What should I check before using a budget VPS for uptime monitoring?

Ginddc

For a free or very cheap VPS used for uptime monitoring, which security and reliability checks would you do first? How do you reduce false alerts and avoid putting sensitive credentials on the monitoring node?

nghialele

It's own uptime.

RAVNIX

@nghialele said:
It's own uptime.

Yes, and you need another monitoring server to ensure your monitoring server is online.

nghialele

@RAVNIX said:

@nghialele said:
It's own uptime.

Yes, and you need another monitoring server to ensure your monitoring server is online.

Exactly, double the headache just to have the monitoring system in control.

I do a simple beszel for resource watching myself, and hetrixtools for all node uptime/downtime.

Motion3549

@Ginddc said:
For a free or very cheap VPS used for uptime monitoring, which security and reliability checks would you do first? How do you reduce false alerts and avoid putting sensitive credentials on the monitoring node?

I use gcp and scaleway.

luckypenguin

@Ginddc said: and avoid putting sensitive credentials on the monitoring node?

How do you end up putting sensitive (anything) on a monitoring node?
Asking for a friend.

itzsenu

@nghialele said: It's own uptime.

You never need to worry, I think, if you choose the right provider

1. Servarica ( 10$/m BF 2025 hybrid. ),

Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime     : 199 days, 4 hours, 01 minutes

2. Hostup ( Hostup VPS Nano €3.25/mo ),

Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime     : 705 days, 21 hours, 10 minutes

3. @DediRock ( Their 8.88/y cuz OP said they need lowcost )
   They also have nice uptime even on the lowest cost plan I mean, so far I've never had any downtime. However, I cant accurately judge the total uptime because I moved locations.

Anyway, I have to cancel HostUp because Im still stuck in Platinum, even though the newest CPUs are available, I've had zero downtime since the day I bought it, and I've hit 100% usage most weeks

nghialele

@itzsenu said: Servarica ( 10$/m BF 2025 hybrid. ),

Lucky biatch

itzsenu

@nghialele said: Lucky biatch

Hehe, but back in May, there were around 10–20 in stock across all configurations combined, and had unlimited expanding 1 stock

souhaojicom

Main thing is just keep the box boring. Don't put anything sensitive on it — no passwords, no API keys, nothing you'd hate to rebuild. All mine does is run the poller and a wireguard tunnel back to the box that holds the actual dashboard.

And don't trust a single cheap VPS as your only vantage point. One routing hiccup on the provider side and you're getting paged at 3am for nothing. Run the same checks from a second network somewhere else and only alert when both agree. That alone kills like 90% of the false alarms for me.

Also keep an eye on cpu steal. Some of these budget boxes will happily steal 20-30% under load and then your checks start timing out for no real reason.

DediRock

@itzsenu said:

@nghialele said: It's own uptime.

You never need to worry, I think, if you choose the right provider

1. Servarica ( 10$/m BF 2025 hybrid. ),

Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime     : 199 days, 4 hours, 01 minutes

2. Hostup ( Hostup VPS Nano €3.25/mo ),

Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime     : 705 days, 21 hours, 10 minutes

3. @DediRock ( Their 8.88/y cuz OP said they need lowcost )
   They also have nice uptime even on the lowest cost plan I mean, so far I've never had any downtime. However, I cant accurately judge the total uptime because I moved locations.

Anyway, I have to cancel HostUp because Im still stuck in Platinum, even though the newest CPUs are available, I've had zero downtime since the day I bought it, and I've hit 100% usage most weeks

thanks again @itzsenu for the mention

nghialele

@DediRock said: thanks again @itzsenu for the mention

you are ROCKS!

SodaWithoutSparkles

The absolute cheapest might be the free lxc or free kvm in this LET forum (if you've met the reqiurement that is)
Or otherwise, $1/mo plans are plenty.

Or even lower, you can get an LXC for $5.5/yr., maybe even less.

forest

@luckypenguin said:

@Ginddc said: and avoid putting sensitive credentials on the monitoring node?

How do you end up putting sensitive (anything) on a monitoring node?
Asking for a friend.

You telling me you don't have to put scans of your passport, ID, and credit card info in /opt/beszel/mysecrets.zip??

DediRock

@nghialele said:

@DediRock said: thanks again @itzsenu for the mention

you are ROCKS!

thx! @nghialele

Bin2020

Good advice already here. Two things I'd add: watch out for CPU steal — a budget box that's constantly throttled will miss checks or report false downs. And if you can, run your checks from more than one location; a single cheap VPS only tells you how the internet looks from one network. A second tiny instance in another region as a sanity check is cheap insurance.