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Sheernox Technology GroupDocumentation

Monitor a website

A website test loads a web address on a schedule and reports the site as down if the page cannot be reached, returns an error, or does not contain the text you expect. It is the right test for most websites, including sites on Sheernox web hosting.

Each website test uses one test from your plan. Account > Usage shows how many you have left.

Add a website

Section titled “Add a website”
The Add a Test page. Marker 1 is beside the Monitor a website option, marker 2 beside Monitor an existing server/router and marker 3 beside Monitor a new server/router.

  1. Open Monitoring and select Add a Test.

  2. Choose Monitor a website marker 1 and select Next. (The other two options marker 2 marker 3 add server tests; see Monitor a server.)

  3. Fill in the website’s details:

    The Add a New Website form. Marker 1 is beside the Name field, marker 2 beside the URL field, marker 3 beside the Monitoring interval list, marker 4 beside the Notes box, marker 5 beside the Advanced Options heading and marker 6 beside the Next button.
    • Name marker 1: how the website appears in the panel, in reports and in alerts.
    • URL marker 2: the full address, starting with http:// or https://. You can monitor any page, not only the home page.
    • Monitoring interval marker 3: how often the page is checked, from every minute to every 60 minutes. Shorter intervals catch outages sooner.
    • Notes marker 4 (optional, up to 500 characters): included in every alert for this website, so it is a good place for recovery steps or who to call.

  4. Optionally open Advanced Options marker 5 to check page content or sign in to the site (see below).

  5. Select Next marker 6. The test is added straight away.

The confirmation page lists who will receive alerts for the new test. Add contacts to alert other people, or to get alerts by SMS or push notification.

Check that the page shows the right content

Section titled “Check that the page shows the right content”

A website can answer normally while showing an error message, a blank page or a maintenance notice. Keyword checks catch that.

The Authentication and Content Verification sections of Advanced Options. Marker 1 is beside the Username field, marker 2 beside the Required keywords field and marker 3 beside the Excluded keywords field.
  • Required keywords marker 2: words that must appear on the page, such as your company name or a phrase from the footer. The website is reported down if any of them is missing.
  • Excluded keywords marker 3: words that must not appear, such as Error establishing a database connection. The website is reported down if any of them appears.

Separate several keywords with commas. Keywords must use plain ASCII characters, and only the first 400 KB of the page is checked, so pick text near the top of large pages.

Monitor a script or a database

Section titled “Monitor a script or a database”

Keyword checks also tell you when the code behind a site fails. Point a website test at a page generated by your PHP (or other) code and require a word that only appears when the code runs correctly.

To watch a database that is not reachable from the internet, put a small script on your website that connects to the database, runs a simple query and prints a phrase such as Database is UP. Monitor the script’s URL with that phrase as a required keyword.

Monitor a page behind a password

Section titled “Monitor a page behind a password”
  • Password prompt in the browser (HTTP authentication): enter the Username marker 1 and Password under Authentication, and the password again under Verify password.
  • Sign-in form on the page: under HTTP Request, choose POST as the HTTP method and enter the form’s fields in POST data, URL-encoded (for example username=monitor&password=secret). Your browser’s developer tools show these fields when you submit the form. Add a phrase that only appears after signing in as a required keyword. Leave the Authentication fields empty.

Create a separate account with limited access for monitoring rather than using your own sign-in.

Other advanced options

Section titled “Other advanced options”
Option What it does
HTTP method AUTO lets UptimeHawk choose. HEAD asks for the response headers only, GET asks for the whole page and POST submits the POST data.
HTTP headers Extra request headers for this website only, added on top of the account-wide headers under Monitoring > HTTP Headers. To remove an account-wide header for this website, enter its name with an empty value.
Max HTTP redirection and Max HTML redirection How many redirects to follow before giving up.
Verify HTTPS certificate Set to Yes to have every check verify the website’s SSL certificate. It is set to No by default.

Keep monitoring out of your visitor statistics

Section titled “Keep monitoring out of your visitor statistics”

Website checks send a referrer address containing monitored-by-user- followed by your UptimeHawk username. Most analytics tools can exclude visits by referrer; add that pattern to their filter so checks do not count as visitors.

Section titled “Related”