Monitoring Bazarr with Vigilmon

Bazarr is a self-hosted subtitle manager that works alongside Sonarr and Radarr to automatically find and download subtitles for your media library. It connects to dozens of subtitle providers — OpenSubtitles, Subscene, Addic7ed, and more — and syncs with Sonarr and Radarr to know exactly which files need subtitles. When Bazarr goes offline, subtitle providers start rate-limiting, or the Sonarr/Radarr integration breaks, your library silently accumulates unsubtitled files. Vigilmon catches these failures with uptime checks, health endpoint monitoring, and SSL certificate alerts.

What You'll Set Up

• HTTP uptime monitor for the Bazarr web UI (port 6767)
• API health check via /api/system/health
• Subtitle provider connectivity check
• Integration health with Sonarr and Radarr
• SSL certificate expiry alert

Prerequisites

• Bazarr running (default port 6767)
• Your Bazarr API key (found under Settings → General → API Key)
• A free Vigilmon account

Step 1: Monitor the Bazarr Web UI

The first monitor confirms Bazarr is reachable on its default port:

1. Log in to vigilmon.online and click Add Monitor.
2. Set Type to HTTP / HTTPS.
3. Enter your Bazarr URL: http://your-server-ip:6767 (or https://bazarr.yourdomain.com if reverse-proxied).
4. Set Check interval to 5 minutes.
5. Set Expected HTTP status to 200.
6. Click Save.

Bazarr often runs without a reverse proxy on the default port 6767 because it's an internal tool. If your Bazarr uses a base URL prefix (e.g. /bazarr for a subdirectory setup), append it: http://your-server-ip:6767/bazarr.

Step 2: Health Check via the System Health API

Bazarr exposes a dedicated health endpoint that summarizes the application state:

1. Add a second HTTP / HTTPS monitor.
2. URL: http://your-server-ip:6767/api/system/health
3. Add a Request header: X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY
4. Set Expected HTTP status to 200.
5. Enable Keyword check and enter data as the expected keyword.
6. Set Check interval to 5 minutes.
7. Click Save.

A healthy response returns:

{"data": []}

An empty data array means no health issues. When Bazarr detects problems — a misconfigured provider, an unavailable Sonarr endpoint, or a database error — entries appear in that array with human-readable descriptions. The keyword check for data confirms the endpoint is responding in the expected format; a Vigilmon alert fires if the endpoint becomes unreachable or changes its response shape.

Step 3: Monitor Subtitle Provider Connectivity

Subtitle providers (OpenSubtitles, Subscene, etc.) enforce rate limits and occasionally go offline for maintenance. When a provider Bazarr relies on becomes unavailable, it silently skips subtitle downloads for affected files. Check a primary provider directly:

1. Add an HTTP / HTTPS monitor.
2. URL: https://www.opensubtitles.org
3. Set Expected HTTP status to 200.
4. Set Check interval to 15 minutes.
5. Click Save.

Repeat for other providers you depend on. This upstream check tells you when a subtitle provider is at fault — distinct from a Bazarr configuration issue. If Bazarr's health endpoint shows warnings and an upstream provider is down, the root cause is the provider. If only Bazarr reports issues while provider monitors are green, the problem is in Bazarr's configuration or authentication.

Step 4: Verify Sonarr and Radarr Integration

Bazarr maintains active API connections to Sonarr and Radarr to discover new media. If Sonarr or Radarr restarts with a changed port or rotated API key, Bazarr loses the integration and stops receiving new media notifications. Test the integration via the status endpoint:

1. Add an HTTP / HTTPS monitor.
2. URL: http://your-server-ip:6767/api/system/status
3. Header: X-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY
4. Enable Keyword check and enter bazarr_version as the expected keyword.
5. Set Expected HTTP status to 200.
6. Set Check interval to 10 minutes.
7. Click Save.

Also verify Sonarr and Radarr themselves are reachable — Bazarr can't connect to an offline app. If you already monitor Sonarr and Radarr with Vigilmon, cross-reference their alerts with Bazarr integration errors to quickly distinguish a Bazarr misconfiguration from a downstream outage.

Step 5: SSL Certificate Alert

If Bazarr is exposed over HTTPS, add a certificate expiry monitor:

1. Open the web UI monitor from Step 1.
2. Enable Monitor SSL certificate.
3. Set Alert when certificate expires in less than 21 days.
4. Click Save.

Bazarr's subtitle downloads happen in the background, so an expired certificate on the web UI might go unnoticed for weeks. The 21-day alert gives you enough runway to renew the certificate — and to verify that Bazarr can still reach its subtitle providers if they enforce HTTPS.

Monitoring Summary

| Monitor | What it detects | |---|---| | Web UI (/) | Bazarr process down, port misconfiguration | | /api/system/health | Application health warnings, DB errors | | OpenSubtitles / provider URL | Upstream provider outage | | /api/system/status | Integration configuration errors | | SSL certificate | Expiring TLS cert |

With these monitors active, configure notifications in Vigilmon (Settings → Notifications) to alert your preferred channel — Slack, Discord, email, or webhook. A Bazarr outage is easy to overlook because the app runs silently in the background; Vigilmon ensures that silence never hides a real problem.