Monitor Types Overview

StatusApp supports multiple specialized monitor types for different use cases. Choose the right type to accurately test your services.

Monitor Types at a Glance

Type	Best For	Key Feature
WEBSITE/HTTP	Websites, web apps	Simple availability check
API	REST APIs	Auth, assertions, schema validation
PORT/TCP	Databases, services	Check port availability
DNS	Domain resolution	Verify DNS records
SSL_CERT	HTTPS sites	Track certificate expiration
CRON/Heartbeat	Scheduled jobs	Reverse monitoring via pings
DOMAIN	Domain health	Expiry, WHOIS, blacklists
GRAPHQL	GraphQL APIs	Query/mutation validation
PING	Network connectivity	ICMP latency checks
SERVER	Infrastructure	CPU, memory, disk metrics

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Quick Selector

Not sure which type?

• Is it a website or web app? → WEBSITE/HTTP
• Is it a REST API? → API
• Is it a GraphQL endpoint? → GRAPHQL
• Is it a database or service port? → PORT/TCP
• Is it a domain name you want to track? → DOMAIN
• Need DNS record validation? → DNS
• Checking SSL certificates? → SSL_CERT
• Is it a scheduled job or cron? → CRON/Heartbeat
• Testing network connectivity? → PING
• Monitoring server resources? → SERVER

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Monitor Type Details

WEBSITE / HTTP / HTTPS

Monitor any HTTP or HTTPS endpoint for availability.

Configuration Options:

• URL to monitor
• Expected HTTP status code (e.g., 200, 301, 302)
• HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, etc.)
• Request headers (JSON format)
• Request body (for POST/PUT)
• Timeout settings

Use Cases:

• Public websites
• Web applications
• Landing pages
• CDN endpoints
• Load balancer health checks

API

Monitor REST API endpoints with advanced validation.

Configuration Options:

• URL to monitor
• HTTP method
• Request headers and body
• Expected status code
• Authentication configuration:
  • Bearer Token
  • Basic Auth (username/password)
  • API Key (header or query parameter)
  • OAuth 2.0 (client credentials, password, refresh token)
  • JWT (with custom prefix)
• Performance timing capture
• Response assertions

Authentication Config Example:

{
  "type": "bearer",
  "token": "your-api-token"
}

Use Cases:

• REST API endpoints
• Authenticated APIs
• API health endpoints
• Third-party API integrations
• Microservice endpoints

CRON / Heartbeat

Reverse monitoring for scheduled jobs - your job pings StatusApp.

How It Works:

1. Create a CRON monitor - you get a unique heartbeat URL
2. Your scheduled job pings the URL when it runs
3. If no ping is received within the grace period, an incident is triggered

Configuration Options:

• Grace period (60 seconds to 24 hours)
• Expected ping frequency

Heartbeat Signals:

• Success: GET /api/v1/heartbeat/{id} - Job completed successfully
• Start: GET /api/v1/heartbeat/{id}/start - Job started (for long jobs)
• Fail: POST /api/v1/heartbeat/{id}/fail - Job failed (include error in body)
• Log: POST /api/v1/heartbeat/{id}/log - Log message without status change

Use Cases:

• Cron jobs
• Scheduled backups
• ETL processes
• Batch jobs
• Periodic scripts
• Queue workers

PORT / TCP

Monitor TCP or UDP port availability.

Configuration Options:

• Hostname or IP address
• Port number (1-65535)
• Protocol (TCP or UDP)
• Timeout

Use Cases:

• Database servers (MySQL 3306, PostgreSQL 5432, MongoDB 27017)
• Mail servers (SMTP 25/587, IMAP 143/993)
• SSH access (port 22)
• FTP servers (port 21)
• Redis (port 6379)
• Custom services on specific ports

DNS

Monitor DNS record resolution and validate expected values.

Configuration Options:

• Domain name
• Record type (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT)
• Expected IP or value (optional validation)
• Timeout

Record Types:

Type	Description	Example Use
A	IPv4 address	Validate server IP
AAAA	IPv6 address	IPv6 validation
CNAME	Canonical name	CDN/alias records
MX	Mail exchange	Email server
TXT	Text records	SPF, DKIM verification

Use Cases:

• Verify DNS propagation
• Monitor DNS changes
• Validate CDN configuration
• Check mail server records
• Monitor for DNS hijacking

SSL_CERT

Monitor SSL/TLS certificate expiration.

Configuration Options:

• HTTPS URL
• Days before expiry to alert (1-90 days, default: 30)

What's Monitored:

• Certificate validity
• Days until expiration
• Certificate issuer
• Certificate chain

Use Cases:

• Production websites
• API endpoints
• Internal services
• Third-party dependencies
• Wildcard certificates

DOMAIN

Comprehensive domain health monitoring.

Configuration Options:

• Domain name (e.g., example.com)
• Days before domain expiry to alert (1-365 days)
• Monitor DNS changes (on/off)
• Monitor WHOIS changes (on/off)
• Monitor blacklists (on/off)

What's Monitored:

• Domain expiration date
• WHOIS data changes
• DNS record modifications
• Blacklist status
• Registrar information
• Nameserver configuration

Use Cases:

• Critical domain assets
• Customer domains (for agencies)
• Domains with auto-renewal concerns
• Domain portfolio management
• Security monitoring

GRAPHQL

Monitor GraphQL endpoints with query validation.

