diff --git a/haproxy/meta/heka.yml b/haproxy/meta/heka.yml
index 1f8f8d9..a1f236e 100644
--- a/haproxy/meta/heka.yml
+++ b/haproxy/meta/heka.yml
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
         service: haproxy
 {%- for listen_name, listen in proxy.listen.iteritems() if listen.get('check', True) %}
     {{ listen_name }}_backends:
+      alerting: enabled
       triggers:
       - {{ listen_name }}_backends_all_down
       - {{ listen_name }}_backends_majority_down