Abnormal IB Subscription Contract Volume

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Abnormal IB Subscription Contract Volume Alert

Alert ID: ib_sub_contract_volume Category: Integration Broker

What This Alert Detects

This alert detects when the volume of IB subscription contracts (PSAPMSGSUBCON) is significantly higher than the rolling historical average. Subscription contracts represent inbound messages being processed by local subscribers, so a spike here can indicate a flood of inbound messages, excessive retries, or an integration firing more frequently than expected.

How Baselining Works

psLens maintains a rolling history of up to 288 volume snapshots (approximately 24 hours at a 5-minute check interval). Each check cycle records the current subscription contract count for the lookback window.

Once at least 6 baseline snapshots have accumulated, the alert begins comparing the current count against the historical average.

Severity Logic

ConditionSeverity
Volume exceeds average by >= thresholdPercentWarning
Volume exceeds average by >= thresholdPercent x 2Critical
Historical average is 0 and current count is > 0Warning

For example, with the default threshold of 50%:

  • Current count is 75% above average → Warning
  • Current count is 100%+ above average → Critical

Configuration

alerts:
  checks:
    ib_sub_contract_volume:
      enabled: true
      lookbackHours: 1         # Window for counting current contracts
      thresholdCount: 50       # Percentage increase to trigger Warning
SettingDefaultDescription
lookbackHours1Hours to look back when counting current contract volume
thresholdCount50Percentage increase over historical average to trigger a Warning alert. Critical fires at 2x this value.

Alert Details

Each alert item includes:

  • Current subscription contract count for the lookback window
  • Historical average count
  • Percentage increase above average
  • Number of baseline samples used
  • Link to the IB Monitor page

How to Respond

  1. Navigate to the IB Monitor in psLens to see which subscription contracts are generating the volume
  2. Check for contracts in Error status (see IB Subscription Contract Errors alert)
  3. Identify which operations are receiving the high volume of inbound messages
  4. Contact the sending system’s administrators if the volume is unexpected
  5. Consider using the Daily IB Volume report to compare against historical patterns

Tables Queried

TableDescription
PSAPMSGSUBCONIB subscription contract records