# How to Monitor DigitalOcean Uptime

> DigitalOcean provides cloud infrastructure for developers — droplets (VMs), managed databases, Kubernetes, app platform, and object storage.

*Source: https://monitoristic.com/monitor/digitalocean*

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## Why Monitor DigitalOcean?

DigitalOcean gives you raw infrastructure, not managed uptime. Your droplet can crash, your database can run out of connections, your load balancer can misconfigure — and DigitalOcean won't tell you. You're responsible for knowing when your services are down.

## What to Monitor

- `your-app.ondigitalocean.app` — Your App Platform deployment
- `your-droplet-ip` — Droplet public IP or domain pointing to it
- `api.digitalocean.com` — DigitalOcean API for provisioning and management

## What You Should Actually Do

1. Monitor your application's HTTP endpoint, not just the droplet — a running VM doesn't mean a running app
2. Add a health endpoint that checks database connectivity, disk space, and memory — return 200 only when everything is actually healthy
3. Set up alerts on both downtime and slow response times — response time degradation often precedes crashes
4. Track uptime history over weeks to identify patterns — recurring issues at specific times point to cron jobs, backups, or traffic spikes
5. Bookmark status.digitalocean.com but don't rely on it — platform status doesn't reflect your specific droplet or app

## DigitalOcean's Official Status Page

DigitalOcean publishes real-time status at https://status.digitalocean.com. Your own monitor complements it by catching connection-level issues, often before the status page updates.

## Takeaway

DigitalOcean sells infrastructure, not uptime. Your droplet can be running while your application is dead, your database can be accepting connections while returning errors, and your load balancer can be healthy while routing to a crashed backend. External monitoring closes the gap between 'infrastructure is up' and 'your service is actually working.'

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Does DigitalOcean monitor my droplet automatically?

DigitalOcean provides basic infrastructure metrics (CPU, memory, disk) through their monitoring agent, but it doesn't check whether your application is actually responding to HTTP requests. You need external monitoring for that.

### Should I monitor my droplet's IP or my domain?

Monitor your domain. This tests the full chain — DNS resolution, load balancer, and application response. Monitoring just the IP skips DNS, which is a common failure point.

### Can I monitor DigitalOcean App Platform apps?

Yes. App Platform gives you a public URL (your-app.ondigitalocean.app or your custom domain). Set up an HTTP monitor on that URL to check availability and response times externally.

### How is this different from status.digitalocean.com?

DigitalOcean's status page reports platform-wide incidents affecting their infrastructure. Your monitor checks YOUR specific app. Your droplet can have issues (crashed process, full disk, misconfigured firewall) that never appear on DigitalOcean's status page.