Heartbeat Monitoring Explained
Detect missed scheduled work with completion signals, grace periods and practical failure diagnosis.
Login2Cloud product team · Published 2026-10-01
Send a completion signal
Place the heartbeat call after successful work, not before it starts. For a database export, send the signal only after the export and required validation finish. Otherwise a failed job can appear healthy.
Allow realistic timing
For an hourly job that usually takes four minutes, choose a grace period that accommodates normal variation. A daily job needs a daily expectation; local cron scheduling and daylight-saving changes deserve explicit review.
Investigate a missed heartbeat
Check whether the scheduler started the task, whether the task exited successfully and whether the outgoing signal reached the endpoint. A network failure can lose the heartbeat even after successful work.
Keep the URL private
Treat the unique heartbeat token as a secret. Avoid logging the full URL, embedding it in public code or including it in analytics. Rotate it if exposed and update the job configuration.
Common questions
Where should I start?
Use the related tool to inspect the current signal, then configure the matching monitor and verify its first result.