Getting Started with Website Monitoring | NOC.org Support

NOC monitoring continuously checks your websites, APIs, and services for availability and performance. This guide walks you through adding your first endpoints, configuring check intervals, and setting up alert notifications.

Prerequisites

• An active NOC.org account.
• The URLs or IP addresses of the endpoints you want to monitor.
• An email address, Slack workspace, or webhook URL for receiving alerts (optional but recommended).

Step 1 — Add an Endpoint

1. Log in to the NOC Dashboard.
2. Click Monitoring in the left sidebar, then click Add Endpoint.
3. Select the check type:
   • HTTP/HTTPS — monitors a URL and checks for expected status codes.
   • TCP — tests connectivity on a specific port.
   • Ping (ICMP) — checks basic host reachability.
   • DNS — verifies that a domain resolves to the expected record.
4. Enter the target URL or IP (e.g., https://example.com or 203.0.113.50:443).
5. Give the endpoint a descriptive Label (e.g., "Production Website" or "API Gateway").
6. Click Save.

Step 2 — Configure Check Intervals

1. On the endpoint settings page, locate the Check Interval dropdown.
2. Select how frequently NOC should check the endpoint:
   • 30 seconds — best for critical production services.
   • 1 minute — suitable for most websites.
   • 5 minutes — appropriate for lower-priority services.
   • 15 minutes — for background or non-critical endpoints.
3. Set the Timeout value (default is 10 seconds). If the endpoint does not respond within this period, the check is marked as failed.
4. Configure Confirmation Checks — the number of consecutive failures before an alert is triggered (default: 2). This prevents false alarms from transient network issues.
5. Click Save.

Step 3 — Set Up Alert Channels

NOC can notify you through multiple channels when an endpoint goes down or recovers.

1. Navigate to Monitoring » Alert Channels.
2. Click Add Channel and choose a type:
   • Email — sends alerts to one or more email addresses.
   • Slack — posts alerts to a Slack channel via webhook. See our Slack Integration guide for setup details.
   • Webhook — sends a JSON POST to a custom URL for integration with PagerDuty, OpsGenie, or other tools.
3. Configure the channel (enter email addresses, paste webhook URL, etc.).
4. Assign the channel to one or more endpoints by editing each endpoint's Alert Channels setting.
5. Click Save.

Step 4 — Advanced HTTP Check Options

For HTTP/HTTPS checks, you can configure additional validation:

• Expected Status Code — specify which HTTP status codes indicate success (default: 200). You can enter ranges like 200-299.
• Keyword Check — require a specific string to appear in the response body (e.g., "Welcome").
• Custom Headers — add request headers such as Authorization for API endpoints that require authentication.
• SSL Expiry Monitoring — receive alerts a configurable number of days before your SSL certificate expires (default: 14 days).

Viewing Results

Once monitoring is active, you can view status and history from the dashboard:

• Overview — shows current up/down status for all endpoints.
• Response Time Graphs — historical latency data with min, max, and average values.
• Uptime Percentage — calculated over the last 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days.
• Incident Log — timestamped list of downtime events with duration and root cause data.

Next Steps

• Continuous Monitoring — learn about advanced monitoring features including performance metrics and SSL checks.
• Slack Integration — connect monitoring alerts to your team's Slack workspace.