Create global alert for API rate limits - CloudMonitor 2025 - Cloud Monitor

Use cases

High API call volumes can cause frequent throttling, impacting business stability. Instead of configuring individual alert rules per API, a global alert rule monitors all rate limits for a cloud service and enables proactive quota planning.

You can monitor global API usage and quotas through the console or API operations.

Billing

API rate limit alert rules consume your CloudMonitor notification quota. Billing varies by notification method:

Phone calls: No free quota is provided. You must enable pay-as-you-go or purchase a resource plan. For more information, see Pay-as-you-go and Resource plans.
SMS messages: A free quota of 1,000 messages per month is provided. If you exceed the free quota, you must enable pay-as-you-go or purchase a resource plan. For more information, see Free quotas, Pay-as-you-go, and Resource plans.
Email and alert callback: Both are free of charge.

Prerequisites

Create an alert contact and an alert contact group in the CloudMonitor console to receive alert notifications. For more information, see Create an alert contact or an alert contact group.
If you use a RAM user to manage quota alerts, the RAM user must have Quota Center administrator permissions (AliyunQuotasFullAccess) and permissions to create and delete quota alerts in CloudMonitor.
The following code provides a sample permission policy. For more information, see Create a custom permission policy and Manage permissions for a RAM user.
```
{
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cms:PutMetricRuleTargets",
        "cms:PutResourceMetricRules",
        "cms:DeleteMetricRules",
        "cms:DeleteMetricRuleTargets"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ],
  "Version": "1"
}
```

Create a global alert by using the console

This example creates a global alert rule for all Compute Nest API rate limits, triggered at 80% usage. A Warning-level notification is sent by SMS and email to the alert contact group.

Use either the Quota Center or CloudMonitor console.

Quota Center console

In the Quota Center console, open the API Rate Limits page and select Compute Nest.
In the upper-right corner, click Global Alert Rules.

For parameter details, see Create an alert rule for a quota. Enter a Rule Name such as quota-computenest-rulename-test. Set Metric to Usage Percentage (%) and the Warning threshold to >= 80% for one consecutive period, with SMS, email, and alert callback notifications. Set Silence Period to 5 Minutes, Effective Period to all day (00:00–23:59), and select an Alert Contact Group such as Cloud Account Alert Contact. Click Confirm.
View the created rule in the alert rules list.
- View the new alert rule.
  
  In the left-side navigation pane, click Alert Rules. On the API Rate Limits tab, locate the rule. In the Actions column, click View, Modify, Delete, or Monitoring Details.
- View monitoring details for APIs with usage data.
  
  In the Actions column, click Monitoring Details. In the Quota Monitoring dialog box, select a target API (for example, GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints/2021-05-21), a region (for example, cn-hangzhou), and a metric (for example, Usage Percentage (%)), then specify a time range to view the usage percentage chart.

CloudMonitor console

In the Cloud Monitor Console, navigate to the Cloud Service Monitoring page. Select Compute Nest > Quota Monitoring > Compute Nest to open the API Rate Limits monitoring tab for Compute Nest.
In the upper-right corner, click Global Alert Rule. On the Global Alert Rule page, create an alert rule for the Compute Nest API rate limits.

For parameter details, see Create an alert rule for a quota.

Click + Create Alert Rule, enter a rule name such as quota-computenest-rulename-test, select Usage Percentage as the metric, and set the Warning-level threshold to >=80%.

In the notification settings, select Cloud Account Alert Contact for Alert Contact Group, configure the remaining parameters, and click OK.
View the created rule in the list.

The alert rule appears in the list with condition Notify if UsagePercentage (Warn) >= 80 for 3 consecutive periods. The initial status is Insufficient Data.

Create a global alert by using an API

This example creates a global alert rule for all Compute Nest API rate limits, triggered at 80% usage. A Warning-level notification is sent by SMS and email to the alert contact group.

Verify that the target cloud service (Compute Nest) supports global alert rules for API rate limits.

Call ListProductQuotas and check the UsageMetric response parameter. A non-empty UsageMetric value indicates support for global alert rules.

Request parameters: Set ProductCode to computenest and QuotaCategory to FlowControl. Keep the default values for the other parameters.

