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BetterStack Setup

BetterStack Uptime Monitoring Setup Guide

Last updated: 2026-02-20 Related: MONITORING.md, health-check.sh Purpose: External uptime monitoring for Drop production environment

Why BetterStack?

BetterStack provides external uptime monitoring independent of Drop's infrastructure:

  • Detects infrastructure failures (AWS App Runner crashes, network issues)
  • Alerts when the entire application is unreachable
  • Provides uptime SLA tracking and historical reports
  • Multiple notification channels (Slack, Email, SMS)
  • Status page for client transparency

Key difference from internal health checks: Internal checks (Docker, Fly.io) only work when the container is running. BetterStack catches total outages.

Free Tier Limits

Plan: Free tier (no credit card required) Limits:

  • 10 monitors (enough for Drop production)
  • 3-minute check interval (paid plan: 30s minimum)
  • 1 status page
  • Unlimited team members
  • Unlimited integrations (Slack, email, webhooks)

Upgrade required for:

  • Faster check intervals (<3 minutes)
  • More than 10 monitors (e.g., multi-region checks)
  • Advanced features (maintenance windows, custom headers)

Account Setup

Step 1: Create Account

  1. Go to https://betterstack.com/uptime
  2. Click "Start free trial" (becomes free tier after trial)
  3. Sign up with Alem's email: [email protected]
  4. Verify email address
  5. Create workspace name: "ALAI Products" (shared across Drop, BasicFakta)

Step 2: Configure Team

  1. Navigate to Settings > Team
  2. Add team members:
  3. Set Default timezone: Europe/Oslo (UTC+1)

Monitor Configuration

Monitor 1: Health Endpoint (Primary)

Purpose: Verify API health and database connectivity

  1. Go to Monitors > Create Monitor

  2. Configure:

    • Monitor name: Drop Health Check
    • Monitor type: HTTP
    • URL: https://drop.alai.no/api/health
    • Check interval: 3 minutes (free tier)
    • Request timeout: 5 seconds
    • Method: GET
    • Confirmation period: 30 seconds (1 retry before alerting)

  3. Expected Response:

    • Status code: 200
    • Keyword check: Enable
      • Response body contains: "status":"ok"
      • Why: Ensures health endpoint returns valid JSON, not just HTTP 200

  4. Advanced settings:

    • Follow redirects: Enabled (default)
    • Verify SSL certificate: Enabled
    • SSL expiry warning: 14 days before expiration

  5. Click Create Monitor

Monitor 2: Landing Page

Purpose: Verify public website availability

  1. Go to Monitors > Create Monitor

  2. Configure:

    • Monitor name: Drop Landing Page
    • Monitor type: HTTP
    • URL: https://drop.alai.no
    • Check interval: 3 minutes
    • Request timeout: 10 seconds (landing page has more assets)
    • Method: GET
    • Confirmation period: 30 seconds

  3. Expected Response:

    • Status code: 200
    • Keyword check: Enable
      • Response body contains: Send penger (tagline verification)

  4. Click Create Monitor

Monitor 3: Multi-Region Health Check

Purpose: Detect regional networking issues

  1. Go to Monitors > Create Monitor

  2. Configure:

    • Monitor name: Drop Health (US East)
    • Monitor type: HTTP
    • URL: https://drop.alai.no/api/health
    • Check interval: 3 minutes
    • Request timeout: 5 seconds
    • Method: GET
    • Confirmation period: 30 seconds

  3. Expected Response:

    • Status code: 200
    • Keyword check: Response body contains "status":"ok"

  4. Advanced settings:

    • Region: US East (different from default EU region)
    • Why: Detects if Drop is unreachable from specific geographies

  5. Click Create Monitor

Slack Integration

Step 1: Create Slack Incoming Webhook

  1. Go to your Slack workspace: alai-talk.slack.com
  2. Navigate to Slack App Directory > Incoming Webhooks
  3. Click Add to Slack
  4. Select channel: #drop-ops (create if doesn't exist)
  5. Click Add Incoming Webhooks Integration
  6. Copy webhook URL (format: https://hooks.slack.com/services/T.../B.../XXX)
  7. Save this URL securely (needed for BetterStack)

