Heartbeat (Cron) Monitoring
For jobs that can't be polled - because they should be the ones pinging you.
Some things can't be checked with a request - a nightly backup job, a cron task, a queue worker. Heartbeat monitoring flips the model: your job pings Kawze when it runs, and if that ping doesn't arrive on schedule, Kawze alerts you. It is a dead man's switch for background jobs, not a website poll.
How it works
- Create a heartbeat monitor and get a unique ping URL.
- Add a request to that URL at the end of your job, script, or cron task.
- Set the expected interval, e.g. "should ping every 24 hours".
- If a ping does not arrive within the expected window, Kawze alerts you that the job likely failed to run.
Why it matters
- Catches silently failing or un-triggered background jobs, not just crashed ones.
- Works for anything that runs on a schedule but has no HTTP endpoint to poll: cron jobs, backups, scheduled scripts, queue workers.
- Same alerting, incident timeline, and reporting as website monitors.
Frequently asked questions
How is heartbeat monitoring different from website monitoring?
Website monitoring is Kawze polling your endpoint. Heartbeat monitoring is the reverse - your job pings Kawze, and Kawze alerts you if that expected ping is late or missing.
What can I use heartbeat monitoring for?
Anything that runs on a schedule without an HTTP endpoint to check: cron jobs, scheduled backups, batch scripts, and queue workers are common examples.
Do I need to install anything to send a heartbeat ping?
No - a heartbeat is a plain HTTP request to your unique ping URL. A single line with curl, wget, or your language's HTTP client at the end of the job is enough, no agent or library required.
What if my job fails before it can send the ping?
That is exactly what heartbeat monitoring is for - if the ping never arrives within the expected window, whether the job crashed, hung, or never ran at all, Kawze alerts you the same way it would for a missed schedule.
This capability lives on Kawze's heartbeat monitor - see that page for the full feature list and pricing for that uptime monitor type.