Getting started

First check

1. Create an account. Signup is self-service with a work email and an activation link; no credit card. You can run real checks against your own services before you pick a plan.
2. Point a monitor at a URL. Pick http, paste the URL, keep the defaults. The monitor probes from the regions included in your plan. Regional probe checks use an alert profile; the standard policy waits for more than one region before an incident opens. Read the rule and its direct-reporting exceptions.
3. Watch the first results. Per-region latency, per-IP results for dual-stack targets, and DNS time separated from total time arrive with the first checks.

A sensible first hour

• Add an ssl_cert monitor for the certificate you always forget, and a domain monitor for the registration layer (NS, DNSSEC, WHOIS expiry). The check types each explain what they verify.
• Create your status page and pick the components worth showing. Public, or gated from Sentinel.
• Verify your phone number with the one-time code before using telephone channels. Personal SMS starts with Pulse; on-call SMS and calls start with Sentinel.
• Announce your first maintenance window before you deploy, not after; announced windows do not count against you.

Where things live

The cockpit is the live view across everything; History carries the raw timeline, the curated outage record, and the configuration audit. Every number you see feeds the same availability record your status page and your SLA conversation use. One record, no drift.