Server Health Monitoring
Replaces: No monitoring, silent failures, discovering problems too late
Monitor disk health, container status, and system resources to catch failures before they cause data loss.
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Phase
Advanced Self-Hosting — complex, ongoing maintenance
General
Monitor your server so problems are caught before they cause data loss:
1. Disk health: SMART monitoring with smartmontools — check SSD wear, reallocated sectors, temperature. Email alerts on degradation.
2. Docker container health: script or Uptime Kuma to check all containers are running. Alert on unexpected stops.
3. Disk space: alert at 80% full — Docker logs and volumes silently fill disks.
4. System resources: CPU, RAM, temperature — alert on sustained high usage.
5. Notifications: email (via SMTP relay) or push notification. For single-server setups, a simple cron script + email is enough.
For a repurposed laptop (8+ years old): prioritize SMART monitoring — SSD failure is the most likely hardware issue. Check weekly, alert on any degradation.
1. Disk health: SMART monitoring with smartmontools — check SSD wear, reallocated sectors, temperature. Email alerts on degradation.
2. Docker container health: script or Uptime Kuma to check all containers are running. Alert on unexpected stops.
3. Disk space: alert at 80% full — Docker logs and volumes silently fill disks.
4. System resources: CPU, RAM, temperature — alert on sustained high usage.
5. Notifications: email (via SMTP relay) or push notification. For single-server setups, a simple cron script + email is enough.
For a repurposed laptop (8+ years old): prioritize SMART monitoring — SSD failure is the most likely hardware issue. Check weekly, alert on any degradation.
Deployment
Self-Hosted
smartmontools + cron + email alerts
Alternatives: Uptime Kuma (web UI, Docker container monitoring), Cockpit (web UI, system monitoring)
Prerequisites
Backups should be in place before monitoring matters.