From 425c93ed8fc886e9105a4bc35762f848112553c0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: TwinProduction Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2021 20:47:26 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Add "Why Gatus?" section --- README.md | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index c8801ba1..45ccdbf9 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ core applications: https://status.twinnation.org/ ## Table of Contents +- [Why Gatus?](#why-gatus) - [Features](#features) - [Usage](#usage) - [Configuration](#configuration) @@ -54,6 +55,25 @@ core applications: https://status.twinnation.org/ - [API](#API) +## Why Gatus? + +Before getting into the specifics, I want to address the most common question: +> Why would I use Gatus when I can just use Prometheus’ Alertmanager, Cloudwatch or even Splunk? + +Neither of these can tell you that there’s a problem if there are no clients actively calling the endpoint. +In other words, it's because monitoring metrics mostly rely on existing traffic, which effectively means that unless +your clients are already experiencing a problem, you won't be notified. + +Gatus, on the other hand, allows you to configure health checks for each of your features, which in turn allows it to +monitor these features and potentially alert you before any clients are impacted. + +A sign you may want to look into Gatus is by simply asking yourself whether you'd receive an alert if your load balancer +was to go down right now. Will any of your existing alerts by triggered? Your metrics won’t report an increase in errors +if there’s no traffic that makes it to your applications. This puts you in a situation where your clients are the ones +that will notify you about the degradation of your services rather than you reassuring them that you're working on +fixing the issue before they even know about it. + + ## Features The main features of Gatus are: @@ -113,7 +133,7 @@ Note that you can also add environment variables in the configuration file (e.g. | `services[].url` | URL to send the request to | Required `""` | | `services[].method` | Request method | `GET` | | `services[].insecure` | Whether to skip verifying the server's certificate chain and host name | `false` | -| `services[].conditions` | Conditions used to determine the health of the service. See [Conditions](#conditions) | `[]` | +| `services[].conditions` | Conditions used to determine the health of the service. See [Conditions](#conditions). | `[]` | | `services[].interval` | Duration to wait between every status check | `60s` | | `services[].graphql` | Whether to wrap the body in a query param (`{"query":"$body"}`) | `false` | | `services[].body` | Request body | `""` | @@ -121,13 +141,13 @@ Note that you can also add environment variables in the configuration file (e.g. | `services[].dns` | Configuration for a service of type DNS. See [Monitoring a service using DNS queries](#monitoring-a-service-using-dns-queries). | `""` | | `services[].dns.query-type` | Query type for DNS service | `""` | | `services[].dns.query-name` | Query name for DNS service | `""` | -| `services[].alerts[].type` | Type of alert. Valid types: `slack`, `discord`m `pagerduty`, `twilio`, `mattermost`, `messagebird`, `custom` | Required `""` | +| `services[].alerts[].type` | Type of alert. Valid types: `slack`, `discord`, `pagerduty`, `twilio`, `mattermost`, `messagebird`, `custom` | Required `""` | | `services[].alerts[].enabled` | Whether to enable the alert | `false` | | `services[].alerts[].failure-threshold` | Number of failures in a row needed before triggering the alert | `3` | | `services[].alerts[].success-threshold` | Number of successes in a row before an ongoing incident is marked as resolved | `2` | | `services[].alerts[].send-on-resolved` | Whether to send a notification once a triggered alert is marked as resolved | `false` | | `services[].alerts[].description` | Description of the alert. Will be included in the alert sent | `""` | -| `alerting` | Configuration for alerting. See [Alerting](#alerting) | `{}` | +| `alerting` | Configuration for alerting. See [Alerting](#alerting). | `{}` | | `security` | Security configuration | `{}` | | `security.basic` | Basic authentication security configuration | `{}` | | `security.basic.username` | Username for Basic authentication | Required `""` |