Methods for flood control on error emails

Question

In most of the websites I develop I add something to notify me by email of any 500 errors.

However, when something goes really wrong, I can get dozens of these error emails (once I got thousands).

So I want to implement some form of flood control. I develop in ASP.NET (C#) and also have some old sites in Classic ASP, but this question is not really about a specific language.

I was thinking of simply storing the last error number and email time in an application variable and if the next error is the same error number and within a certain time frame then do not send an email.

Just wondering what other techniques people are using to accomplish this.

Do you have control over the sites that could potentially return the 500 response? — M.Babcock, Feb 08 '12 at 03:02
@M.Babcock Yes, I have full control over the websites. I would prefer to do this on a code level rather than on a server level, but welcome all suggestions. — johna, Feb 08 '12 at 03:56

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 08 '12 at 02:59

2

If I were you, I'd try only allowing someone to send an error email if they haven't sent an error email for that type of error in a certain amount of time. If it was a different error, you could allow them to send that one too.

answered Feb 08 '12 at 02:59

Zach B.

663
1
7
17

errors are reported automatically any time they occur, without user intervention. – johna Feb 09 '12 at 02:06

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 16 '12 at 01:04

1

I have decided to go with storing the last error details and time in an application scope variable and if the error is the same as the previous error within a specific time frame I ignore it.

answered Feb 16 '12 at 01:04

johna

10,540
14
47
72

Methods for flood control on error emails

2 Answers2