Custom Check Monitor

Overview

Custom check monitors include any service check not reported by one of the 400+ integrations included with the Agent. Custom service checks can be sent to Datadog using a custom Agent check, DogStatsD, or the API.

Monitor creation

To create a custom check monitor in Datadog, use the main navigation: Monitors –> New Monitor –> Custom Check.

Pick a Custom Check

Choose a custom check from the drop-down box.

Pick monitor scope

Select the scope to monitor by choosing host names, tags, or choose All Monitored Hosts. If you need to exclude certain hosts, use the second field to list names or tags.

The include field uses AND logic. All listed hostnames and tags must be present on a host for it to be included.
The exclude field uses OR logic. Any host with a listed hostname or tag is excluded.

Set alert conditions

In this section, choose between a Check Alert or Cluster Alert:

Dropdown

A check alert tracks consecutive statuses submitted per check grouping and compares it to your thresholds.

Set up the check alert:

Trigger a separate alert for each <GROUP> reporting your check.
Check grouping is specified either from a list of known groupings or by you. For custom check monitors, the per-check grouping is unknown, so you must specify it.
Trigger the alert after selected consecutive failures: <NUMBER>
Each check run submits a single status of OK, WARN, CRITICAL, or UNKNOWN. Choose how many consecutive runs with the WARN and CRITICAL status trigger a notification. For example, to be notified immediately when your check fails, trigger the monitor alert on 1 critical status or 1 warning status.
Choose Do not notify or Notify for Unknown status.
Resolve the alert after selected consecutive successes: <NUMBER>.
Choose how many consecutive runs with the OK status resolve the alert. For example, to ensure an issue is fixed, resolve the monitor on 4 OK statuses.

A cluster alert calculates the percent of checks in a given status and compares it to your thresholds.

Set up a cluster alert:

Decide whether or not to group your checks according to a tag. Ungrouped calculates the status percentage across all sources. Grouped calculates the status percentage on a per-group basis.
Select the percentage for alert and warn thresholds. Only one setting (alert or warn) is required.

See the metric monitor documentation for information on No data, Auto resolve, and Evaluation delay options.