Public SSL Certificate Monitoring

Public SSL monitors connect to internet-facing hosts and ports (for example exemplar.dev:443 on a set check interval), validate the certificate, and surface expiry, issuer, subject, and serial details. The timeline and check history show repeated successful checks with days-to-expire on each row so teams can proactively monitor public TLS health over time.

Example: Public SSL monitor with certificate expiry details, issuer information, and hourly TLS check history.

How To: Set Up Public SSL Certificate Monitoring and Email Alerts

Step-by-step guide

Work in the Exemplar console .

1. Open SSL monitoring — Navigate to the area where SSL, TLS, or certificate monitors are configured and managed.

2. Create a public SSL monitor — Add a monitor for your public host and port (for example api.example.com:443). Configure an appropriate check interval based on operational requirements and certificate renewal policies.

3. Validate certificate details — Ensure the monitor verifies the certificate chain, hostname, SAN entries, and expiry window. Review issuer and subject information to confirm the correct certificate is deployed publicly.

4. Review timeline and history — Use the timeline and check history to monitor ongoing certificate validity and identify intermittent TLS or handshake failures.

5. Integrate with operational visibility — Associate SSL monitors with service boards or operational dashboards so certificate health is visible alongside uptime and monitoring signals.

6. Configure email alerts — Add email notifications for important SSL events such as:

   • approaching certificate expiry
   • failed renewals
   • TLS validation failures
   • connectivity issues

7. Verify notifications — Test alert delivery to confirm the right recipients receive actionable expiry and failure notifications.

8. Maintain ownership visibility — Document certificate ownership, renewal responsibilities, and escalation contacts to reduce the risk of unexpected expirations.

Best practices

• Monitor all public-facing production domains
• Configure alerts well before certificate expiry
• Validate automated renewal workflows regularly
• Link SSL monitors to operational dashboards for centralized visibility
• Review TLS failures immediately to avoid service disruption

Blog

• Why uptime and synthetic monitors still matter in the age of APM  — How SSL checks and other probes complement telemetry and application monitoring.

Related

• SSL Monitoring Overview
• Uptime Monitoring
• Heartbeat Monitoring