When a service stops responding, the first question is simple: is the problem on my side or theirs? A status page answers it without anyone having to write to support. We put ours online before our first customers, so that it would already be there on the day it is needed.
What it checks
A probe queries the site every minute: the main pages, the database, the sign-in service and email delivery. Every five minutes it actually signs in, with an account kept for that purpose, then signs out. Every thirty minutes it creates an account, to check that sign-up works from start to finish.
What it shows
The page at zenit-group.fr/en/status gives the state of each service and keeps the history of incidents for a year. An incident opens when two checks in a row fail: a brief slowdown triggers nothing, while a real outage shows up within a minute or two.
Why make it public
Keeping this information to ourselves would be more comfortable. But when your business depends on a tool, you need to know what is going on without waiting for a reply. A public page also makes us face our outages, and explain them.