Domain monitoring
Monitor HTTP availability, SSL certificates, DNS records and domain registration, with the settings and when an incident is opened.
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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
- Open Domeinen → Domein toevoegen (Domains → Add domain).
- Enter the Domeinnaam (domain name), for example
example.comorwww.example.nl. A full URL is fine too; only the hostname is stored. Internationalised domain names are supported. - Under Te controleren URL (URL to check) choose
https://orhttp://and optionally a path (default/). - Under Controles (checks) tick what you want to monitor.
- 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.
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