This article explains the difference in email notification behavior between protected actions and Okta rate limit warnings. When a Super Admin performs a protected action, other Super Admins receive a Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) email notification, while the initiating admin does not. In contrast, rate limit warnings are sent to all administrators.
- Administrator Email Notifications
The difference in notification behavior is by design and relates to the purpose of each alert:
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Protected Action Notifications: This notification system ensures oversight of sensitive system changes. By design, only Super Admins other than the one performing the action are notified. This design prevents an administrator from performing a sensitive action without others being aware.
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Rate Limit Warnings: These are operational alerts intended to inform all administrators of potential service impacts. The goal is to create broad awareness across the administrative team to maintain system health.
The notification behavior for each alert type is distinct:
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Protected Action Notifications: When a Super Administrator performs a protected action, an email notification is sent via Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) to all other Super Administrators. The administrator who initiated the action is intentionally excluded from the notification. To ensure notifications are sent to a shared mailbox, a secondary email address can be added to one of the Super Administrator accounts.
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Rate Limit Notifications: For warnings and violations related to organization-wide rate limits, all administrators receive email notifications and see banners in the Admin Console. These alerts are sent directly to all administrators to ensure comprehensive awareness of potential service disruptions. For more information, please see the How to Configure Okta Administrator Email Notifications article.
