Uptime Monitoring: How It Works
Uptime monitoring sends HTTP requests to your domain on a schedule and alerts you the moment it stops responding. Here is how it works and how to configure it.
Uptime Monitoring: How It Works
Uptime monitoring is included in every full domain scan. It makes a real HTTP GET request to your domain — exactly like a browser would — and records the result.
What Gets Checked
Each uptime check captures:
- HTTP status code — 2xx means up, 4xx/5xx or timeout means down
- Response time — measured in milliseconds from request to first byte
- Final URL — whether the domain redirects, and where to
- Server header — the web server software reported (e.g., nginx/1.24)
- X-Powered-By header — backend platform if disclosed
- HTTPS enforcement — does HTTP redirect to HTTPS?
The check uses a 10-second timeout. If no response is received in 10 seconds, the domain is marked as down.
How Downtime Is Classified
| Result | Status |
|---|---|
| HTTP 200-399 | Up |
| HTTP 400-599 | Down (server error or client error) |
| Connection timeout (10s) | Down |
| DNS resolution failure | Down |
| SSL handshake failure | Down |
| Connection refused | Down |
Setting Up Downtime Alerts
- Domain detail → Alerts → Create Alert Rule
- Trigger: Uptime Down
- Notify via: Slack or Webhook (for immediate notification), Email (for less urgent domains)
- Optionally add a recovery alert: Uptime Up — fires when the domain comes back online
Response Time Thresholds
Good response times:
- Under 200ms — excellent
- 200-500ms — good
- 500ms-1s — acceptable
- Over 1s — slow, investigate server performance or CDN configuration
Response time is recorded on every scan and stored in scan history so you can track performance trends over time.
Uptime vs External Uptime Services
ElasticDomain's uptime check runs as part of your domain scan schedule (configurable from every 6 hours to weekly). For mission-critical uptime monitoring requiring checks every 1-5 minutes, a dedicated uptime service (UptimeRobot, Better Uptime, Pingdom) is better suited. ElasticDomain uptime monitoring is designed for integrated domain health awareness, not sub-minute SLA tracking.
What the Uptime Tab Shows
The Uptime tab on a domain detail page shows:
- Current status (up/down)
- Last check timestamp
- Response time from last check
- HTTP status code
- Final URL after redirects
- Historical uptime across recent scans