HTTP/HTTPS Monitoring
Comprehensive guide to HTTP and HTTPS monitoring in StatusPageOne
HTTP/HTTPS Monitoring
HTTP/HTTPS monitoring is the core monitoring capability of StatusPageOne. This guide covers everything you need to know about setting up and configuring HTTP-based monitoring for your services.
Overview
HTTP monitoring sends HTTP requests to your endpoints at regular intervals and validates the responses based on your configured criteria. This approach works for websites, web applications, REST APIs, and any service that exposes HTTP endpoints.
Two Check Types Available
Uptime Monitoring
Uptime monitoring focuses on whether your service is responding successfully.
StatusPageOne sends an HTTP request to your endpoint and evaluates the HTTP status code in the response.
Success Conditions:
- • Response received within the timeout period
- • HTTP status code matches your expected codes
- • No network connectivity issues
Configuration Options:
- Expected Response Code: Specify which status codes indicate success
- Follow Redirects: Choose whether to follow HTTP redirects
- Timeout: Maximum time to wait for a response (5-60 seconds)
Expected Response Codes
You can configure which HTTP status codes indicate a successful check:
Single Code
200Only HTTP 200 is considered successful
Multiple Codes
200,201,204Any of these codes indicates success
Range
200-299Any 2xx status code is successful
Content Monitoring
Content monitoring validates that specific content is present or absent in the HTTP response body.
StatusPageOne sends an HTTP request and searches for specific text in the response body.
Alert Conditions:
- NOT_FOUND: Alert when the specified content is missing
- FOUND: Alert when the specified content is present
Use Cases:
- Error Detection: Alert when error messages appear on your page
- Content Validation: Ensure important content is always present
- API Verification: Check that API responses contain expected data
- Security Monitoring: Detect unauthorized changes or hacks
Content Monitoring Examples
Monitor for content that should always be present. Alert if it goes missing.
"status": "healthy"This would alert if your API stops returning the expected "healthy" status in the response.
Monitor for content that indicates problems. Alert when it appears.
503 Service UnavailableThis would alert if your service starts returning error pages, even with a 200 status code.
HTTP Methods
StatusPageOne supports the most common HTTP methods:
Best for most monitoring scenarios. Doesn't modify data on your server.
- • Website monitoring
- • API health checks
- • Static resource monitoring
For endpoints that require POST requests to function properly.
- • API endpoints requiring POST
- • Form submission endpoints
- • Webhook testing
For REST APIs that use PUT for updates.
- • REST API monitoring
- • Resource update endpoints
- • File upload endpoints
For REST APIs that use PATCH for partial updates.
- • Partial update endpoints
- • Configuration changes
- • Status updates
Authentication
StatusPageOne supports multiple authentication methods for monitoring protected endpoints:
Basic Authentication
HTTP Basic Auth
Provide username and password for endpoints that require basic authentication.
How it works: StatusPageOne automatically encodes your credentials and adds the Authorization: Basic header to all requests.
Custom Headers
For more complex authentication schemes:
Custom HTTP Headers
Add any HTTP headers your service requires for authentication or functionality.
Common Authentication Headers:
AuthorizationBearer your-token-hereX-API-Keyyour-api-keyX-Auth-Tokenyour-auth-tokenOther Useful Headers:
User-AgentStatusPageOne-Monitor/1.0Acceptapplication/jsonContent-Typeapplication/jsonAdvanced Configuration
Timeout Settings
Configure how long to wait for responses:
Recommendations:
- Fast APIs: 5-15 seconds
- Standard websites: 30 seconds (default)
- Slow applications: 60 seconds
Redirect Handling
Control how HTTP redirects are handled:
When enabled, StatusPageOne will follow HTTP redirects (301, 302, etc.) and validate the final destination.
Best Practice: Keep this enabled unless you specifically need to monitor redirect behavior itself.
SSL/TLS Certificate Monitoring
For HTTPS endpoints, StatusPageOne automatically validates SSL certificates:
Automatic SSL Validation
Every HTTPS request automatically checks:
- • Certificate validity and expiration
- • Certificate chain integrity
- • Hostname verification
- • Certificate authority trust
Automatic Alerts: You'll be notified if SSL certificate issues are detected during monitoring.
Performance Monitoring
All HTTP monitors automatically track performance metrics:
Response Time Tracking
Average Response Time
Mean response time over the monitoring period
95th Percentile
95% of requests are faster than this time
Maximum Response
Slowest response in the time period
Best Practices
🎯 HTTP Monitoring Best Practices
Endpoint Selection
- • Use dedicated health check endpoints when possible
- • Choose endpoints that represent your service's core functionality
- • Avoid endpoints with heavy side effects (data creation, emails, etc.)
- • Monitor both public and internal endpoints if applicable
Configuration Tips
- • Set realistic timeouts based on your service's performance
- • Use appropriate retry settings (2-3 retries for most services)
- • Configure expected response codes to match your service's behavior
- • Add custom headers if your service requires them
Content Monitoring
- • Use unique, stable text strings for content matching
- • Avoid matching dynamic content that changes frequently
- • Test your content matching logic before deploying
- • Use NOT_FOUND alerts for positive monitoring (content should be there)
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Monitor Shows as DOWN
🔴 Monitor Consistently DOWN
Check these first:
- • Is your URL accessible from external networks?
- • Are your expected response codes correct?
- • Is your service blocking monitoring requests?
- • Do you need authentication headers?
Testing steps:
- Test your URL in a browser from a different network
- Use curl to simulate StatusPageOne's requests
- Check your server logs for blocked requests
- Verify SSL certificates if using HTTPS
False Positives
🟡 Intermittent False Alerts
Common causes:
- • Server under heavy load occasionally timing out
- • Rate limiting blocking monitoring requests
- • Network connectivity issues in specific regions
- • SSL certificate issues or renewals
Solutions:
- • Increase timeout values for slow services
- • Add retry attempts (2-3 retries recommended)
- • Whitelist StatusPageOne monitoring IPs if using IP restrictions
- • Monitor from multiple regions for consensus
Next Steps
Now that you understand HTTP monitoring:
- Create Your First Monitor - Step-by-step guide
- Configure Alerting - Set up notifications
- Multi-Region Monitoring - Optimize region selection
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