Alarm Configuration

Create alarm rules that trigger notifications and actions when events occur.

Generated 2026-07-28 17:27 UTC

Overview

Kalytera's alarm system lets you create rules that fire when specific events occur — a camera going offline, motion detected, storage running low, or an AI object crossing a virtual tripwire. The system supports 45+ trigger types across six categories.

Configure alarm rules at Setup → Alarm Configuration. View active alarms under Alarms in the top navigation.

Alarm configuration page — Setup → Alarm Configuration — predefined templates on the left, custom rules on the right

License requirement: Alarms and analytics are available on Standard edition and above. The Community Edition does not include the alarm system.

Predefined Alarm Templates

Kalytera includes 7 ready-to-use alarm templates you can activate with a single click:

Template	Trigger	Default Action
Device Offline	Camera loses network connectivity	System notification
Motion Detection	Motion detected by the analytics engine	System notification + recording
Recording Stopped	Camera unexpectedly stops recording	System notification
Storage Low	Available storage falls below threshold	System notification
Video Tampering	Camera view is blocked, defocused, or redirected	System notification
Video Loss	Camera stream drops out completely	System notification
Stream Health	Stream quality score falls below threshold	System notification

Click the Activate button next to any template to enable it with the default settings. The template creates a fully configured alarm rule that you can then edit to adjust thresholds and actions.

Custom Alarm Rules

Click New Rule to build a custom alarm from scratch:

Name: Give the rule a descriptive name (e.g., Parking Lot — Person after 11pm).
Trigger: Select the event type that fires the alarm (see Trigger Categories below).
Target Devices: Choose which cameras or devices this rule monitors. Select All Devices for a system-wide rule.
Schedule: Optionally restrict the rule to specific hours or days (e.g., only active Monday–Friday 8am–6pm).
Actions: Define what happens when the rule fires (see Alarm Actions below).
Click Save Rule.

Trigger Categories

Kalytera supports triggers across six categories:

Device Health: Offline, rebooted, firmware changed, temperature exceeded, fan failure.
Stream & Recording: Video loss, stream health score, recording stopped, disk write error, segment gap.
Motion & Analytics: Motion detected, object detected (person/vehicle/animal), line crossing, area intrusion, object lingering, crowd detected.
Storage: Drive usage exceeds %, drive missing, recording path inaccessible, retention pruning triggered.
System: CPU overload, RAM critical, service restart, user login failure, unauthorized access attempt.
External: Incoming SMTP alarm (from camera email alert), external webhook received, API-triggered alarm.

Analytics Triggers (AI)

Analytics-based triggers require AI analytics to be enabled for the target camera (Setup → Devices → Edit → Analytics). Available triggers include:

Object Detected: Fires when an object of the specified class (person, car, truck, bicycle, etc.) appears in the frame.
Line Crossing: Fires when an object crosses a user-defined virtual line in a specified direction.
Area Intrusion: Fires when an object enters or lingers in a defined zone.
Object Count Threshold: Fires when the number of detected objects exceeds a threshold (e.g., more than 5 people in a restricted area).

Combine Line Crossing triggers with a nighttime schedule to alert on perimeter breaches only after hours — preventing daytime false alarms from normal foot traffic.

Alarm Actions

Each alarm rule can trigger one or more actions when it fires:

Action	Description
System Notification	Shows an alert in the Alarms panel in the UI (visible to all logged-in users).
Email Notification	Sends an email to one or more addresses. Requires SMTP to be configured in Admin → System.
Webhook	Sends an HTTP POST with alarm details to an external URL (e.g., Slack, Teams, custom integration).
Start Recording	Triggers a manual recording on the target camera for a configured duration.
Mobile Push	Sends a push notification to paired mobile devices (requires the Kalytera mobile app).

Viewing Active Alarms

Active alarms are displayed in the Alarms section of the navigation. The alarm list shows when each alarm fired, which device triggered it, the severity level, and the current state (Active / Acknowledged / Resolved).

Alarm management event list — Alarms — event list with severity, source device, and acknowledgement controls

Click Acknowledge on an alarm to mark it as reviewed. Alarms auto-resolve when the underlying condition clears (e.g., camera comes back online).