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Domain monitoring

Monitor HTTP availability, SSL certificates, DNS records and domain registration, with the settings and when an incident is opened.

ServerScope can run four checks for each domain. You choose per domain which ones are enabled:

Check What is checked How often (default)
HTTP availability Whether the URL answers with an expected status code (and optionally expected content) Every 5 minutes (configurable 1–1440)
SSL/TLS certificate Validity and expiry date of the certificate (https only) Every 6 hours (or the HTTP interval, if longer)
DNS records Whether the name resolves, and changes in A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS and CAA Every 15 minutes (or the HTTP interval, if longer)
Domain registration (RDAP) The registration expiry date at the registry Daily

Only an administrator can add and change domains.

Adding a domain

  1. Open Domeinen → Domein toevoegen (Domains → Add domain).
  2. Enter the Domeinnaam (domain name), for example example.com or www.example.nl. A full URL is fine too; only the hostname is stored. Internationalised domain names are supported.
  3. Under Te controleren URL (URL to check) choose https:// or http:// and optionally a path (default /).
  4. Under Controles (checks) tick what you want to monitor.
  5. Review the settings below and click Domein toevoegen.

The first results appear on the domain page within a few minutes. Nu controleren (Check now) starts a check immediately (at most once per minute).

Settings

Field Default Meaning
Interval (minuten) 5 How often the HTTP check runs (1–1440 minutes).
Time-out (seconden) 10 Maximum wait per request (2–30 seconds).
Faaldrempel (failure threshold) 3 Consecutive failed checks before an incident is opened (1–10). Applies to HTTP and DNS.
Hersteldrempel (recovery threshold) 2 Consecutive successful checks before the outage counts as recovered (1–10).
Verwachte statuscodes (expected status codes) 200-399 For example 200 or 200-299,301.
Verwachte inhoud (expected content) – Optional text that must appear on the page. Case-sensitive; only the first 1 MB is searched.
Redirects volgen (follow redirects) on Up to 5 redirects; every hop is validated again.
Certificaatwaarschuwingen (certificate warnings, days) 30, 14, 7, 3, 1 When you are warned before the certificate expires.
Vervalwaarschuwingen registratie (registration warnings, days) 30, 14, 7, 3, 1 The same for the domain registration.

Note

ServerScope only checks public addresses on allowed ports (80 and 443 by default). Internal IP addresses are refused, also when a redirect or DNS record points to them.

When is an incident opened?

Check Incident Severity
HTTP After failure threshold consecutive failures: “… is onbereikbaar” (unreachable) Critical
SSL Invalid certificate (expired, not yet valid, hostname mismatch, untrusted or self-signed) Critical
SSL expiry When a warning threshold is crossed: “Certificaat van … verloopt over N dagen” Warning; critical at 3 days or less
DNS After failure threshold consecutive failed resolutions Critical
Registration When a warning threshold is crossed Warning; critical at 7 days or less
  • Repeated failures update the same incident; there is no new incident per check.
  • If an expiry date crosses the next (lower) threshold while the incident is still open, the incident is escalated.
  • On recovery (after the recovery threshold, or a renewed certificate) the incident is resolved automatically.
  • DNS changes do not open an incident, but are stored in the DNS history and can send a notification (a per-user setting).

Warning

Not every registry publishes an expiry date over RDAP. The registration status is only verified when the registry returns a date; otherwise ServerScope cannot warn about that registration expiring.

Pausing and maintenance

  • Pauzeren (Pause) stops all checks for a domain; Hervatten (Resume) enables them again.
  • A maintenance window (start, end and reason under Bewerken) keeps the checks running but opens no incidents. Times use the Europe/Amsterdam timezone.

Troubleshooting

What you see What to do
HTTP fails with an unexpected status code Adjust Verwachte statuscodes, or check whether the site redirects while Redirects volgen is off.
Deze URL is niet toegestaan (URL not allowed) or a blocked address The hostname points to an internal or reserved IP address, or to a port that is not allowed.
Timeouts Increase the Time-out or check that the server is reachable from the internet.
Expected content not found The text is case-sensitive and must appear in the first 1 MB of the response.
No registration date The registry does not publish an RDAP expiry date (see the warning above).

Notifications for these incidents follow the rules in Alerts and incidents.

Ready to start?

Log in to ServerScope and follow the steps in your own environment.

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Stuck?

Get in touch and describe what you see; never include tokens or passwords.

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