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Guide/Moving in

Moving from Pingdom to up4.

You will have your Pingdom checks running in up4 while Pingdom keeps running, so you can compare both before you switch your alerts.

  • Who: Anyone who can create monitors in your Company
  • Time: One sitting, then 48 to 72 hours side by side

You need a Pingdom API token with read access and the people or channels that should receive alerts. In that one sitting you move a first batch.

Match Pingdom’s words to up4’s

Pingdomup4What to know
Uptime checkMonitorsup4 has HTTP, ping, TCP and DNS checks. Pingdom’s custom HTTP, UDP, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP checks have no counterpart.
ResolutionInterval (seconds or 1m / 5m)Pingdom counts in minutes. up4 reads seconds, or a unit such as 5m.
ContactAlert channelsYou connect each address or number again.
Integration (Slack, PagerDuty)Alert channelsYou connect each one again.
Alerting settingsAlert plansWho is told, in which order, after which wait.
Maintenance windowMaintenance windowA setting on each monitor, with a time of day, a time zone and weekdays.
Public status pageStatus pagesYou build it again in up4.
TagsTagsImported as text in the monitor’s metadata.

Export your checks and import them

We found no export of the check list in Pingdom’s documentation. The documented route out is the Pingdom API: GET /checks with a Bearer token returns an overview of all checks. Turn that response into a CSV file.

Steps

  1. List your checks through the API

    Ask for the tags too. The overview returns up to 25,000 checks; use the limit and offset options for more. Keep the name, hostname, type, resolution, status and tags of each check.

  2. Write the CSV file with up4’s column names

    Named like this, the columns are recognized without any mapping. Pingdom’s type names for HTTP, ping, TCP and DNS checks are the ones up4 uses, in lowercase.

    name                  →  name
hostname              →  url
type                  →  monitor_type   (http, ping, tcp, dns)
resolution (minutes)  →  interval       (write 5m, not 5)
tags                  →  tags
status "paused"       →  state          (PAUSED, otherwise empty)

    Write the resolution with a unit. A bare number counts as seconds, so 5 would mean five seconds. Leave out checks of any other type.

  3. Add what a TCP or DNS row needs

    A TCP row needs TCP host and TCP port columns; the port is in the detailed description of the check. A DNS row needs DNS name, and Pingdom’s name server and expected IP fit DNS server and DNS expected answer. For an HTTP check, Pingdom’s should-contain text fits Required keyword. Leave cells empty where a row does not need them.

  4. Open Import websites

    Choose Choose CSV file or paste the file. up4 accepts up to 500 rows and 2 MB at a time. Under Map columns, every column needs a field or Ignore this column.

  5. Choose Preview import, then create

    The preview creates nothing. Read each row, fix or exclude errors, and tick Create paused for setup review if you want to look first.

How you know it worked

View imported monitors lists exactly the monitors you created. A monitor reads as pending until its first check result arrives.

See what does not carry over

  • History. Check results, uptime figures and outages stay in Pingdom. up4 starts measuring with its first check.
  • Contacts and integrations. Connect each one once as an Alert channels entry. The import only assigns channels that already exist.
  • Alerting settings. Build an Alert plans entry for who is told and when, then assign it to the monitors.
  • Maintenance windows. Set them again on the monitors.
  • Public status pages. Build them again.
  • Other check types. Custom HTTP, UDP, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP checks have no counterpart in up4.

What up4 does not do here

up4 does not read your Pingdom account and has no one-click migration. You bring the file; up4 shows a preview before it creates anything.

Expect these differences

  • Confirmation. up4 does not alert on one failed check. A change of state needs 3 consistent observations: the first differing check plus 2 instant re-checks. Read your Pingdom alerting settings before you compare alert timing.
  • Check interval. Pingdom’s resolution is whole minutes. up4 accepts intervals from 10 seconds.
  • Web addresses. A bare hostname on an HTTP row becomes an https address, and the preview warns you. Check it before you create the monitor.
  • Price per check. Every check type costs €9 per million checks. One monitor checked every minute from one region comes to €0.39 a month. Each extra region repeats the checks. See What costs money.

Run both tools side by side

  1. Pilot three to five checks that matter, with one alert channel.
  2. Leave Pingdom running. 48 to 72 hours is a rule of thumb, not a requirement.
  3. Import the rest of your list.
  4. Send a test alert per channel and confirm it arrived. Then turn off the alerts in Pingdom.

The switching overview has the same plan in short.

Take your monitors back out

Open Monitor tools in the monitor list and choose Export monitors (CSV). The file imports again into this or another up4 account. Passwords, request headers and proxy settings are not included. For Pingdom, keep the name, address, type and interval, and create the checks through its API: POST /checks takes a name, a host and a type.

If something is off

  • The preview button stays disabled: every column must be mapped or set to Ignore this column, and each field only once.
  • A row reports a problem with the interval: write whole seconds or a unit such as 60s, 5m or 1h.
  • A TCP row is rejected: it needs both a TCP host and a TCP port.
  • More fixes are in Troubleshooting.
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