Overview of Checks

Curious about individual check types? Click the links with the button below for the timestamp!

Table of Contents

Checks At A Glance

How to View Checks

How to Add A New Monitoring Check

What Actions Can I Perform on a Check?

• Edit Check
• Pause/Resume 
• Set Maintenance
• Alerts
• View Check Analysis
• View Real-Time Analysis
• Edit in Recorder
• Duplicate
• Delete
• Audit Log
• Check ID

What Type of Checks Can I Use?

Basic Checks

• Website HTTP(S) 
• Group Checks
• Malware/Virus
• SSL Certificate Expiry
• Domain Blacklist
• WHOIS - Domain Lookup & Expiry
• RDAP - Domain Lookup & Expiry
• TCP Port
• DNS 
• Ping (ICMP) 
• Network Time Protocol (NTP)
• UDP
• SSH
• FTP
• SFTP
• POP
• IMAP
• SMTP

Advanced Checks

• API 
• Page Speed
• Real User Monitoring
• Transaction 
• Cloud Status
• Webhook and Heartbeat Monitoring

Checks At A Glance
 

• Numerous check types for every use case.

• Automatic alerts to the right people whenever downtime is reported.

• In depth and real-time analysis for easy outage diagnosis.

How to View Checks

To view the checks in your account, click Monitoring in the navigation menu. You'll be navigated to the All Checks page:

The All Checks page displays every check in your account by row, and includes several columns of data relevant to each check:

• Name: alphabetically sorted, in ascending order by default
• Status: the current status of the check (up, down, paused)
• Uptime (24H): the amount of time the check has been up over the last 24 hours, expressed as a percentage
• Response: color-coded response time graphs
• Tags: the Tags that are associated with the check
• More Actions : apply additional options to the selected check, including editing, pausing, applying a maintenance state, etc.

You can also click the status metric cards at the top of the page to filter the view down to only checks in those states (running, down, paused, or in a maintenance window):

Tip: If you don’t see all of your checks when viewing the Monitoring page, you likely have more than 10 checks. The All Checks view defaults to displaying 10 checks per page. You can view more checks (and apply bulk actions to them) by clicking the drop-down in the lower-left corner and selecting the number of checks viewable on the page, up to 250:

Changing the number of displayed checks can also help with making bulk modifications, such as applying pause or maintenance states to a set of checks.

How to Add a New Monitoring Check

Monitoring is the main checks page. To add a check from this page, click the Create Check button:

You can also add new checks from your Dashboard by clicking the Add New button:

The following describes the fields provided when adding or editing a check:

Name: Provide a name for your check.

Check Interval: Select the interval between each check.

Note: Some checks have a fixed interval that cannot be changed. For example, WHOIS checks are locked at an interval of once per day. When a check’s frequency is locked, a tooltip appears notifying you:

Contacts: Select the contact group(s) for your check. The contact group(s) you assign to a check will be notified via email, SMS message and/or phone call of any incidents related to your checks.

Locations: Select the probe server locations which will be used in monitoring your checks. 

Check Type: Select your check type. Please refer to the Basic Checks and Advanced Checks sections for explanation of each check type and its purpose.

Note: The required and optional fields will vary based on the check type selected. Please hover over the information icon for descriptions of the required and optional fields.

What Actions Can I Perform on a Check?

Return

More Actions

Edit Check: Go to the Check Setup view to adjust check settings.

Pause/Resume Check: Enable or disable monitoring for this check.

Set Maintenance: Start or schedule maintenance mode for the check.

Alerts: Links to Alert History for a list of incidents related to each of your monitoring checks.

View Check Analysis: This provides a statistical analysis of the uptime and response times for each of your monitoring checks. See our documentation on Reporting for more details. 

View Real-Time Analysis: Access Real-Time Analysis for a check. Real-Time Analysis is a chronological breakdown of recent alerts and technical data used to help diagnose an outage. Note: not available for the Group Check or RUM types.

Edit in Recorder: open the transaction recorder to record steps for the check. This option only appears for transaction checks.

Duplicate: Create a copy of the check.

Delete: Delete the check and its response and alert history.

Audit Log: view the Audit Log showing the check’s create/update history.

Check ID: Copy check ID. This check ID will be copied to your clipboard. 

You can also perform these actions by clicking the Select checkbox next to the name of a check, which displays the relevant options:

You can select multiple checks in this way and apply actions to them in bulk. Click the topmost checkbox next to the Name column to select all checks on the page:

What Type of Checks Can I Use?

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Basic Checks

Website HTTP(s):

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HTTP(S) checks monitor a specific web or IP address to ensure the URL response code is OK 200, in intervals ranging from 1-60 minutes. Here are some examples of what they can do:

• Monitor your homepage for uptime
• Monitor a specific page for a specific status code or set of status codes
• POST a single request and expect a specific response

See more in HTTP(S) Check Basics, or Jump to HTTP(S) in our Overview of Checks video!

 

Group Checks:

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Organize multiple checks to monitor systems, report on performance, and manage incident response. Receive alerts when group failure conditions are met or report on the group’s uptime average. Use cases include:

• Organizing all checks for a single system into one
• Load Balance monitoring
• Escalating widespread outages

See more in Getting Started with the Uptime.com Group Check.

Malware/Virus: 

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This check will check your website for viruses and malware against the Google Safe Browsing List and Yandex Safe Browsing List. An alert is raised if the website appears on these indexes. This check is performed once per day. 

