Overview

Live call routing connects phone calls to your On-Call Team. When someone calls your dedicated number, the system handles the call according to your configuration.

Datadog On-Call supports two routing types:

• Direct call routing: Connects the caller to an active responder, following the escalation policy for the On-Call Team. Enables real-time coordination during critical incidents.
• Voicemail routing: Prompts the caller to leave a voicemail, then converts the voice message to a Page for the On-Call Team. Useful for non-technical callers or third-party vendors who need to report issues without a live conversation.

Configuration

Basic route settings

Each live call route includes:

• Name: A descriptive label, such as “Production Incidents” or “Security Escalations.”
• Phone Number: The dedicated number provisioned by Datadog for this route.
• Region Code: The geographic region for the phone number (for example, US for the United States).
• Active Status: Whether the route is accepting calls.
• Routing Type: How calls are handled (see Routing types).

Keypad options

Keypad options offer callers a menu when they dial your routing number.

You can configure up to nine options per route. Each option maps a key (1-9) to an On-Call Team and triggers that team’s paging process. To improve usability:

• Use option 1 for the most critical team or escalation path.
• Group related teams under adjacent keys.
• Keep menu prompts concise and clear.

Routing types

Datadog On-Call supports two routing types: direct call routing and voicemail routing.

Direct call routing

In direct call routing, the system follows the On-Call Team’s escalation policy to connect the caller to the first available responder.

Responders must have valid phone numbers in their profiles; On-Call skips any responders that don’t.

Responders then have the following options:

• Press 1 to acknowledge the call.
• Press 2 to escalate it.
• Press 3 to resolve it.

Escalation logic

For direct call routing, escalation proceeds as follows:

• Multiple responders at the same level: All responders are called simultaneously. The first to answer is connected.
• Responder rejects a call: The system immediately escalates to the next responder.
• Responder has no phone number: The system skips the responder.
• Only one escalation level is defined: If the responder is unreachable, the caller is informed that no one is available, and the call ends.
• No responders have valid phone numbers: The caller is informed that no one is available, and the call ends.

Best practices

• Use multi-level escalation policies to avoid dropped calls.
• Add multiple responders at critical levels for redundancy.
• Test your routing setup regularly:
  • Test each keypad option to verify it routes to the correct team.
  • Simulate escalation behavior by rejecting or not answering a call.
  • Check that responders’ phone numbers are valid, reachable, and configured with appropriate voicemail settings.
  • Verify that calls successfully connect to available responders.

Voicemail routing

In voicemail routing, callers are prompted to leave a message. The message is transcribed and sent as a Page to the On-Call Team.

Best practices

• Confirm team members have notification preferences configured to receive Pages.
• Test your routing setup regularly:
  • Test each keypad option to verify it routes to the correct team.
  • Confirm that voicemail recordings are properly captured and transcribed.
  • Verify that Pages are created and sent to the correct team members.

Troubleshooting

Route issues

If your route isn’t accepting calls:

• Confirm the route is set to active.
• Confirm that provisioning is complete. If provisioning is still in progress, contact Datadog Support.
• Verify the phone number is correctly configured for this route.

Keypad problems

If a keypad option is not routing calls correctly:

• Confirm each keypad option is linked to a valid On-Call team.
• Test each option individually by dialing the route and pressing the corresponding key.
• Verify that your phone system supports DTMF (touch-tone) input, as some VoIP systems disable it by default.

Direct call routing: calls not connecting or no Page created

If calls are not reaching a responder or no Page is created:

• Confirm that the On-Call Team has an active escalation policy with at least one escalation level defined.
• Verify that all responders in the escalation policy have a valid phone number in their profile. On-Call skips responders without a phone number.
• Check that each responder’s phone number is reachable and not blocked or forwarded to an unavailable destination.
• Confirm that each team member has notification preferences configured to receive Pages.

Voicemail routing: voicemail not converting to a Page

If a voicemail is left but no Page is created:

• Confirm the route’s routing type is set to Voicemail routing, not Direct call routing.
• Verify the On-Call Team assigned to the route has an active escalation policy.
• Confirm that team members have notification preferences configured to receive Pages.
• Check that the voicemail recording completed successfully. Callers who hang up before the beep may not leave a recording that the system can process.