Outage Detection
Outage Detection Best Practices
Good outage detection catches real problems fast and stays quiet when everything is fine. Here's how to get that balance right.
1. Monitor functional elements, not just status codes
A 200 status code confirms the server responded. It doesn't confirm the application is working. Monitor the login form, the checkout button, the dashboard's primary data element — anything that confirms the product is functional from a user's perspective.
2. Use specific selectors to reduce noise
Monitoring entire page content leads to constant false positives from dynamic content. Use precise CSS selectors to target only the elements that indicate real outages. A missing #app-container or a blank .user-dashboard is a real signal. A changed ad banner is not.
3. Set appropriate check frequency
Higher check frequency catches outages faster but increases costs and server load. For revenue-critical paths like checkout and login, 1-5 minute checks are appropriate. For lower-priority pages, 15-30 minute checks may be sufficient. Balance detection speed against the actual cost of a delayed alert for each monitored page.
4. Route alerts to the right owner
An alert that goes to everyone gets ignored by everyone. Map monitors to specific owners: checkout monitors go to the payments on-call, login monitors go to the auth team, pricing monitors go to growth. Use Telegram bots or email routing to ensure each alert reaches exactly the person who can resolve it.
5. Track recovery, not just failures
Good outage detection notifies you when something breaks and again when it recovers. This closes the incident loop and helps teams calculate MTTR without manually watching a dashboard for the all-clear.
6. Review your monitor list quarterly
Pages change. Selectors become invalid. New critical flows get added. Reviewing your monitor configuration every quarter ensures your detection coverage stays aligned with how your product actually works.
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