Why it is important to monitor critical web systems?

by developer

 

In today’s fast-paced digital world, the performance and availability of web systems can make or break a company’s reputation. At LR, we understand this deeply. LR managing over 100 web solutions and websites, ensuring consistent uptime and optimal performance is not just a technical responsibility, it’s a business-critical function.

Every second of downtime has consequences. Clients rely on us to keep their digital presence live, functional, and responsive around the clock. Whether it’s a transactional e-commerce platform, a government portal, or a corporate website, any interruption can lead to lost revenue, eroded trust, and negative brand perception. By monitoring our systems every 60 seconds, we are proactively safeguarding the user experience and our clients’ credibility.

What System We Use to Monitor

As a member of the GitHub community, we’ve had the opportunity to discover and collaborate with countless talented developers who are building innovative, open-source tools. One standout solution we’ve adopted is Uptime Kuma, a sleek, self-hosted monitoring system that’s both powerful and intuitive.

Uptime Kuma allows us to monitor all of our websites and web applications from a single dashboard. Its real-time notifications and customizable checks have become essential to our workflow, empowering us to stay ahead of issues and maintain exceptional service levels across our entire infrastructure.

Features of the monitor system

  • Customizable Monitoring Intervals
    One of the biggest advantages for us is the ability to set how often each system is checked. With Uptime Kuma, we’re able to monitor our services every 60 seconds, which gives us the responsiveness we need to detect even the smallest issues before they escalate.

 

  • Multi-Protocol Support
    We don’t just monitor websites, we’re keeping an eye on APIs, backend services, and server ports too. Uptime Kuma supports various protocols like HTTP(s), TCP, Ping, and DNS, making it flexible enough to cover all aspects of our infrastructure.
  • Detailed Uptime Reports
    We rely on Uptime Kuma’s built-in reporting tools to visualize system performance over time. Whether we need to look at daily trends or monthly overviews, the clear stats help us pinpoint issues, track improvements, and communicate effectively with clients.
  • Multiple Status Pages
    We use status pages to keep our clients informed. Uptime Kuma lets us set up public or private pages per client or project, so stakeholders can check the status of their systems in real time without needing access to our entire monitoring dashboard.
  • Simple Setup and Lightweight Footprint
    Deploying Uptime Kuma was surprisingly easy. It runs smoothly on our infrastructure without putting a strain on our resources, and updates are straightforward thanks to the active community maintaining it on GitHub.
  • Open Source and Actively Maintained
    One of the reasons we chose Uptime Kuma is because it’s open source. That means we can customize it to suit our needs, and we benefit from continuous improvements contributed by developers around the world. It’s rare to find a tool this flexible and well-supported without a hefty price tag.

Notification Methods (Email and App Alerts)

Uptime Kuma offers a wide range of notification methods to suit different teams and workflows. Some of the supported channels include Email (SMTP), Telegram, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Pushover, Pushbullet, Google Chat, Signal, IFTTT, and custom webhooks, just to name a few.

For our setup, we chose to use the Email SMTP method. It was easy to configure directly through the Uptime Kuma interface. We set it up so that alerts are sent to all of our developers whenever a monitored site or service goes down. This ensures that everyone on the team is aware of the issue immediately and can take action right away.

This approach has helped us reduce our response time significantly. Instead of relying on just one person or a single channel, we’ve created a shared responsibility model, if something goes wrong, someone is always available to jump in. This level of coordination is especially important when managing over 100 websites, as it minimizes downtime and maintains the high standard of service we promise our clients.

Actions We Take When Notified a System Is Down

As mentioned earlier, once a notification is triggered, whether it’s a website going offline or a backend service failing, all members of our team are alerted immediately. This shared alert system ensures there’s always someone available to act without delay.

Once a notification is received, the team jumps into action. The first step is verifying the alert, confirming whether it’s a genuine outage or a false positive. From there, we begin diagnosing the root cause.

Depending on the nature of the issue, the next steps can vary:

  • If it’s a server-side issue, we might restart services, check logs, or redeploy containers.
  • If the problem is related to DNS resolution, we’ll quickly assess domain configurations or nameserver propagation delays.
  • For database errors, we investigate connection health, query performance, and potential corruption or resource exhaustion.
  • If the issue lies with a third-party provider (e.g., payment gateways, APIs, or hosting platforms), we contact them immediately and monitor the situation until it’s resolved.

We also communicate internally in real time to coordinate efforts, share findings, and make sure that no time is wasted in duplication.

Our overarching goal is simple: rapid recovery with minimal disruption. By working quickly and collaboratively, we maintain service integrity and uphold the trust our clients place in us.