Website Monitoring Quick Setup Guide
This guide will walk you through creating your first website monitoring check in UptimeDock. You'll learn how to set up uptime monitoring, configure transaction flows for form validation, set up alerts, and optionally monitor DNS records.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have:
- An active UptimeDock account
- The URL of the website you want to monitor
- For transaction monitoring: credentials or test data for form submissions
Step 1: Select Check Type
Navigate to the Create New Check page. You'll see available check types organized by category:
| Category | Check Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Website Monitoring | Website | Monitor website availability, performance, SSL, and forms |
| Website Monitoring | DNS Records | Monitor DNS records and nameservers for changes |
| Database Monitoring | ClickHouse | Monitor ClickHouse database performance and metrics |
| Network Monitoring | Ping Pong | Check if your server or device is reachable |
| Network Monitoring | Port | Monitor port availability on your server |
Click Continue on the Website card to proceed with website monitoring setup.
Step 2: Basic Configuration
Fill in the basic details for your website monitoring check:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tag | A friendly name to identify this check | My Website - Homepage |
| Website URL | The full URL of the page to monitor | https://example.com |
| Custom Method | Enable to use custom HTTP method (GET, POST, HEAD, etc.) | GET (default) |
| Frequency | How often to check your website | Every minute |
Choose a frequency based on your needs. For critical production sites, Every 30 seconds or Every minute is recommended. For less critical sites, Every 5 minutes provides a good balance.
Step 3: Select Features
Click Edit Features to choose which monitoring features to enable. You can enable multiple features for comprehensive monitoring:
| Feature | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Uptime | Monitor website availability and response time | ✅ Always enabled |
| Performance | Track page load times, DOM load, and resource performance | Optional |
| Transaction | Monitor forms and multi-step user flows | Optional |
| SSL Certificate | Get alerts when SSL certificate expires or has errors | Optional |
| Domain | Get notified when domain registration nears expiration | Optional |
For most production websites, we recommend enabling Uptime, SSL Certificate, and Domain monitoring at minimum. Add Performance if page speed is critical for your users.
Step 4: Choose Monitor Regions
Select from which geographic regions UptimeDock should monitor your website. Available regions include:
- United States: Virginia, California, Oregon, Ohio
- Europe: Dublin, Paris, Stockholm, Milan
You can select individual locations or use Select all regions for comprehensive global coverage. Monitoring from multiple regions helps detect regional outages and CDN issues.
Step 5: Verification Options
Configure how UptimeDock handles monitoring and verification:
| Option | Description | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Enable simultaneous monitoring | All selected regions check at the same time for parallel comparison | Disable for most cases |
| Verify down from another agent | A second agent confirms outages before alerting, reducing false positives | ✅ Enable |
| Save screenshot of page | Capture a screenshot with each check for visual debugging | Enable if needed |
We strongly recommend enabling Verify down from another agent. This prevents false alerts caused by temporary network issues between a single monitoring agent and your website.
Step 6: Transaction Monitoring (Optional)
If you enabled the Transaction (Form Validations) feature, you can configure multi-step user flows to monitor forms, login processes, and other interactive functionality.
Expand the Form Validations section to start adding transaction steps. Click the + Click me button to open the step builder interface.
Transaction Step Types
Each transaction consists of ordered steps that simulate user interactions:
| Step Type | Description | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Visit URL | Navigate to a specific URL | Open the login page, navigate to checkout |
| Fill Field | Enter text into an input field | Enter email, password, form data |
| Click Element | Click a button, link, or any element | Submit form, click login button |
| URL Should be | Verify the current URL matches expected value | Confirm successful redirect after login |
| Element Should Contain | Verify an element contains specific text | Check for success message |
| Wait | Pause execution for a specified duration | Wait for animations, async operations |
Example: Login Flow Monitoring
Here's an example of a complete login flow transaction that monitors a user authentication process:
| Step | Type | Action | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visit URL | Navigate to login page | https://example.com/account/login |
| 2 | Fill Field | Enter email in input field | test@example.com |
| 3 | Fill Field | Enter password in input field | •••••••• |
| 4 | Click Element | Click the login button | <button>Sign in</button> |
| 5 | URL Should be | Verify redirect to dashboard | https://example.com/dashboard |
When configuring steps, the system automatically detects element selectors. You can identify elements by their id, name, class, or other attributes. The interface shows the HTML of the selected element for clarity.
