Monitors

A monitor is one thing CuliPulse watches on a schedule. Every monitor has a type (what kind of check it runs), a target (what to check), and how often it checks.

Monitor types

Type	What it watches	Checked from
Website / HTTP	A URL — is it reachable, does it return a healthy response?	A checkpoint
Port (TCP)	Any TCP port — a database, message queue, or other TCP service.	A checkpoint
Ping (ICMP)	Whether a host responds at all, and how fast.	A checkpoint
UDP service	A UDP-based service such as DNS or NTP. For anything else, such as a game server, you write the message to send.	A checkpoint
Domain expiry	Warns you before a domain name’s registration expires.	CuliPulse
DNS records	Watches DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, and others) for unexpected changes.	CuliPulse
Vendor status	A third-party service you depend on (from a supported list), so their outage doesn’t look like your fault.	CuliPulse
Heartbeat	Your own scheduled jobs — the job “checks in” on a schedule, and CuliPulse alerts you if it misses one.	Your job checks in

You choose the type once, when you create the monitor. See Check types for the settings each one offers.

Where checks run from

Website, Port, Ping, and UDP monitors run from a checkpoint — the place that performs the check. You have two kinds:

• Shared probe locations — CuliPulse runs shared checkpoints in Singapore, Frankfurt, and Montreal. Pick one (or several on a paid plan) with no setup at all.
• Your own agent — a small program you install to check things only reachable from inside your own network (an internal service, a database behind a firewall). See Checkpoints & agents.

Domain, DNS, and Vendor monitors are checked by CuliPulse directly — the answer is the same from anywhere, so they carry no checkpoint. Heartbeat monitors are the reverse: nothing is probed; your job calls a URL to check in.

Note

Watching one target from more than one checkpoint protects you from false alarms caused by a network problem in a single location — see only alerting when more than one checkpoint fails.

Creating and editing

1. Go to Monitors and click New monitor.
2. Choose a type and enter what to check.
3. Choose how often to check — the fastest interval depends on your plan.
4. For a checkpoint type, tick where to check from under Where we check from — your own agents are listed first, then CuliPulse’s shared locations.
5. Save. CuliPulse starts checking immediately. (A heartbeat is different: it waits for your job’s first check-in before it watches anything.)

You can change a monitor’s target, schedule, checkpoints, and other settings at any time. The one thing you can’t change after creating a monitor is its type — for a different kind of check, create a new monitor.

For pausing, deleting, running a check on demand, and other day-to-day actions, see Managing monitors.