Uptime Monitoring
Monitor your website's availability 24/7 with instant alerts when issues occur.
Uptime monitoring continuously checks if your website is accessible and responsive. Get instant alerts when your site goes down and track historical availability.
How It Works
VitalSentinel checks your website at regular intervals:
- Sends an HTTP/HTTPS request to your URL
- Measures response time
- Verifies the response is successful (2xx or 3xx status)
- Records the result
If a check fails, you're immediately notified.
Check Intervals
The frequency of uptime checks depends on your plan:
| Interval | Description |
|---|---|
| 30 seconds | Fastest detection |
| 1 minute | Recommended |
| 5 minutes | Standard |
Available check frequencies depend on your plan.
Dashboard Overview
The uptime dashboard shows:
Status Indicator
- Green - Site is up and healthy
- Yellow - Elevated response times
- Red - Site is down or unreachable
Uptime Percentage
Your availability over the selected period:
- 99.9% = ~43 minutes downtime/month
- 99.5% = ~3.6 hours downtime/month
- 99.0% = ~7.3 hours downtime/month
Response Time Chart
Visualizes response times over time. Hover over any point to see the response time, status code, and timestamp.
Incident Timeline
Shows downtime events:
- Start and end time
- Duration
- Cause (if detected)
Metrics Tracked
Response Time
Time from request initiation to full response. The dashboard shows the average response time across your selected time period.
Status Codes
- 2xx - Success
- 3xx - Redirect (followed automatically)
- 4xx - Client error (configuration issue)
- 5xx - Server error (downtime)
SSL Certificate
Monitored automatically:
- Issuer and validity
- Expiration date
- Chain validation
- Days until expiration alerts
Domain Registration
Monitored via WHOIS (for supported TLDs):
- Registration expiration date
- Days until expiration
- Registrar information
SSL Certificate Monitoring
VitalSentinel monitors your SSL/TLS certificate:
Certificate Details
- Issuer - Certificate authority
- Valid From/To - Certificate validity period
- Days Until Expiration - Countdown to renewal
Expiration Alerts
Set up alerts to get notified before your certificate expires. Available preset thresholds:
- 30 days before expiration (warning)
- 14 days before expiration (warning)
- 7 days before expiration (critical)
See Setting Up Alerts to configure certificate expiration alerts.
Certificate Errors
Detected issues include:
- Expired certificate
- Invalid chain
- Hostname mismatch
- Self-signed certificate
Domain Expiration Monitoring
VitalSentinel monitors when your domain registration expires using WHOIS data.
What's Tracked
- Days Until Expiry - Countdown to domain expiration
- Expiration Date - When your domain registration ends
- Registrar - Your domain registrar
- TLD - Top-level domain
Status Indicators
| Days Until Expiry | Status |
|---|---|
| > 90 days | Green (healthy) |
| 30-90 days | Yellow (renew soon) |
| < 30 days | Red (urgent) |
Supported TLDs
Domain expiration checking uses public WHOIS data. The following TLDs are supported:
Generic TLDs: .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .us, .co, .me, .io, .tv, .cc, .ws, .mobi, .name, .asia, .tel, .pro, .travel, .xxx, .ai, .agency
New gTLDs: .xyz, .online, .tech, .store, .site
Country TLDs with WHOIS support: .fr (France), .it (Italy), .pl (Poland), .cz (Czech Republic), .sk (Slovakia), .cn (China), .ru (Russia)
Unsupported TLDs
Many country-code TLDs don't provide public WHOIS data due to privacy regulations:
.eu, .de, .es, .uk, .co.uk, .jp, .nl, .be, .at, .ch, .dk, .se, .no, .fi, .ca, .au, .nz, .hk, .sg, .kr, .tw, .in, .br, .mx
If domain expiration checking isn't supported for your TLD, you'll see a notice explaining that public WHOIS data is not available.
Configuring Uptime Checks
Setting Check Interval
- Go to Domain Settings for your domain
- Find the Uptime Monitoring section
- Select your preferred Check Frequency (30 seconds, 1 minute, or 5 minutes)
- Click Save Settings
Available check frequencies depend on your plan.
Request Timeout
Each uptime check has a timeout of 10 seconds. If your server doesn't respond within this time, the check is marked as failed.
Incident Detection
What Triggers an Incident?
- HTTP status code 4xx or 5xx
- Connection timeout
- SSL/TLS errors
- DNS resolution failure
- Empty response
Incident Lifecycle
- Detected - First failed check
- Confirmed - Multiple consecutive failures
- Resolved - Successful check after incident
- Documented - Duration and details recorded
False Positives
VitalSentinel minimizes false positives by:
- Retrying failed checks
- Checking from multiple locations
- Requiring consecutive failures
Alerts
Set up notifications for uptime events. Available alert presets:
- Site is down - Get notified when your site becomes unreachable
- Site is up - Get notified when your site recovers after downtime
- SSL expiring - 30, 14, or 7 days before expiration
- Domain expiring - 30, 14, or 7 days before expiration
See Setting Up Alerts for configuration details.