Use dedicated test accounts for transaction monitoring. Avoid using production credentials and ensure the test account has limited permissions. Each step shows execution time, helping you identify performance bottlenecks.
After adding steps, you can:
- Reorder steps by dragging the dots on the left
- Delete steps by clicking the × button
- Re-run all steps to test the entire flow
- View screenshots captured during execution
Step 7: Alerts Configuration
Expand the Alarms section to configure alerts. Available alerts depend on which features you enabled. Each alert type can be configured with custom thresholds and notification settings.
Uptime Alerts
| Alert Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Uptime - Down | Triggered when your website becomes unreachable or returns errors |
| Uptime - Response Time | Triggered when response time exceeds your specified threshold |
SSL & Domain Alerts
| Alert Type | Description |
|---|---|
| SSL Certificate Validation | Triggered when SSL certificate is expiring or has issues |
| Domain Expiration | Triggered when domain registration is nearing expiration |
Performance Alerts
Available when Performance feature is enabled:
| Alert Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Performance - Page Load Time | Triggered when total page load time exceeds threshold |
| Performance - DOM Load Time | Triggered when DOM content loaded time exceeds threshold |
| Performance - Page Size | Triggered when page size exceeds specified limit |
| Performance - Resource Status | Triggered when page resources fail to load |
Transaction Alerts
Available when Transaction (Form Validations) feature is enabled:
| Alert Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Form Validation - Error | Triggered when a transaction step fails |
| Form Validation - Elapsed Time | Triggered when transaction completion time exceeds threshold |
You can configure alerts during check creation or later from the Edit Check page. Alerts can be adjusted at any time as you learn more about your website's normal performance patterns.
Step 8: Advanced Settings
Expand the Advanced section to access additional configuration options:
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Timeout (milliseconds) | Maximum time to wait for a response before marking as failed | 8000 ms |
| Save Source Code | Store the HTML source of each response for debugging | Enabled |
| Post Data | Data to send with POST requests | Empty |
| Request Headers | Custom HTTP headers to include with requests | None |
| Check with text | Verify page contains (or doesn't contain) specific text | Not Contains |
| Username / Password | HTTP Basic Authentication credentials | Empty |
Use Check with text to validate page content. For example, set "Not Contains" with "Error" or "404" to detect error pages that might still return HTTP 200 status codes.
Step 9: Schedule Settings
Expand the Schedule section to configure when monitoring should run:
- Hours: Select specific hours during which monitoring should run
- Days: Choose which days of the week to monitor
For production websites, we recommend 24/7 monitoring. For development or staging environments, you might want to limit monitoring to business hours to reduce noise and save resources.
Step 10: Maintenance Windows
Expand the Maintenance section to schedule planned maintenance periods. During maintenance windows:
- No checks will be performed
- No alerts will be triggered
- Your uptime statistics won't be affected
This is useful for scheduled deployments, server maintenance, or planned downtime.
Step 11: Create Your Check
Once you've configured all settings, click the Create button at the bottom of the page. Your website monitoring check will be created and will start collecting data immediately.
Congratulations! Your website monitoring check is now active. You'll start seeing data within minutes. Visit the check's report page to view uptime, response times, and other metrics.
DNS Records Monitoring Setup
If you want to monitor DNS records instead of website uptime, select DNS Records from the check type selection screen.
Nameserver Monitoring
Enable the Nameserver feature to monitor your domain's nameservers. After entering your domain, click the Check button to discover current nameservers:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tag | Name for this DNS check | Google.com DNS |
| Domain | The domain to monitor | google.com |
| Frequency | How often to check DNS records | Every 30 seconds |
| Nameservers | Detected nameservers for your domain | ns1.google.com, ns2.google.com, etc. |
DNS Records Configuration
Expand the DNS Records section to configure which records to monitor. You can monitor up to 10 DNS keys per check.
For each DNS record, configure:
- Record Type: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, etc.
- Subdomain: The subdomain prefix (e.g., "www", "@" for root)
Click Check to preview current DNS values, then Add to list to add the record to monitoring. UptimeDock will alert you when any monitored DNS record changes.
DNS changes can take time to propagate globally. Consider setting appropriate alert delays to avoid false positives during intentional DNS updates.
What's Next?
Now that your check is running, explore these resources to get the most out of your monitoring:
- Website Monitoring Overview – Understand all available features in detail
- Pricing Plans – Explore monitoring options for your needs