Device alerts and logs
This section provides an overview of device alerts and logs.
Device requirements
Alerts and logs are currently supported by nRF91 Series devices.
Alerts
nRF Cloud device alerts are messages that allow you to monitor device operations in the field.
When a device running a supported application encounters a trigger condition, it sends an alert to nRF Cloud. These conditions are, for example, when temperature is above a specified threshold, the device's battery level is below a specified value, or the device disconnects from nRF Cloud.
You can use the nRF Cloud Alerts library to configure predefined conditions or create new ones. Alert conditions are defined in the device's application code. See the library documentation for a full list of features and dependencies.
The device can pass alert messages to nRF Cloud over MQTT or REST, depending on how you configure your application. You can then view alert notifications through the nRF Cloud portal or through the REST APIs. Alerts are visible for 30 days.
Alert types
The nRF Cloud Alerts library documentation includes a full list of alert types. You are not limited to these predefined alert types. See Usage for more information on how to create custom alert definitions.
Access and security
All team members can see alerts and messages for devices in a team, regardless of the user's role and group access, when calling the ListMessages or ListDeviceAlerts endpoints.
In the nRF Cloud portal, messages are shown only on an individual device's page, but alerts are visible on the Alerts page for all devices associated with the team.
If you want to keep alerts and messages secret for one or more devices, create a separate team for those devices.
Device logs
nRF Cloud logs display messages sent over supported MQTT topics or the REST SendDeviceMessage endpoint. This can include messages related to location, operation status, device connection, FOTA jobs, and more. Logs are kept for 30 days.
Logs are available at the following levels, in increasing order of detail:
| Value in nRF Cloud portal for changing log level | Value in nRF Cloud portal log message |
|---|---|
| Disable | 0-dis * |
| Error | 1-err |
| Warning | 2-wrn |
| Info | 3-inf |
| Debug | 4-dbg |
* The device never sends a log message with a log level of 0 if using the nRF Cloud Log library. Setting the log level to 0 disables all logging. If a log message with a log level of 0 is received by nRF Cloud, its value is as shown in the table.
Levels are defined according to Zephyr logging.
You can view device logs in the nRF Cloud portal or through the APIs.
See more about the nRF Cloud Log library.
Supported samples
If you want to test alerts and logs, you can use the following samples for the nRF9160:
See next
- Using alerts in the nRF Cloud portal and APIs.
- Using logs in the portal and APIs.