Service Monitoring

Know the moment nginx stops, MySQL crashes, or PHP-FPM starts cycling — before your users do.

SiteVitals Service Monitoring extends server monitoring with per-service status checks. The agent scans your running services on install, you confirm which ones to watch, and SiteVitals alerts you the moment a service transitions from active to any other state.

Service monitoring is part of the server monitoring feature and requires the agent to be installed. No additional setup is needed — service monitoring is included automatically.

How it works

When the agent installs, it runs a discovery pass — scanning all active systemd services and sending the list to SiteVitals. You then see a checklist in Server Settings → Monitored Services where you confirm which services to watch. Known services like nginx, MySQL, Redis and PHP-FPM are pre-ticked.

On every subsequent check (every 60 seconds), the agent calls systemctl is-active for each monitored service and reports its status alongside the resource metrics. SiteVitals compares the current status against the previous check and opens an incident if anything has changed.

The agent also tracks the systemd NRestarts counter per service. If a service restarts two or more times between consecutive checks, SiteVitals opens a crash-loop warning — even if the service is currently active — because repeated restarts usually indicate an underlying problem that will eventually result in a hard failure.

What gets detected

Supported services

Any systemd service can be monitored. The following are automatically recognised and pre-ticked during discovery:

Services not in this list are still discovered and available to monitor — they just aren't pre-ticked. You can monitor any named systemd service.

Setting up service monitoring

1. 1
   Install or update the agent

   If the agent is already installed, run sitevitals-agent --discover on your server to trigger discovery manually. On a fresh install, discovery runs automatically.
2. 2
   Review the discovered services

   Open Server Settings → Monitored Services. You'll see the full list of running services found on your server, with recommended ones pre-ticked.
3. 3
   Confirm your selection

   Tick the services you want to monitor and click Save Service Selection. The agent fetches the updated list within 60 seconds.
4. 4
   Service checks begin immediately

   Status is checked on every agent run. The first check that shows a service as inactive or failed will open an incident and alert your configured channels.

Adding services after initial setup

If you install new software on your server after the initial discovery, run a re-scan:

Then refresh the Monitored Services page in SiteVitals — newly discovered services will appear and can be enabled. Existing selections are preserved; the re-scan only adds new services, it doesn't change anything already configured.

Common questions