Step 2: Add Slack Integration in BetterStack

  1. In BetterStack, go to Integrations
  2. Click Add Integration > Slack
  3. Paste webhook URL from Step 1
  4. Configure:
    • Integration name: Drop Ops Slack
    • Notification channel: #drop-ops
  5. Test integration: Click Send test message
    • Verify message appears in #drop-ops channel
  6. Click Save Integration

On-Call Team Setup

Step 1: Create On-Call Schedule

  1. Go to On-Call > Create Schedule
  2. Configure:
    • Schedule name: Drop Primary On-Call
    • Timezone: Europe/Oslo
  3. Add rotation:
  4. Click Create Schedule

Step 2: Configure Escalation Policy

  1. Go to Escalation Policies > Create Policy

  2. Configure:

    • Policy name: Drop Production Incidents

  3. Add escalation steps:

    Step 1 (Immediate):

    • Who: Drop Ops Slack integration
    • Delay: 0 minutes

    Step 2 (If still down after 5 minutes):

    Step 3 (If still down after 15 minutes):

    • Who: [email protected] (SMS) — Requires phone number
    • Delay: 15 minutes
    • Note: SMS requires paid plan or verified phone number

  4. Click Create Policy

Step 3: Assign Policy to Monitors

  1. Go to Monitors
  2. For each monitor (Drop Health Check, Drop Landing Page, Drop Health (US East)):
    • Click monitor name
    • Go to Settings > Escalation Policy
    • Select: Drop Production Incidents
    • Click Save

Status Page Setup

Purpose

Public status page allows clients and stakeholders to check Drop availability without contacting support.

Step 1: Create Status Page

  1. Go to Status Pages > Create Status Page

  2. Configure:

    • Page name: Drop Status
    • Subdomain: drop-status (URL: https://drop-status.betteruptime.com)
    • Custom domain (optional): status.drop.alai.no (requires DNS setup)

  3. Design settings:

    • Logo: Upload Drop logo (green rounded rectangle)
    • Brand color: #0B6E35 (Drop primary green)
    • Header text: Drop Status
    • Tagline: Real-time service status and incident updates

  4. Visibility:

    • Public: Yes (anyone can view)
    • Search engine indexing: No (prevent Google indexing)

  5. Click Create Status Page

Step 2: Add Components

  1. In the status page settings, go to Components

  2. Click Add Component

  3. Add three components:

    Component 1:

    • Name: API & Health Endpoint
    • Linked monitor: Drop Health Check
    • Description: Core API functionality and database connectivity

    Component 2:

    • Name: Landing Page
    • Linked monitor: Drop Landing Page
    • Description: Public website and marketing content

    Component 3:

    • Name: Global Network
    • Linked monitor: Drop Health (US East)
    • Description: International access and routing

  4. Click Save Components

Step 3: Configure Incident Communication

  1. Go to Status Pages > Settings > Incident Updates
  2. Enable:
    • Auto-create incidents: Yes (when monitor goes down)
    • Auto-resolve incidents: Yes (when monitor recovers)
  3. Notification subscribers:
    • Email subscriptions: Enabled (users can subscribe to updates)
    • Webhook notifications: Disabled (optional for future)

Step 4: Share Status Page

Once created, share the status page URL:

  • Internal: Add to #drop-ops Slack channel description
  • External: Link from Drop landing page footer (optional)
  • Clients: Include in onboarding emails

Status Page URL: https://drop-status.betteruptime.com

Verification Checklist

After completing setup, verify:

  • Monitors running: All 3 monitors show green status
  • Slack alerts working: Test by pausing a monitor (triggers down alert)
  • Email notifications working: Verify Alem receives email on test alert
  • Status page public: Open status page URL in incognito mode
  • Escalation policy assigned: All monitors use Drop Production Incidents policy
  • SSL expiry alerts: Monitors configured to warn 14 days before cert expiration

