Monitoring UrBackup with Vigilmon

UrBackup is an open-source network backup system that protects Windows and Linux clients with incremental file and full image backups, all managed through a clean web interface. But a backup server that quietly fails is worse than no backup at all — you only discover the problem when you need to restore. Vigilmon keeps watch on your UrBackup server 24/7, alerting you the moment the web UI goes down, the REST API stops responding, or a scheduled backup window is missed.

What You'll Set Up

HTTP monitor for the UrBackup web UI login page (port 55414)
REST API availability check on the /x endpoint
Keyword check on the status page for client connection health
SSL certificate alerts for HTTPS-proxied UrBackup deployments
Cron heartbeat for scheduled backup job completion

Prerequisites

UrBackup Server 2.5+ running on Linux or Windows
Web UI accessible at http://your-server:55414 (or HTTPS via a reverse proxy)
A free Vigilmon account

Step 1: Monitor the UrBackup Web UI

The UrBackup web interface is the primary management surface. If it goes down, you lose visibility into backup status and can't trigger manual jobs. Add a monitor for the login page:

Log in to vigilmon.online and click Add Monitor.
Set Type to HTTP / HTTPS.
Enter the URL: http://your-server:55414/login
Set Check interval to 5 minutes.
Set Expected HTTP status to 200.
Click Save.

If your UrBackup server is behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, Traefik) that terminates SSL, use the HTTPS URL instead:

https://backup.yourdomain.com/login

A 200 response from /login confirms the UrBackup web server process is running and serving requests.

Step 2: Monitor the UrBackup REST API

UrBackup exposes a REST API at the /x path used by both the web UI and external integrations. Monitoring it directly confirms that the backend logic layer (not just the static web server) is healthy:

Click Add Monitor → HTTP / HTTPS.
Enter the URL: http://your-server:55414/x?a=status
Set Check interval to 5 minutes.
Set Expected HTTP status to 200.
Click Save.

The /x?a=status endpoint returns a JSON payload with server status. If the UrBackup backend crashes while the web server stays up, this monitor will catch the divergence.

Step 3: Keyword Check for Client Connection Health

UrBackup's status API includes information about connected clients. You can use Vigilmon's keyword check to confirm that at least one client is reporting as active — catching the case where the server is up but all client connections have dropped:

Edit the REST API monitor created in Step 2.
Enable Keyword check.
Set Keyword to "status":"ok" (or "num_clients" to verify the field exists in the response).
Click Save.

If the UrBackup server loses contact with all clients (network segment failure, firewall rule change), the status payload will change and the keyword check will trigger an alert before your next backup attempt fails silently.

Step 4: SSL Certificate Alerts for Reverse-Proxied UrBackup

If you expose UrBackup through a reverse proxy with HTTPS, the SSL certificate for that domain is critical — clients may be configured to verify the certificate, and a browser warning can prevent web UI access entirely.

Open the HTTP monitor for https://backup.yourdomain.com/login (created in Step 1 for HTTPS setups).
Enable Monitor SSL certificate under the SSL section.
Set Alert when certificate expires in less than 21 days.
Click Save.

A 21-day window gives you three Let's Encrypt renewal cycles worth of buffer. If auto-renewal fails (port 80 blocked, DNS misconfiguration, rate limit hit), you'll be alerted well before the certificate actually expires.

To check certificate renewal status on the proxy host manually:

# nginx + certbot
sudo certbot certificates

# Caddy (automatic via ACME)
journalctl -u caddy --since "1 hour ago" | grep -i cert

Step 5: Heartbeat Monitoring for Scheduled Backup Jobs

UrBackup runs backup jobs automatically — daily incremental backups and periodic full image backups on a configurable schedule. If the scheduler silently stops (disk full, database corruption, configuration error), no alerts fire and no backups run.

Use Vigilmon's cron heartbeat to verify backup jobs complete on schedule:

In Vigilmon, click Add Monitor → Cron Heartbeat.
Set the expected ping interval to match your backup schedule (e.g. 1440 minutes for daily).
Copy the heartbeat URL (e.g. https://vigilmon.online/heartbeat/abc123).

Now configure UrBackup to ping the heartbeat after each successful backup. UrBackup supports post-backup scripts. Create a script on the UrBackup server:

#!/bin/bash
# /etc/urbackup/post_backup.sh
curl -s https://vigilmon.online/heartbeat/abc123

Make it executable:

chmod +x /etc/urbackup/post_backup.sh

In the UrBackup web UI, go to Settings → Server → Script after backup and point it to /etc/urbackup/post_backup.sh. The script runs after each successful client backup completes; Vigilmon will alert if it doesn't receive a ping within the configured window.

Step 6: Configure Alert Channels

Go to Alert Channels in Vigilmon and add your preferred channel (email, Slack, or webhook).
Set Consecutive failures before alert to 2 on the web UI and API monitors — transient network blips shouldn't wake you at 3 AM.
Set the heartbeat alert to 1 missed ping (a missed backup window is always worth investigating immediately).

Summary

| Monitor | Target | What It Catches | |---|---|---| | HTTP (Web UI) | :55414/login | UrBackup web server crash | | HTTP (REST API) | :55414/x?a=status | Backend process failure | | Keyword check | "status":"ok" in API response | All client connections lost | | SSL certificate | https://backup.yourdomain.com | Reverse-proxy cert expiry | | Cron heartbeat | Backup job completion | Silent scheduler failure |

UrBackup gives you powerful network backup capabilities without vendor lock-in — but the backup server itself needs a watchdog. With Vigilmon monitoring the web UI, REST API, client connections, and backup job heartbeats, you'll know about failures before they turn into data loss.