Manual Monitor Configuration

This page details every option of the monitoring settings for Manual Monitors. We do not recommend reading it start to finish - instead, use it as a reference when needed.

For details about alert settings - which are common to all monitor types - check this page.

For information about Manual Monitors in general, check this page.

Basics

These options are the only ones that must be specified.

Note that this panel is only present when creating a new monitor. To edit the name of an existing one, use the Rename panel on the General tab of the settings page.

Monitor name

Default value: (blank)

Use this textbox to give your monitor a name. It is required, and any value up to 50 characters long is valid.

You should choose a name that makes sense to you, as it is shown throughout the console and on any alerts that are sent. The value has no other impact.

Incidents

This configuration panel is used to determine various incident behaviours in response to a change in the monitor's internal status.

As alerts are sent when an incident is opened, it also affects when you will be notified about any potential issues.

Automatically open an incident

Default: False

This setting determines if an incident is created automatically when the monitor status is updated to a certain value.

Alerts (if any, as configured separately) are sent when an incident is opened.

By default, it is not set to open automatically. This is because manual monitors are often used simply to display information on a status page and are updated manually from the console. There is no need to send an alert in this case.

However, when combined with automation, you may wish to alter this value to allow alerts to be sent when the status is changed to an unwelcome value. You should then also consider enabling the Show on public status pages option.

Show on public status pages

Default: False

This option determines if automatically-opened incidents are added to public status pages by default.

It is always possible to show incidents (of any type) on public status pages by choosing this option from the incident details page, but we can also do this automatically. This allows your users to see the latest details immediately, and may reassure them that the issue is being dealt with.

By default, this option is disabled. This is because the Automatically open an incident setting defaults to disabled, and this setting only has any effect when used together.

If you choose to enable automatic incident opening - for example, if using automation, you may wish to enable this option as well.

However, if you wish to have stronger control over your status pages, you may keep it disabled.

If this option had been enabled, disabling it will prevent future automatically-opened incidents from appearing on status pages until manually added. Existing incidents will still show, until manually removed.

As with all status page messages, an incident will only ever appear on status pages that feature the associated monitor as part of their content.

This setting does not affect internal status pages, which always show all incidents relevant to their contents, to keep staff up-to-date with the latest developments.

This option only applies to incidents opened automatically and thus has no effect if Automatically open an incident is disabled (which is the default for this monitor type).

Incidents opened manually from the dashboard allow the choice of where they should be shown, during the creation process. Incidents reported by team members are never shown on public status pages until confirmed or acknowledged manually.

Automatically resolve incidents

Default: True

This setting controls how automatically-opened incidents are resolved.

With this option enabled, as is the default, they are automatically resolved as soon as the monitor reaches an internal status of Online.

Only automatically-opened incidents are ever automatically-resolved. It has no effect on those opened manually from the console, or reported by team members.

However, if you would rather ensure that all incidents raised by this monitor are only ever resolvable manually, you can uncheck this option.