Some jobs fail by not running. Last night's backup, the export to your accounting system, the cron job that cleans up old orders. Nothing goes down and nothing sends an error. A heartbeat monitor turns that silence into an alert.
How a heartbeat works
Most monitors go out and check something. A heartbeat works the other way round: it waits for your job to check in.
- Add a heartbeat monitor in the app. You get a ping address at
hb.monitoruptime.eu, unique to that monitor. - Call the address at the end of your job. One line in the script or the scheduler.
- If the ping is late, you hear about it. By e-mail on every plan, and in Slack, Teams or by webhook on Pro and Business.
Add the ping to your job
On Linux, add the call to the cron line, after the job:
0 3 * * * /opt/backup.sh && curl -fsS https://hb.monitoruptime.eu/p/<your-token>
On Windows, in a PowerShell script run by Task Scheduler, put this as the last line:
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing https://hb.monitoruptime.eu/p/<your-token>
The app gives you the exact address for each heartbeat.
Ping only when the job succeedsThe
&& in the cron line sends the ping only if the backup script finished without an error. A failed backup then shows up as a missing ping. A job can also report a failure straight away by calling the same address with /fail at the end.Keep the address privateAnyone with the ping address can send a ping. Keep it in the job's settings, out of public code.
What to watch with a heartbeat
- Backups of your website, database or file server
- Exports and syncs: orders to the accounting system, stock from a supplier
- Cleanup jobs that keep a disk from filling up
- Certificate renewal jobs, next to SSL Monitor
- Any script you'd only miss once it had stopped for a week
How many you get
| Plan | Heartbeats |
|---|---|
| Uptime Pro, €12 | Count within your 50 monitors |
| Uptime Business, €39 | Count within your 250 monitors |
| Personal, free | 1 heartbeat, next to 5 monitors |
Prices are per month, excluding VAT. The free plan is for personal and hobby use.