[Alerting UI] Rules list does not give reason why rule is disabled when it is due to license

[ymao1]

On the rules list, if a rule is disabled due to its rule type having a greater license than Kibana offers, the rule looks disabled but there is no indication of why it is disabled:

On the connectors list, we show a tooltip next to the connector name that gives a reason for the connector being disabled.

If the rule is enabled, it would throw an error, which would then be shown in the status column (with a "Fix" link), but because the rule is disabled, the error state is cleared

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/kibana-alerting-services (Team:Alerting Services)

[ymao1]

@mdefazio When the rule is enabled and running, it will show this error state due to license level, with the "Fix" link. When the rule is disabled, it won't show the error message anymore.

I was thinking we should add a tooltip to indicate why it is disabled, but should we also have some sort of "Fix" link to open the modal that prompts users to look at their license? If we do that here, should we also do it for the connectors list? Currently connectors disabled due to license only show a tooltip with no link to anything.

For reference: this PR added the "Fix" link and has screenshots of what the manage license modal looks like.

[mdefazio]

A few questions:

1. If I disable the rule, this error goes away?
2. If this is the case, is this another option for the user in the 'Fix' link?
3. Is there a scenario when the rule is at one license level, but uses a connector at a higher license level?
4. If I am no longer at a license level for a rule, does it automatically disable?

Some initial thoughts (but these may change based on the above questions):

• If a rule is outside of my license level, I should not be able to enable it (correct?) Do we treat this the same way we would treat adding actions? For example, I could see XYZ action, even though it is out of my license level. If I choose to enable it I immediately am prompted to manage my license. If I don't upgrade, I am not able to use this action

• If I remember correctly, in Cloud, we have scenarios where users can be using features outside their license and we show a banner or notification or sorts to let them know they're using features outside their license. I think where my mind goes with this is that it's not an error state for the rule. It should be disabled and when the user lands on this view they see a toast or a callout at the top that says something like "1 or more of your rules have been disabled because they were outside your license level. ". And then these would simply show as disabled, not errors in the list.

• This would be different however if a rule was within my license level and the connector it was using was outside—then these would error. With something indicating that 1 or more actions did not run for this rule because of license levels.

Maybe I'm coming at this wrong, so I'm happy to discuss via Zoom if that's easier.

[YulNaumenko]

A few questions:

1. If I disable the rule, this error goes away?

No. You can only delete the rule with the higher license (or upgrade the license).

2. If this is the case, is this another option for the user in the 'Fix' link?

No.

3. Is there a scenario when the rule is at one license level, but uses a connector at a higher license level?

Yes, it is possible. But I don't think we need to show something in the rules list. It will be a bunch of cases for the "non working" connectors: removed, higher license, has connection error, has missing secrets. It will be complicated to display all this reasons in the rules table. User will get the Error for execution rule instead.

4. If I am no longer at a license level for a rule, does it automatically disable?

No. Disabled rules with the higher license comes only from the import.

• If a rule is outside of my license level, I should not be able to enable it (correct?)

Yes.

Do we treat this the same way we would treat adding actions? For example, I could see XYZ action, even though it is out of my license level. If I choose to enable it I immediately am prompted to manage my license. If I don't upgrade, I am not able to use this action

For rules we have only Fix button when the execution of the alert was failed because it has a higher license. We've got an issue now, because we have imported rules which were never executed before in the current Kibana.

cc @mdefazio

[YulNaumenko]

If I remember correctly, in Cloud, we have scenarios where users can be using features outside their license and we show a banner or notification or sorts to let them know they're using features outside their license. I think where my mind goes with this is that it's not an error state for the rule. It should be disabled and when the user lands on this view they see a toast or a callout at the top that says something like "1 or more of your rules have been disabled because they were outside your license level. ". And then these would simply show as disabled, not errors in the list.

Banner could be a good option. Only one thing I'm worry abut is ' a lot of banners' in case when we have an errors banner for rules

[mdefazio]

Thanks for those answers @YulNaumenko . I agree about the risk of too many banners. I'm still hung up on whether this should be presented as an error or not. But perhaps it's the same rationale for the connectors. So for simplicity, let's handle this the same way we do on the connector page. Perhaps when we have a clearer path for licensing in general across kibana, we can come back to this.