Overview
This page covers the configuration options that apply to all monitoring check types — intervals, thresholds, service linking, and failure behavior.
Check Intervals
The check interval determines how frequently Alert24 runs your monitoring check. Available intervals depend on your plan.
| Interval | Availability | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | Paid plans | Critical production services, payment APIs, authentication endpoints |
| 60 seconds | Paid plans | Standard production monitoring |
| 5 minutes | Paid plans | Important services that don't need second-by-second monitoring |
| 10 minutes | Free plan (default) | General monitoring, staging environments, third-party status page checks |
Choosing an Interval
Shorter intervals detect problems faster but consume more resources. The free plan includes 10-minute intervals, which is sufficient for most monitoring needs. Paid plans unlock intervals down to 30 seconds for your most critical endpoints where rapid detection matters.
Failure Thresholds
The failure threshold determines how many consecutive failures are required before Alert24 changes the service status and sends an alert.
Why Thresholds Exist
Not every failed check indicates a real problem. Network blips, temporary DNS issues, or server-side hiccups can cause a single check to fail without indicating an actual outage. Thresholds filter out this noise.
Threshold Options
- 1 consecutive failure — Alert immediately on the first failure. Use this for critical services where you'd rather get a false alarm than miss a real issue.
- 2 consecutive failures — A light filter that catches most transient issues.
- 3 consecutive failures — The recommended default. Reliably filters transient issues while still detecting real problems quickly.
- 5 consecutive failures — Conservative. Use this for services with known intermittent issues that aren't actionable.
Example
With a 10-minute interval (free plan) and a threshold of 3:
- Check fails at T+0, T+10m, T+20m
- Alert fires at T+20m (20 minutes after the first failure)
- If the check passes at T+10m, the failure counter resets — no alert
With a 60-second interval (paid plan) and a threshold of 3:
- Check fails at T+0, T+60s, T+120s
- Alert fires at T+120s (2 minutes after the first failure)
Service Linking
Every monitoring check should be linked to a service. This connection is what makes Alert24's automatic status updates work.
Linking During Check Creation
When creating a check, you'll select a service from the dropdown. You can also create a new service inline.
Linking After Creation
You can change the linked service at any time by editing the check configuration.
Multiple Checks Per Service
A single service can have multiple monitoring checks. For example:
- Production API service with:
- HTTP check on
/health(verifies the application is running) - HTTP check on
/api/v1/users(verifies a real endpoint works) - SSL certificate check (verifies the certificate is valid)
- HTTP check on
When any check fails, the service status is updated. The most severe failure determines the status — if one check shows degraded performance and another shows a major outage, the service status will be Major Outage.
Alerting Behavior
When Alerts Fire
An alert is triggered when:
- A check fails the configured number of consecutive times (failure threshold)
- The linked service status changes
When Alerts Resolve
A resolution alert is sent when:
- The check passes again after a failure
- The linked service status returns to Operational
Notification Channels
Alerts are sent through your configured notification channels. You configure these at the organization level under Settings.
Pausing Checks
You can pause a monitoring check without deleting it. This is useful during:
- Planned maintenance windows
- Development or migration work
- Temporary service changes
Paused checks don't run, don't affect service status, and don't trigger alerts. Resume them when you're ready.
Editing and Deleting Checks
Editing
Open the check from the Monitoring page and click Edit. You can change any configuration option without recreating the check.
Deleting
Delete a check when you no longer need it. Deleting a check removes it from the service but doesn't change the service's current status.