How to monitor a Windows server with StatusCake

We often get requests from our customers on how to monitor a Windows server or workstation with StatusCake. So today I wanted to take you through a great method of doing this that you should be able to set up in just a few minutes on a Windows 10 workstation, or Windows server.

We provide this coverage using the PUSH variant of our uptime monitoring – a type of reverse monitoring that requires the device to contact us in order to demonstrate downtime. This is also really handy in situations where your Windows device or server sits on an internal network and will not allow external connectivity.

How to set it up

To get started – just set up a new PUSH type Uptime Test within your StatusCake account, and we’ll provide you with a link per test that we need your device to hit. 

From there, on the Windows device or server, you want the “Task Scheduler” functionality found in the GUI explorer view. It’s possible to access this by typing Task Scheduler into your start bar, you should see the program and will be able to open it by clicking on it or pressing enter.

This will present you with the Task Scheduler GUI, and you will want to take the following steps to complete setup, first we will configure the General section.

• In the window which appears the next step is to select “Create Task” from the options on the right side of the window.
• In the “Create Task” interface you will see headings for General, Triggers, Actions, Conditions, and Settings, first we will configure the General section.
• Enter a custom name for the Scheduled Task, and optional description. You can choose to run this task only when the user is logged in, or at all times. You should also select Windows 10 in the bottom “Configure for” field.
• If this task won’t be running under an administrator, be sure to tick the “Run with highest Privileges” box before continuing.

Next in the Triggers section:

• Ensure that the task is set to begin “On a schedule”
• Set the task to “One time” and ensure that the start time is populated with the first instance you would like the task to run.

The last screen that we will need to configure is the Actions section:

• Click the “New” button to create a new Action
• Ensure that the action type is set to “Start a Program”
• Type powershell into the Program/Script field
• In the “Add Arguments” field you should add the following, ensuring that you include your PUSH test URL created at StatusCake:

ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command Invoke-WebRequest ‘YOUR_PUSH_URL_HERE’ -UseBasicParsing

Once that’s complete you can click OK in the open windows to close them, and your scheduled task will now be monitoring your Windows server or Workstation and returning the data into the StatusCake dashboard.

With these steps completed, you will now have a fully monitored Windows Server or Workstation, and all you have to do to add more is repeat the above process. We hope that this will help out users wishing to monitor a wider variety of systems, and we’re excited to bring you further methods in future posts.