Create heartbeat monitor

Goal: Create a heartbeat monitor and get the ping URL to insert into a cron job.

Step 1: Open monitor creation

1. In the ePulz.io dashboard click + New monitor
2. Select the type Heartbeat (cron)

Step 2: Name the monitor

Use a descriptive name that reminds you what you are monitoring. Examples:

• Nightly DB backup
• CRM sync (hourly)
• Weekly billing
• Cleanup of old sessions

Step 3: Set the interval

Interval in minutes, how often the heartbeat should arrive:

• 5 = every 5 minutes (short jobs, healthcheck)
• 60 = every hour
• 1440 = daily (24 x 60)
• 10080 = weekly (7 x 24 x 60)

Step 4: Set the grace period

Grace is the tolerance after the expected time. Crons may have a slight drift (NTP, network, or the task takes longer than usual).

Recommendations:

• Short cron (5-60 min): grace 2-10 minutes
• Hourly cron: grace 10-15 minutes
• Daily cron: grace 30-60 minutes
• Weekly cron: grace 6+ hours

Step 5: Notifications

Enable which channels should receive an alert when a heartbeat is missed:

• E-mail
• Telegram (requires a linked bot)
• Webhook (Slack, Discord, custom endpoint)

Step 6: Save and get the URL

Click Create monitor. The monitor detail is shown with your unique heartbeat URL:

https://epulz.io/heartbeat/Qs78OPNIIsCF_-Vj

You insert this URL into your cron script or task. ePulz.io will expect a ping from now on every [interval] minutes.

Monitor state

After creation, the monitor is in the Pending state (waiting for the first heartbeat). After the first successful ping it switches to OK. If a heartbeat does not arrive in the expected window, it switches to Down and an alert is sent.