Ploi can tell you about deployments, backups, server problems and more in the places you already look, such as Slack, Discord, Telegram or your phone. It takes two steps. First you create a notification channel in your profile. Then you attach the channel to the events you care about on a server, site or backup.
1. Create a notification channel
Open your profile and go to Notification channels. Pick a type, give the channel a label and fill in what the type needs:
Slack: an incoming webhook URL, starting with
https://hooks.slack.com/services. Optionally a channel to post in.Discord: a webhook URL of the Discord channel, starting with
https://discord.com/api/webhooks.Microsoft Teams: a webhook URL of the Teams channel.
Google Chat: a webhook URL of the space, see How do I create a Google Chat webhook?
Rocket.Chat: the URL of your Rocket.Chat server, a token and a channel.
Telegram: link your Telegram account under Integrations in your profile first. The messages go to that account.
Pushover: your Pushover user key, in the Token field.
E-mail address: any address, for example a shared inbox.
Mobile App: a phone with the Ploi app on which you allowed push notifications.
Browser push: notifications in your browser, see below.
Click Send test next to a channel in the list to check that it works. You can send one test per channel per minute.
Browser push
A Browser push channel shows notifications on your computer or phone, also when the panel isn't open. Pick Browser push, click Create and allow notifications when your browser asks. The channel only covers the browser and device you create it in, so create one channel per browser. On iPhone and iPad, add ploi.io to your home screen first and create the channel from there. If you blocked notifications for ploi.io earlier, allow them again in your browser's site settings.
A browser can end its push subscription, for example when you clear its data. Ploi then e-mails you and the list marks the channel as expired. Delete it and create a new channel in that browser.
2. Attach the channel to events
A channel does nothing until you attach it. Where you do that depends on the event:
Deployments: open the site and go to Notifications. Pick the event, Deployment started, Deployment completed or Deployment failed, and a channel. A failed deployment is also sent to the channels for completed deployments, and a channel attached to both gets it once. Channels for completed deployments also hear about rollbacks and staging to production syncs. Deployment notifications need a paid plan.
Uptime: open the site, go to Monitor and click Channels on the monitor. Ploi checks the site every five minutes and notifies you from the second failed check in a row. After ten failed checks it turns the monitor off. There is no message when the site is back up.
Server load: open the server, go to Monitor and add a notification with limits for disk, RAM and CPU usage. With Only notify when sustained for, Ploi waits until the usage has stayed above the limit for 10 to 60 minutes, so a short peak doesn't wake you up. Tick the recovery option to also hear when usage drops back below the limit. Server monitoring has to be installed on the server.
Services: on the server's Services page, open the service status notifications. Ploi notifies you once when a service stops.
Insights: on the server's Insights page, open the Notifications tab and choose the priorities you want to hear about.
Automatic updates: on the server's Manage page, in the Updates tab.
SSH logins: on the server's Manage page, under SSH login notifications. Ploi installs a hook on the server and sends a message for every successful login. This needs the Pro plan or higher.
Backups: click Notifications on the backup and choose before the backup, after it or when it fails. See How do I set up database and file backups?
For your own integrations, the site's Notifications page also has two webhook URLs. Ploi sends a POST request with JSON to them when a deployment starts and when it finishes.
Assigning channels in bulk
To attach a channel to many servers and sites at once, click Bulk assign notifications on the Notification channels page. Pick the channel, tick the notification types and the servers and sites, and click Assign notifications. Ploi skips what is already attached. For deployments, bulk assign attaches the Deployment completed event, which also covers failed deployments. Add Deployment started on the site itself if you want it. The server list only shows servers you own. Servers that don't have SSH login notifications or monitoring installed are greyed out for those types.
Messages Ploi always e-mails
Some messages go to your e-mail address whatever channels you set up. Examples are a server that fails to build or can't be reached, a failed Let's Encrypt request, a failed database clone, a failing health check and a deployment that couldn't start. Failed backups are e-mailed too, unless the backup has a channel for failed backups.
When a channel stops working
Ploi sends every message once and doesn't retry. When a channel fails, for example because someone deleted the webhook in Slack, Ploi e-mails you the error. Update the webhook with Edit and check it with Send test. Deleting a channel removes it from every server, site and backup it was attached to.
Teams
Notification channels belong to your account, not to the team, and you can only attach your own. A message goes to the channel no matter who caused the event. When you attach your Slack channel to a team site, deployments by your teammates end up in your Slack as well.
