Setting up Uptime Kuma

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Introduction

As part of my ongoing efforts to monitor uptime for my projects, I recently set up Uptime Kuma on a budget-friendly VPS package. I opted for the "Budget VPS Christmas 2024" deal, provided by QDE (formerly Hizakura).

At just £10.73 per year, the specs seem like a steal:

Virtualization	KVM
CPU	1 Core
RAM	2 GB
Storage	20 GB SSD
Bandwidth	2 TB
IPv4	1 Public Address
IPv6	/64
Uplink	1 Gbps
Backup	Weekly

For a monitoring server, these resources are more than enough, and the price was cheap enough for me to not worry too much about the outcome.

The Signup Process – 9 Emails Later

The signup process was straightforward - they use HostBill, which is a sleek and easy to use panel. While some providers stick to sending minimal emails (myself included), QDE made sure every step was documented. In total, I received 9 emails. I don't think I needed that many, but oh well… to summarise:

1. Account Activation – My QDE account needed activating.
2. New Login Notification – Letting me know I had just logged in.
3. Welcome Email – Confirming my account setup.
4. Order Confirmation – Letting me know my order was being processed.
5. Invoice Generation – The unpaid copy of the invoice.
6. Payment Receipt – The paid copy of the invoice.
7. Package Activation – Informing me that my package was activated.
8. VPS Credentials – Included the IP address, root password, and panel login.
9. A Receipt? – A Stripe receipt for my CC payment.

I'm hoping that's the last email I'll receive from them for a while…

QDE's Panel – Smooth and Intuitive

Once I logged in, I was pleasantly surprised by QDE's panel. For a budget VPS provider, the interface is smooth, responsive, and user-friendly. Everything I needed - rebooting, reinstallation, resource stats, and IP management - was just a click away.

Navigating through the panel felt intuitive, and even a beginner could get to grips with it after 5 or so minutes. It also has a dark mode.. so there's that.

Why Uptime Kuma?

For those who aren't familiar, Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted monitoring tool that's both powerful and lightweight. It allows you to monitor websites, servers, and services in real time, complete with notifications for downtime. Features include:

• HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, and ping monitoring.
• Email, Slack, Discord and Telegram notifications (to name a few).
• Easy-to-use dashboard (DARK MODE!!!!).
• Simple setup with Docker or Node.js.

I've decided to set up Uptime Kuma after Uptime Robot announced that commercial use now requires a paid plan. Since I've been using Uptime Robot for my business projects, I believe this applies to me as well - so I'm opting to self-host instead.

Setting Up Uptime Kuma on the VPS

I installed AlmaLinux 9.5 (Teal Serval) and the first steps were to refamiliarise myself with the console, update the server, and install any pre-requisites like Node.js.

Then, I simply followed the guide over at Uptime Kuma's GitHub page:

git clone https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma.git
cd uptime-kuma
npm run setup

# Option 1. Try it
node server/server.js

# (Recommended) Option 2. Run in the background using PM2
# Install PM2 if you don't have it:
npm install pm2 -g && pm2 install pm2-logrotate

# Start Server
pm2 start server/server.js --name uptime-kuma

And boom! It's done and ready to access at MYIP:3001 – right? RIGHT?! Wrong. One more thing…

sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=3001/tcp --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Success! Now I can access the web interface. I made my account, set up my two status pages, and added my monitors. I made use of Discord's webhooks to send automatic notifications to each brand's server.

Conclusion

The process of purchasing and setting up a VPS with QDE was very simple and efficient. It's still very early days, and I'll post a full review soon - but even so they have succeeded in providing a positive experience for the initial set-up, which some providers have been known to royally screw up.

Uptime Kuma is also running smoothly with no issues, and I've tested the notifications. My next goal is to set up custom DNS so I can access the server via a hostname instead.

Oh, and one more thing…