See more in Malware/Virus Check Basics

 

SSL Certificate Expiry: 

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This check allows you to receive alerts prior to an SSL certificate expiring on your site. An alert can be raised before a SSL certificate expires based on the before expiry days setup within your check. Moreover, a domain is required in order to add this check, and it must be entered without the sub-domain e.g. google.com. 

 

See more in SSL Certificate Expiry Check Basics

 

Domain Blacklist:

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This check allows you to monitor whether your domain or IP address is on a SPAM blacklist. Check your domain against approximately 100 of the most well-known spam blacklists and receive an alert if the domain is found.

See more in Domain Blacklist Check Basics

WHOIS - Domain Lookup & Expiry:

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This check allows you to check your domain's expiration date and registration information. An alert can be raised before a domain expires based on the before expiry days setup within your check. Moreover, a domain is required in order to add this check, and it must be entered without the sub-domain e.g. google.com. 

See more in WHOIS and RDAP - Domain Lookup & Expiry Check Basics

 

RDAP - Domain Lookup & Expiry:

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This check allows you to check your domain's expiration date and registration information. An alert can be raised before a domain expires based on the before expiry days setup within your check.This check uses the newer RDAP protocol, which is designed to replace WHOIS. If you receive unexpected alerts running WHOIS checks, you may need to use the RDAP check instead.

See more in WHOIS and RDAP - Domain Lookup & Expiry Check Basics

TCP Port: 

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This check allows you to monitor responses on a TCP port for a given host or IP address. Verify that the port is open and accepting connections.

See more in TCP/UDP Check Basics

DNS:

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This check allows you to monitor for DNS failures or changes. Receive notifications related to DNS resolution issues and proactively address them.

See more in DNS Server Check Basics

 

Ping (ICMP):

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This check allows you to monitor network activity for a specific domain or IP address. View latency and other related data, helpful in diagnosing network or routing issues.

See more in Ping (ICMP) Check Basics

Network Time Protocol (NTP):

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Monitor a Network Time Protocol server and issue alerts if delay is > 1000 ms. Delays in synchronization can affect applications that rely on accurate timekeeping, such as logs and scheduled tasks.

See more in NTP Check Basics.

 

UDP:

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This check allows you to monitor responses on a UDP port, verifying that the port is open and accepting connections.

See more in TCP/UDP Check Basics

SSH:

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This check allows you to monitor SSH (Secure Shell) access for your domain or IP address. Ensure that the server is reachable and a secure connection can be established with the provided credentials.

See more in SSH Check Basics
 

FTP: 
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This check ensures your file transfer servers are running, secure, and properly authenticated, helping maintain reliable and safe data transfers.  An alert is raised when the connection fails, or if the target server fails to open the FTP session.

See more in FTP Check Basics

 

SFTP: 

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This check uses secure SSH protocols to verify server availability and ensure login credentials are valid, confirming both the security and functionality of the server.

See more in SFTP Check Basics

POP:

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This check allows you to monitor a POP incoming email server.

See more in Email Server Check Basics

IMAP:

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This check allows you to monitor an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) incoming email server. Confirm that your email service is reachable for users and that messages can be retrieved without issues.

See more in Email Server Check Basics

SMTP:

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This check allows you to monitor an outgoing SMTP email server. 

See more in Email Server Check Basics

Advanced Checks

API: 

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This multi-step advanced check allows you to monitor your API with multiple HTTP(s) requests. 

• Use a variety of POST, GET, PUT, PATCH & DELETE requests to deliver data to an endpoint, set a variable based on the response, and use that variable in subsequent requests
• Use HTTP Headers to pass tokens for complex multi-step actions
• Verify a specific status code or response for multiple endpoints

See more in API Check Basics

Page Speed:

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Monitors and audits the performance and metrics of your site. Ability includes: 

• Visualization of your webpage as it loads to see exactly what shows up first for your users.
• Exact metrics on individual aspects of your webpage such as First contentful paint, Time to interactive, and Largest contentful paint.
• Stored history on the performance of your website both on a high level view and drilling down to each individual metric being measured on your webpage.

See more in Getting Started with the Uptime.com Page Speed Check.

Real User Monitoring: 

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This check allows you to monitor the performance experience of visitors on your site. Paste an HTML snippet into your site to start monitoring:

• Page load time and Apdex scores
• AJAX load time and errors
• First paint, first render and Time to Interactive

See more in RUM | Setup and basics.

Transaction: 

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This multi-step advanced check allows you to monitor web transactions on your site. Define a set of steps that the check should take, and a headless browser performs the actions. An alert is raised when one or more steps fails. The transaction check can:

• Login to websites
• Fill out forms
• Interact with shopping carts
• And perform other use cases.

See more in Transaction Check Basics

Cloud Status:

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Get instant visibility into the health of all of your cloud service providers and 3rd party dependencies so you can respond quickly to any cloud vendor outage or incident, minimizing interruptions, and protecting your brand reputation.

See more in Monitoring Cloud Services with Uptime Cloud Status

Webhook and Heartbeat Monitoring: 

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Monitor periodic jobs and processes, issuing alerts according to whether an action occurs or a heartbeat is not detected. Use cases include:

• Phasing out old deployments with heartbeat checks
• Monitoring a backup job with webhooks

See more in Custom Checks for Process Monitoring

Want to see our checks in action? Check out our YouTube Library for more!