Uptime Kuma Setup

Uptime Kuma is a beautiful self-hosted monitoring tool — think Uptime Robot or StatusCake, but running on your own server. Monitor HTTP(S), TCP, DNS, ping, keyword, Docker containers, Steam servers, push-style endpoints, and more. Push notifications go to Discord, Slack, Telegram, email, and 90+ other services.

Why self-host monitoring

Your monitoring lives on infrastructure you control, independent from the thing you’re monitoring.
No per-monitor cost — run 100+ checks for the price of one Elite app.
Public status pages are free; unlimited subscribers.

Deploying

dash.witchly.host → Deploy → Applications → Uptime Kuma.
The Helper (1 GB RAM) is plenty for hundreds of monitors.
Click Deploy.

First-run setup

Wait for the install script to finish (first boot clones and sets up the repo — takes 30–60 seconds).
On the Console tab, you’ll see Listening on 0.0.0.0:<port>.
Copy your server’s IP and port from the Overview tab.
Open http://<ip>:<port> in your browser.
Create the admin account on first visit. Save the credentials — there’s no password reset UI.

Adding monitors

Click + Add New Monitor and pick a type:

HTTP(S) — website up/down checks
TCP Port — check a game server port is open
Ping — ICMP ping
Keyword — check that a string appears in the HTTP response
Docker Container — health of a container
Push — heartbeat-style; you push to Uptime Kuma instead of it pulling

Set the interval (20s minimum on the free tier; lower on Elite), retries, and notifications.

Status pages

Create a public status page under Settings → Status Pages. Add monitors, customize the title/logo, and share the URL with your community.

Notifications

Go to Settings → Notifications → Setup Notification. Uptime Kuma supports:

Discord webhook
Slack webhook
Telegram bot
Email (SMTP)
ntfy, Pushover, Gotify, Webhook, and dozens more

Test each notification before saving.

Auto-update

The AUTO_UPDATE variable on the Startup tab is set to 1 by default. Uptime Kuma will npm run setup on each server start to pull the latest release. Set it to 0 if you want to pin the current version (e.g., while investigating a regression).

Data persistence

All your monitors, notifications, and status pages are stored in a local SQLite DB inside the server. Enable backups — losing this database loses your entire monitoring setup.

Troubleshooting

Can’t reach the web UI — verify you’re using the port from the Overview tab (not the default 3001). Check the Console tab for Listening on....
Install hangs — first boot downloads Node packages; give it 2–3 minutes. If it still hangs, Reinstall from the Startup tab.
Notifications silent — test them individually from the Notifications settings page; common cause is an expired webhook token.

Next steps

Enable backups to protect your monitor DB
Set a custom domain for a pretty status page URL