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Watch a website or port

Uptime checks need a free Vaicoa account. Alerts from checks are part of Vaicoa Pro and Vaicoa Team.

An uptime check tests an endpoint from outside your network, the same way your users reach it. It tells you when a site, a port or a certificate stops working for them, even while the server behind it looks fine.

Vaicoa runs the check from its own servers, so there is nothing to install, and the endpoint does not have to be at Hetzner. Every check runs from two independent networks, inside and outside Hetzner, and is called down only when both agree.

A check sees what the agent on the server cannot: the load balancer, the DNS record, the certificate or the route in front of it. For an endpoint that is not public or needs a credential, use a job report instead: a job on your server reports its result.

What your plan includes. A free account has 4 check targets with at most 8 checks in total, checked every 5 minutes, with 30 days of history and no alerts. On Pro and Team, check targets share your monitored-server slots, run as often as every 60 seconds and send alerts. See Plans and limits.

  1. Open Resources and tap Add check. Before your first check, the tab shows Watch an endpoint, port or certificate from outside your network — add one now. in its place.

  2. Under “What to watch”, enter the Hostname: the host only, without https://, a port or a path. An address that contains credentials is refused, because checks never send credentials.

  3. Optional: open Details to choose Web endpoint (the default), Port reachable or Certificate, a path, a port (needed for a port or certificate check) and a name.

  4. Tap Add. The row appears at once; the first results arrive within a few minutes.

The app cannot set the accepted status, a required text or a latency budget, and cannot edit a check.

The portal has the full form, and it is the only place to edit a check or to anchor it to a resource. Adding checks there needs the Administrator role.

  1. Open Uptime Checks and choose Add check target.

  2. Under What are you checking?, pick something you already monitor, or Something else on the internet, such as a payment provider or a partner API.

  3. Add the check: What to check (HTTP(S) endpoint, TCP port or TLS certificate), Host and Port, and for HTTP the Path and Accepted status. Optional: Response must contain, a Latency budget (ms) and the Interval (seconds): 60 by default, fixed at 300 on a free account.

  4. Save. More checks on the same target: Add check on it.

Anchor a check to a resource where you can. It then appears on that resource’s detail screen, next to what Hetzner reports, with its alert.

  • A load balancer is usually the most useful target. Hetzner’s health checks tell it which backends to use, not whether it is reachable from the internet or whether its certificate has expired.
  • A floating IP stays when the server behind it changes, so a check on it also tests your failover.
  • A server check only tells you about that server. A server you already monitor uses no extra slot.

The address must be public: private and internal addresses are refused when you save, with the reason.

  • Dashboard: a check target is a row like any other, ranked next to your servers. See The dashboard.
  • Resources: the Uptime checks group, worst status first.
  • On the resource: a Checks section for anchored checks.
  • Check detail: a heartbeat bar, one cell per interval, over 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 90 days, with the uptime percentage and one row per network.

Grey means no data, not down. Statuses and failure reasons: Uptime checks reference.

On Pro and Team a check has three alerts: unreachable from outside (critical, once both networks agree), certificate expiring (warning at 14 days, critical at 3) and slower than its budget (only with a latency budget). Mixed, when our two networks disagree, is shown but never alerted. Details: Alert rules.

In the app, open the check and tap Remove check. Its history goes with it; the service itself is not touched. Removing the last check on a target also removes the target and frees its slot. In the portal, Remove deletes one check; the target keeps its slot until you remove it under Monitored Servers.