Testing the Setup

Test 1: Manual Down Alert

  1. Go to Monitors > Drop Health Check
  2. Click Pause Monitor (simulates downtime)
  3. Expected behavior:
    • Slack alert in #drop-ops within 30 seconds
    • Email to [email protected] after 5 minutes (if still paused)
  4. Click Resume Monitor to clear alert

Test 2: Actual Downtime

  1. SSH into production server (or use AWS App Runner console)
  2. Stop the Drop application container temporarily
  3. Wait for BetterStack to detect downtime (max 3 minutes + 30s confirmation)
  4. Expected behavior:
    • Monitor shows red status
    • Slack alert in #drop-ops
    • Status page component shows "Down"
  5. Restart application and verify recovery alert

Test 3: SSL Expiry Warning

  1. Go to Monitors > Drop Health Check
  2. Verify SSL expiry warning is enabled (14 days)
  3. Expected behavior:
    • Alert sent 14 days before SSL certificate expiration
    • Action required: Renew certificate before expiry

Alert Examples

Downtime Alert (Slack)

🚨 Drop Health Check is DOWN

Monitor: Drop Health Check
Status: DOWN
Response: Connection timeout
Region: EU West
Time: 2026-02-20 10:30 UTC

View incident: https://betterstack.com/incidents/...

Recovery Alert (Slack)

✅ Drop Health Check is UP

Monitor: Drop Health Check
Status: UP
Response: 200 OK (2ms)
Downtime duration: 3 minutes
Time: 2026-02-20 10:33 UTC

Incident closed: https://betterstack.com/incidents/...

SSL Expiry Warning (Email)

Subject: [BetterStack] SSL certificate expiring in 14 days

Monitor: Drop Health Check
Domain: drop.alai.no
Certificate expiry: 2026-03-06 23:59 UTC

Action required: Renew SSL certificate before expiration.

Maintenance Mode

When performing planned maintenance (deployments, infrastructure upgrades):

  1. Go to Maintenance Windows > Create Window
  2. Configure:
    • Name: Drop Deployment
    • Start time: 2026-02-20 22:00 UTC
    • Duration: 1 hour
    • Affected monitors: Select all Drop monitors
  3. Notification:
    • Status page update: Yes (shows maintenance banner)
    • Alert suppression: Yes (no downtime alerts during window)
  4. Click Create Maintenance Window

Effect: During maintenance, downtime alerts are suppressed and status page shows "Scheduled Maintenance" instead of "Down".

Best Practices

Do's

  • ✅ Test alerts monthly — Pause a monitor to verify escalation works
  • ✅ Update on-call schedule — Rotate on-call duty if team grows
  • ✅ Monitor SSL expiry — Enable 14-day warnings to prevent outages
  • ✅ Use maintenance windows — Prevent false alerts during deployments
  • ✅ Review incident history — Monthly review of downtime patterns

Don'ts

  • ❌ Don't ignore degraded status — Investigate even if not fully down
  • ❌ Don't disable monitors — Use pause for temporary suppression only
  • ❌ Don't skip keyword checks — HTTP 200 alone doesn't guarantee working API
  • ❌ Don't forget to update URLs — When domain changes, update all monitors
  • ❌ Don't rely solely on external monitoring — Combine with internal health checks

Troubleshooting

Monitor shows false positives (frequent up/down)

Cause: Network instability or slow response times Fix:

  1. Increase Request timeout from 5s to 10s
  2. Increase Confirmation period from 30s to 60s
  3. Check Drop API latency in logs

Slack alerts not received

Cause: Webhook URL incorrect or channel archived Fix:

  1. Go to Integrations > Drop Ops Slack
  2. Click Send test message
  3. If fails, regenerate webhook in Slack and update BetterStack

Email alerts delayed

Cause: Email provider spam filtering Fix:

  1. Whitelist [email protected] in email settings
  2. Check spam/junk folder
  3. Verify email address in BetterStack team settings

Status page not updating

Cause: Monitor not linked to status page component Fix:

  1. Go to Status Pages > Drop Status > Components
  2. Ensure each component has a Linked monitor assigned
  3. Save changes and trigger test alert

Support

BetterStack Support:

  • Documentation: https://betterstack.com/docs
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Status: https://status.betterstack.com

Internal Contact:

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