Implement multi-window multi-burn-rate SLO alerting in Prometheus following the Google SRE Workbook model
domain: prometheus.io · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Define your SLO error rate as a Prometheus recording rule computing the ratio of bad events to total events over multiple windows
Create recording rules for the six windows needed: 5m, 30m, 1h, 2h, 6h, and 3d (expressed as Prometheus range vectors)
Configure page-level alerts using two pairs: a 1h long window with a 5m short window, and a 6h long window with a 30m short window — both must exceed the burn-rate threshold to fire
Configure ticket-level alerts using two pairs: a 3d long window with a 6h short window, and a 24h long window with a 2h short window — both must exceed a lower burn-rate threshold to fire
Set burn-rate thresholds based on your error budget and desired alert sensitivity; the SRE Workbook provides reference multipliers for each window pair
Test alert firing behavior by injecting synthetic errors and verifying that only the appropriate severity fires at each burn rate
Known gotchas
The correct window pairs are 1h/5m and 6h/30m for page alerts, and 3d/6h and 24h/2h for ticket alerts — there is no 5h window in the standard Google SRE Workbook model
Both windows in a pair must simultaneously exceed their burn-rate threshold for the alert to fire; requiring only one window produces too many false positives
Prometheus range vector windows must be expressed as durations Prometheus understands (e.g. 3d, 6h, 30m); recording rule evaluation intervals must be short enough to capture the 5m window accurately
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