Configuration Options:

• GraphQL endpoint URL
• Query string
• Variables (JSON)
• Authentication (same options as API monitors)
• Expected response validation

Example Query:

query HealthCheck {
  health {
    status
    version
  }
}

Use Cases:

• GraphQL API health checks
• Schema validation
• Query performance monitoring
• Apollo/GraphQL server monitoring

PING

ICMP ping monitoring for network connectivity.

Configuration Options:

• Hostname or IP address
• Timeout

What's Measured:

• Connectivity (up/down)
• Latency (response time)
• Packet loss

Use Cases:

• Network device availability
• Server reachability
• VPN endpoint checking
• ISP connectivity validation

SERVER

Server infrastructure monitoring (requires agent installation).

Configuration Options:

• CPU threshold (default: 90%)
• Memory threshold (default: 85%)
• Disk threshold (default: 90%)
• Load average threshold

What's Monitored:

• CPU usage and load average
• Memory usage (RAM and swap)
• Disk usage and I/O
• Network bandwidth
• Process count
• System uptime
• OS and kernel version

Use Cases:

• Production servers
• Database servers
• Application servers
• Containerized workloads

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Multi-Region Monitoring

All monitor types support checking from multiple geographic regions:

Available Regions:

• North America (US East, US West, US Central, Canada)
• Europe (UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Netherlands)
• Asia Pacific (Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai)
• South America (Brazil)
• Africa (South Africa)

Benefits:

• Detect regional outages
• Verify global accessibility
• Monitor CDN performance
• Reduce false positives (require 2+ regions to agree)
• Track region-specific latency

Configuration: Select regions when creating/editing a monitor using enabledWorkerRegionIds.

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Common Configuration Options

All monitor types include:

Check Interval

How often to test (depends on your plan):

• Starter: 60 seconds minimum
• Professional: 30 seconds minimum
• Business: 10 seconds minimum
• Enterprise: 5 seconds minimum

Recommendations:

• Critical services: 30-60 seconds
• Production services: 2-5 minutes
• Non-critical: 5-15 minutes

Timeout

Maximum wait for response before marking as failed:

• Minimum: 5 seconds
• Maximum: 300 seconds (5 minutes)
• Default: 30 seconds

Recommendations:

• Fast services: 5-10 seconds
• Standard: 15-30 seconds
• Slow/international: 30-60 seconds

Mute Alerts Before

Number of consecutive failures before alerting:

• 1 check: Immediate alert (high sensitivity)
• 2-3 checks: Balanced (reduce false positives)
• 5+ checks: Low sensitivity (for flaky services)

Notifications

Assign notification channels to each monitor:

• Email
• Slack
• Discord
• Telegram
• SMS
• PagerDuty
• OpsGenie
• Microsoft Teams
• Custom Webhooks

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Performance Regression Detection

Available for HTTP, API, and GraphQL monitors.

Configuration:

• regressionEnabled: Enable/disable detection
• regressionThreshold: Percentage increase to trigger alert (25-200%, default: 50%)
• regressionPeriod: Baseline calculation period in days (1-30, default: 7)

How It Works:

1. StatusApp calculates baseline response time from recent checks
2. If response time exceeds baseline by threshold percentage, alert triggers
3. Alert resolves when performance returns to normal

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Performance Timings

Enable detailed timing breakdown for HTTP-based monitors:

Timing	Description
DNS	DNS resolution time
TCP	TCP connection time
TLS	TLS handshake time
First Byte	Time to first byte
Download	Content download time
Total	Total response time

Enable with performanceTimings: true when creating monitors.

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Choosing the Right Monitor Type

For Accuracy:

• Use the monitor type that closest matches how users access the service
• HTTP for websites, API for APIs, PORT for databases

For Coverage:

• Combine monitor types for comprehensive testing
• WEBSITE + SSL_CERT = Full web monitoring
• API + PORT = Complete service testing
• DNS + HTTP = Domain + availability

For Scale:

• Start simple, add complexity as needed
• Monitor critical services from multiple regions
• Use different intervals for different criticality levels

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Monitoring Common Infrastructure

Service	Recommended Monitor(s)
Website/Web App	WEBSITE + SSL_CERT
REST API	API (with auth)
GraphQL API	GRAPHQL
Database	PORT (check connection port)
Mail Server	PORT (SMTP, IMAP ports)
Scheduled Job	CRON/Heartbeat
DNS Records	DNS
Domain Health	DOMAIN
CDN	HTTP from multiple regions
Load Balancer	HTTP/API from multiple regions
Microservice	API
VPN Endpoint	PING
Server	SERVER (with agent)

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Best Practices

Set Realistic Timeouts

• Match your service's typical response time
• Add buffer for network latency
• Test locally to establish baseline
• Increase for international regions

Start Conservative, Then Optimize

• Begin with longer intervals and higher confirmation thresholds
• Reduce false positives first
• Shorten intervals once baseline is stable
• Tune thresholds based on incident history

Document Your Setup

• Record what each monitor tests
• Document why you chose that monitor type
• Keep runbooks for common alerts
• Update as services change

Review Regularly

• Monthly: Check false positive rate
• Quarterly: Review intervals and thresholds
• When services change: Update monitors
• Annually: Full audit of all monitors

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Next Steps

• HTTP/Website Monitors - Detailed HTTP monitoring guide
• API Monitors - REST API monitoring with auth
• Heartbeat Monitors - Monitor scheduled jobs
• Notifications - Set up alerts
• API Reference - Create monitors via API