to appear
      2. Click the radio item next to Restrict on-call duty to specific times-of-the-week
      3. Set the items here to align with the specifications of the request
        • To add more, click the + icon to the far right of each line
        • To remove one, click the blue X icon to the far right of each line
      4. Click the blue Apply button
    5. Set the Start time for this layer to the date for when the schedule should go live (set the time to the start time for the rotation of that specific day)
  8. Click Add Another Layer if multiple layers are required
  9. Repeat step 7 for the new layer(s)
  10. Review the rendered schedule to ensure it aligns with the specifications for the request
  11. Click the blue Save Schedule button
  12. Update our Pagerduty documentation page
  13. Update the static_data.yaml file

Modifying a schedule

NOTE These should never be scheduled for the same day, as they often impact others. Review our workflows on managing pagerduty for more information.

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click On-Call Schedules to go to the schedules page
  3. Search for the name of the schedule using the search-bar
  4. Click on the blue name of the schedule you wish to edit
  5. Click the Edit this Schedule button on the top-right of the page
  6. Make the needed changes to the layer(s) of the schedule
  7. Review the rendered schedule to ensure it aligns with the specifications for the request
  8. Click the blue Save Schedule button at the bottom-left of the page
  9. Update our Pagerduty documentation page
  10. Update the static_data.yaml file

Deleting a schedule

NOTE You cannot delete a schedule while it is still present on an escalation policy. You need to remove it first.

  1. Login to pagerduty
  2. Hover over People and click On-Call Schedules to go to the schedules page
  3. Search for the name of the schedule using the search-bar
  4. Click on the blue name of the schedule you wish to delete
  5. Click the red Delete this Schedule
  6. Update our Pagerduty documentation page
  7. Update the static_data.yaml file
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