How to send SolarWinds Orion alerts to WhatsApp groups using the official WhatsAppBusiness Cloud API

lnovaes

I'm building an integration where SolarWinds Orion (SAM/NPM) alerts are sent to corporate WhatsApp groups, similar to how Orion integrates with Microsoft Teams or Slack via the "Send a GET/POST Request to a Web Server" alert action.

I'm planning to use the official WhatsApp Business Cloud API (Meta) instead of unofficial libraries like whatsapp-web.js, for better reliability and support.

My backend (Node.js) will receive the webhook/HTTP request from Orion's Alert Action and route the message to the correct WhatsApp destination based on a routing table (mapping alert source/location to a group or recipient).

What I need help with:

• Best practices for structuring the payload from the Orion Alert Action (which ${N=SwisEntity;M=...} and ${N=Alerting;M=...} variables are most useful)
• Message template requirements for the Cloud API (since outbound messages outside a 24h window need pre-approved templates)
• Has anyone used the SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS) REST API / SWQL directly (instead of the native Alert Action) to pull alert data and push it to external systems like WhatsApp? Is there any advantage to that approach over just using the Alert Action?
• Any examples of someone who has done a similar Orion → webhook → WhatsApp Cloud API integration

vinay.by

Hi @lnovaes

Check this thread might help you

Need to integrate alerts with Mobile SMS Application like WhatsApp, Telegram and so on - THWACK

1. Best practices - List down all the tags/details that you want to send across - keep it generic like Node Name (Device name), Status, Alert Name, Description/Issue, Severity etc. Note: Variables - remember that the variables change based on the type of alert that you create.
2. Has anyone used SWIS / REST API to pull alert data - the issue with this approach is, it can never be dynamic in nature like native alert action, pulls always need a interval, plus it needs lot of customization, plus it might negatively impact the performance of your SolarWinds environment if its used excessively. But doesn't mean it cant be done, you will need to design it efficiently.
3. Orion → Webhook → WhatApp, Once your whatsapp webhook is ready it should be pretty simple in Orion. From your trigger actions/reset action you just call the POST action update webhook details and alert details. Webhook creation is outside of Orion on external systems like Whatsapp in this case, you will need to look into that first.

Hope this helps.