Never Miss a Failed Job
Cron Job & Heartbeat Monitoring
Your nightly backup job stopped running 3 weeks ago. When did you notice? Uptimy heartbeat monitoring tells you immediately when scheduled tasks fail to run.
- 01:59:58ping received · run took 3m 12s
03:07 · the problem
The Silent Failure Problem
Cron jobs and background workers are the most neglected parts of any system. They don't have URLs to ping. When they fail, nothing alerts you. Then weeks later you realize backups haven't run or invoices haven't been sent.
Schedule Monitoring
Know if jobs run on schedule or skip runs.
Duration Alerts
Catch jobs that run too long or hang.
Heartbeat Pings
Simple HTTP call confirms job ran successfully.
Flexible Windows
Works with fixed schedules or variable intervals.
03:08 · where it breaks
Common Cron Job Failures
Real failures that went unnoticed for days or weeks:
- ✗Server reboot where the cron daemon didn't restart, so no jobs ran for 2 weeks
- ✗Disk full causing the backup job to fail silently every night
- ✗Script error with a syntax error after edit, so cron exits immediately
- ✗Job hanging because a database lock causes it to run for 12 hours
07:30 · how Uptimy fixes it
How Heartbeat Monitoring Works
Uptimy gives each monitored job a unique endpoint. When your job runs, it pings the endpoint. If the ping doesn't arrive on schedule, you get alerted.
Simple Integration
One curl command at the end of your script.
Grace Periods
Allow for job variance before alerting.
Duration Tracking
Start and end pings track job duration.
Exit Code Reporting
Report success or failure status with each ping.
10:00 · set it up
Getting Started
Set up cron job monitoring in the dashboard:
- 1
Create a Heartbeat Monitor
Give it a name like "Nightly Backup" or "Invoice Job". You'll get a unique ping URL.
- 2
Set Your Schedule
Enter your cron schedule and timezone. We'll expect a ping within your configured grace period.
- 3
Add the Ping to Your Script
Copy the one-liner and add it to the end of your cron script. Just a simple curl or wget.
- 4
Track Duration (Optional)
Use start/end pings to track how long jobs take. Get alerted if jobs run too long or never finish.
17:00 · questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Your cron job or scheduled task sends a ping to Uptimy when it runs. If we don't receive the ping within the expected window, we alert you. It's like a dead man's switch for your jobs.
You can configure flexible windows. Set 'expect within 5 minutes of schedule' or 'expect at least once per hour'. Uptimy adapts to your job's patterns.
Yes. Send a start ping when the job begins and an end ping when it completes. Uptimy tracks duration and alerts if jobs run too long or never finish.
Each server can ping with a unique identifier. Uptimy tracks which instances are running and alerts if any stop checking in.
A simple HTTP GET or POST to your unique endpoint. Curl, wget, or any HTTP client works. Add it to the end of your cron script.
20:00 · keep exploring
Related Topics
23:00 · goodnight
Stop wondering if production is okay.
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