Setting up an Uptime Monitoring Test

Who it's for: Operators responsible for ensuring webpages, APIs, and services stay reachable.
You’ll learn: Uptime monitor configuration, advanced request options, alert tuning, and troubleshooting.

Overview

Uptime monitoring runs lightweight HTTP checks from multiple regions to verify that your service is reachable and responds within acceptable time frames. Each run captures response codes, latency, and header data so you can track availability against SLAs.

Start the Setup Process

Click Create New Uptime Test within your project.
Give the test a descriptive name (example: Marketing Site - Prod).
Toggle Enable Test to start monitoring immediately after saving.
Enter the Target URL you want Acumen Logs to check.

Set the Check Interval

Choose a frequency (e.g., every 1, 5, 10, or 30 minutes).
Align the interval with business impact—critical APIs deserve higher frequency, static marketing sites may need less.
The dashboard shows the next scheduled run time once saved.

Define Fail Conditions

Success Status Codes: Select the HTTP codes that indicate a healthy response (default: 200–299). Add 301/302 if redirects are expected.
Response Time Threshold: Flag a failure when latency exceeds a defined limit (milliseconds).
String Match: Verify that the response body contains (or does not contain) a specific string, ensuring your application returns expected content.
Certificate Checks: Monitor SSL expiration alongside uptime to catch renewal lapses.

Any response outside these conditions is marked failed and eligible for alerting.

Advanced Request Options

Request Method: GET, HEAD, POST, or PUT.
Protocol: Force HTTP or HTTPS depending on your endpoint.
Authentication: Provide basic auth credentials for protected resources.
Custom Headers & Body: Add user-agent strings, tokens, or JSON payloads to simulate realistic traffic.
Follow Redirects: Decide whether to treat redirects as success or capture them for analysis.

Use these options to match production behaviour and avoid false positives.

Choose Testing Locations

Select the geographic regions that should run the check (e.g., Ohio, London, Frankfurt, Sydney).
Mix regions to track localized issues such as CDN misconfigurations or ISP outages.
Adjust location selection as your customer footprint grows.

Save Your Test

Click Save to finalize the setup. Uptime results start populating after the first run and are accessible from the Uptime Dashboard.

Configure Alerts

Click Set Alert on the Uptime Test Dashboard.
Enable the channels you need (Email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Desktop, Webhook).
Provide recipients and set the minimum fail count for each channel.
Click Test Alert to verify delivery.

📌 Adjust fail counts to balance fast detection with reduced noise. For example, notify Slack after 2 failures, webhooks after 3.

Validation & Reporting

Run On Demand: Trigger manual checks after deployments or DNS changes to confirm availability.
Export History: Download response data as CSV for SLA reporting or quarterly reviews.
Annotate Events: Add notes (e.g., “Maintenance window”) to differentiate expected downtime from incidents.
Integrate via API: Pull uptime metrics into BI tools or status pages using the Acumen Logs API.

Best Practices

Monitor primary pages, important APIs, and any third-party dependency you rely on.
Pair uptime checks with Synthetic journeys to understand both availability and functionality.
Rotate credentials used in auth-protected checks on a regular cadence.
Leverage maintenance windows to mute alerts during planned work.
Review response time trends weekly to spot slowdowns before they become outages.

Troubleshooting

False Positives: Expand the success status code list or increase the response-time threshold slightly.
Frequent Redirects: Update the target URL to the final destination or allow 301/302 codes.
SSL Errors: Confirm the certificate chain is valid and not expiring soon.
Regional Failures: Check CDN configuration, geo restrictions, or firewall rules blocking specific IP ranges.
No Alert Received: Re-test the alert channel and confirm the fail count threshold was reached.

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