fix(obs): the deploy notification was inhibited before it could send
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FluxRolloutInProgress fired correctly on the first real deploy and its mail
was suppressed before Alertmanager dispatched it. One label was wrong.

kube-prometheus-stack ships general.rules -> InfoInhibitor:

  group by (namespace) (ALERTS{severity="info"} == 1)
    unless on (namespace) group by (namespace)
      (ALERTS{alertname!="InfoInhibitor", alertstate="firing",
              severity=~"warning|critical"} == 1)

which fires for any namespace holding a firing info alert AND NOTHING ELSE
wrong in it, and the chart's third inhibit_rule (source alertname=InfoInhibitor
-> target severity="info", equal [namespace]) then drops exactly that alert.

For a deploy notification that is the worst possible interaction, because the
suppressed case is the ONLY case that matters: on a healthy rollout of a healthy
cluster flux-system holds no warning or critical alert, so the notification is
inhibited precisely when it is wanted, and would arrive only when something else
in flux-system was already broken. Measured on prod: InfoInhibitor went active
2026-09-30T04:58:48Z, the same moment the alert began firing for 12
Kustomizations, and amtool showed no FluxRolloutInProgress in Alertmanager
either active or --inhibited, with zero send failures.

Upstream's intent is explicit and fair: severity "info" means "only worth
showing next to a real problem". A deploy notice is not that, so it must not
claim that severity. FluxRolloutInProgress now carries `notification: deploy`
and no severity at all, and the route matches on that label — no inhibit_rule
in the chart targets anything but severity values, and omitting severity also
stops InfoInhibitor firing for flux-system rather than merely working around it.
FluxRolloutStuck keeps severity: warning and is unaffected.

Also verified on prod in the process, all previously UNVERIFIED: the 33 metric
series exist exactly as designed, the `revision` label IS populated (so the
lastAppliedRevision/artifact.revision paths are right), the podAnnotations roll
forced a new KSM pod, and the rule both fired for 12 lagging Kustomizations and
then CLEARED on convergence — the completion signal's whole mechanism, on real
data. Routing proven by `amtool config routes test notification=deploy` ->
email-deploy.

Still unverified: no mail observed in the inbox. The 226->227 email counter
increment during the window cannot be attributed (no receiver label, other
alerts active), and I am not claiming it either way. See the handoff entry.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
This commit is contained in:
jakman85andClaude Opus 5 committed 2026-09-30 00:05:10 -05:00
1 parent 64c72fd394
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@@ -839,6 +839,14 @@ spec:
# that has never applied anything — or a GitRepository with no artifact yet — publishes the
# series with no `revision` label. Without the matcher those group together under the empty
# string and compare EQUAL, i.e. a never-applied Kustomization would read as converged.
#
# A THIRD THING THAT MUST NOT REGRESS — THE SEVERITY LABEL. These alerts are delivered
# because of the labels they do NOT carry as much as the ones they do. Do not "tidy" this
# pair by giving FluxRolloutInProgress a `severity`, and never `severity: info`: the chart's
# InfoInhibitor rule plus its `severity="info"` inhibit_rule suppress an info alert whenever
# it is the only thing firing in its namespace, which is every healthy deploy. Measured on
# prod 2026-09-30 — the alert fired correctly for 12 Kustomizations, resolved correctly, and
# was inhibited in between. The full reasoning is on the `notification: deploy` label below.
# ===================================================================================
- alert: FluxRolloutInProgress
expr: |
@@ -857,7 +865,31 @@ spec:
# `flux reconcile`, a change touching one Kustomization), and a deploy notification that
# only sometimes arrives is worse than no notification at all.
labels:
severity: info # -> the email-deploy Alertmanager route; subject "[FLUX] applying/applied"
# ROUTED BY `notification`, AND DELIBERATELY CARRYING NO `severity` (fixed 2026-09-30).
# This alert originally used `severity: info`. That was WRONG, and wrong in the silent
# direction — measured on prod within minutes of the first real deploy.
# kube-prometheus-stack ships `general.rules` -> InfoInhibitor:
# group by (namespace) (ALERTS{severity="info"} == 1)
# unless on (namespace) group by (namespace)
# (ALERTS{alertname!="InfoInhibitor", alertstate="firing", severity=~"warning|critical"} == 1)
# which fires for any namespace that has a firing info alert AND NOTHING ELSE WRONG in
# it; paired with the chart's inhibit_rule
# source_matchers: [alertname="InfoInhibitor"]
# target_matchers: [severity="info"]
# equal: [namespace]
# the effect is that an info alert is suppressed EXACTLY WHEN it is the only thing
# happening in its namespace. For a deploy notification that is the only case that
# matters: on a healthy rollout of a healthy cluster, flux-system has no warning or
# critical alert, so InfoInhibitor fired and this alert never reached the receiver.
# Verified live: InfoInhibitor went active 2026-09-30T04:58:48Z, the same moment this
# alert began firing for 12 Kustomizations.
# Upstream's intent is explicit — `severity: info` means "only worth showing next to a
# real problem". A deploy notice is not that, so it must not claim that severity.
# `notification` is a label no inhibit_rule in the chart targets (all three match on
# severity values), and omitting `severity` also stops InfoInhibitor firing for
# flux-system at all. Route: platform/monitoring/kube-prometheus-stack.yaml matches
# `notification = "deploy"` -> the email-deploy receiver, subject "[FLUX] applying|applied".
notification: deploy
annotations:
summary: "Flux is applying a new revision — {{ $labels.name }} is behind main"
description: "Kustomization {{ $labels.namespace }}/{{ $labels.name }} has applied {{ $labels.revision }}, which is not the revision the flux-system GitRepository has fetched from main. THIS MAIL MEANS A GIT CHANGE STARTED ROLLING OUT; the RESOLVED mail for this same alert means every Kustomization reached the new revision and the rollout is complete."