Response parameters: The UsageMetric object contains API rate limit monitoring information from CloudMonitor. The MetricNamespace value is acs_quotas_flowcontrol. Example response for an API rate limit:

{
      "QuotaDescription": "GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints",
      "Consumable": false,
      "ProductCode": "computenest",
      "UsageMetric": {
        "MetricName": "Usage",
        "MetricDimensions": {
          "productCode": "computenest",
          "metricKey": "GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints/2021-06-01",
          "regionId": "ap-southeast-1",
          "label": "none"
        },
        "MetricNamespace": "acs_quotas_flowcontrol"
      },
      "Dimensions": {
        "apiName": "GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints",
        "apiVersion": "2021-06-01",
        "regionId": "ap-southeast-1"
      },
      "GlobalQuota": false,
      "Period": {
        "PeriodValue": 1,
        "PeriodUnit": "second"
      },
      "Adjustable": true,
      "QuotaActionCode": "f_4w8uhd",
      "QuotaName": "GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints",
      "QuotaArn": "acs:quotas:ap-southeast-1:14133977********:quota/computenest/f_4w8uhd",
      "TotalQuota": 50,
      "QuotaCategory": "FlowControl"
    }

Note

metricKey is used to create an alert rule for a single, specified API rate limit.

Call DescribeMetricList to query monitoring data for the API rate limits. Use the usage trends to determine alert thresholds.
- Request parameters: Set Namespace to acs_quotas_flowcontrol, MetricName to UsagePercentage, and Dimensions to [{"productCode":"computenest"}]. Keep the default values for the other parameters.
  
  Note
  The MetricName in Quota Center includes: Quota (quota value), Usage (quota usage), UsagePercentage (quota usage percentage), and AvailablePercentage (available quota percentage).
- Return parameters: The Value field in Datapoints can serve as a reference for the alert threshold. Example response:
```
{
  "RequestId": "2A7DB5BF-825C-51BB-AD91-D728857792F9",
  "Period": "60",
  "Datapoints": "[{\"timestamp\":1727337180000,\"productCode\":\"computenest\",\"metricKey\":\"GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints/2021-05-21\",\"regionId\":\"cn-hangzhou\",\"label\":\"none\",\"userId\":\"14133977********\",\"Value\":2.0}]",
  "Code": "200",
  "Success": true
}
```

Call PutResourceMetricRules to create a global alert rule for the API rate limits.

Request parameters: The following table lists the required parameters and example values.

Parameter	Description	Example
MetricName	The name of the metric. Valid values: Quota: quota value Usage: quota usage UsagePercentage: usage percentage AvailablePercentage: available percentage Note Global alert rules can only use `UsagePercentage` and `AvailablePercentage`.	UsagePercentage
Escalations.Warn.Threshold	The threshold for Warning-level alerts.	80
EffectiveInterval	The effective period of the alert rule.	`00:00-23:59 +0800 dayofweek 1,2,3,4,5,6,7`
RuleId	The ID of the alert rule.	quota-computenest-ruleid-test
Escalations.Warn.ComparisonOperator	The comparison operator for the Warning-level threshold. Valid values: GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold: greater than or equal to GreaterThanThreshold: greater than LessThanOrEqualToThreshold: less than or equal to LessThanThreshold: less than NotEqualToThreshold: not equal to GreaterThanYesterday: percent increase from the same time yesterday LessThanYesterday: percent decrease from the same time yesterday GreaterThanLastWeek: percent increase from the same time last week LessThanLastWeek: percent decrease from the same time last week GreaterThanLastPeriod: percent increase from the previous period LessThanLastPeriod: percent decrease from the previous period	GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold
Resources	The resource information. Note To create an alert for a single API, specify the `Resources` parameter as: `[{"productCode":"computenest","metricKey":"GetServiceTemplateParameterConstraints/2021-06-01"}]`.	[{"productCode":"computenest"}]
ContactGroups	The alert contact group.	CloudMonitor
Namespace	The data namespace of the cloud service.	acs_quotas_flowcontrol
RuleName	The name of the alert rule.	quota-computenest-rulename-test
Escalations.Warn.Times	The number of consecutive periods for which the condition must be met to trigger a Warning-level alert.	3
Escalations.Warn.Statistics	The statistical method for a Warning-level alert.	Value

A successful response indicates the rule is created.

{
  "Message": "",
  "RequestId": "BE4CAC0F-A134-55BA-909B-FF62568FE884",
  "FailedListResult": {
    "Target": []
  },
  "Code": "200",
  "Success": true
}

Call DescribeMetricRuleList to verify the alert rule by RuleName or RuleId.

Cloud Monitor:Create a global alert for API rate limits