Heartbeat monitoring
Heartbeat Monitoring for Cron Jobs & Background Tasks
Know when your scheduled jobs silently fail.
UptimePilot heartbeat monitoring lets your scripts, cron jobs, backups, and background workers report that they completed successfully. If a heartbeat is missed, you can be alerted.
Nightly database backup
Expected every 24h
Task runs
Heartbeat sent
Received
Healthy
Task fails
Heartbeat missing
Grace exceeded
Alert
Grace period — waiting for heartbeat
Last signal received 24h 8m ago · Grace period 15m
Capabilities
A simple signal for work that runs in the background
Instead of UptimePilot calling your job, the job sends UptimePilot a heartbeat when it completes.
Heartbeat token
Give each heartbeat monitor its own endpoint token.
Expected interval
Define how often the signal should arrive.
Grace period
Allow a controlled delay before a missing signal is treated as a failure.
Missed heartbeat detection
Detect when an expected signal never arrives.
Alerts
Send push and email notifications when configured conditions are met.
Process
How heartbeat monitoring works
A received heartbeat confirms the job ran; a missing one is the signal that something may be wrong.
- 1
A scheduled job or background task starts.
- 2
The task completes and sends its heartbeat token to UptimePilot.
- 3
UptimePilot records the received signal and keeps the monitor healthy.
- 4
If the next signal is late, the configured grace period begins.
- 5
When the grace period is exceeded, the missed heartbeat can trigger an alert.
Use cases
Monitor work that can fail silently
Heartbeat monitoring fits tasks where the absence of a successful run is the failure.
Database backups
Confirm that a scheduled backup process completed and reported in.
Cron jobs
Detect a cron task that did not run or never reached completion.
Scheduled scripts
Receive a signal after recurring automation finishes.
Data synchronization
Know when a periodic synchronization stops reporting.
Background workers
Track recurring workers that should check in on schedule.
Reports and maintenance
Monitor report generation and automated maintenance jobs.
Inside UptimePilot
Interval, grace, and recovery in one timeline
The heartbeat view makes received signals, late arrivals, missed heartbeats, and recovery easy to distinguish without turning them into generic status cards.
Signal history
Review when recent heartbeats were received.
Grace-period state
See when UptimePilot is still waiting before declaring a miss.
Recovery
Identify when a monitor starts receiving heartbeats again.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What is heartbeat monitoring?+
Heartbeat monitoring expects a recurring signal from a job or script. If that signal does not arrive on schedule, the missing heartbeat indicates a possible failure.
How does heartbeat monitoring work?+
Your task calls its unique UptimePilot heartbeat endpoint after it runs. UptimePilot records the signal and watches for the next one based on the configured interval.
Can I monitor cron jobs?+
Yes. A cron job can send its heartbeat after a successful run so UptimePilot can detect when a future signal is missed.
Can I monitor database backups?+
Yes. Add the heartbeat call to the successful end of your backup process to confirm that scheduled backups continue to complete.
What happens if a heartbeat is missed?+
The monitor moves through its configured grace period. If no signal arrives before that period ends, it can be marked down and send a configured alert.
What is a heartbeat grace period?+
A grace period is extra time allowed after an expected heartbeat, helping accommodate normal delays before the signal is treated as missed.
Monitor your background jobs.
Set up your first monitor and keep its current status, history, incidents, and alerts close at hand.
Start Monitoring