Backup Monitoring Without Infrastructure: Simple Solution for VPS and Legacy Servers

The Problem: Complex Infrastructure Requirements

Most backup monitoring solutions require complex infrastructure:

• Kubernetes + Prometheus - Requires container orchestration and metrics collection
• ELK Stack - Requires Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana setup
• Datadog/New Relic - Requires agents and complex configuration
• Custom monitoring scripts - Requires maintaining your own infrastructure

If you're running backups on VPS, bare metal, or legacy servers, you don't have Kubernetes or Prometheus. You need a simple solution that works with just cron and curl.

Solution: Dead Man Switch Without Infrastructure

Dead man switch monitoring works without any infrastructure. Just add one curl line to your backup script. No agents, no Kubernetes, no Prometheus. It works with:

• VPS servers - DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, etc.
• Bare metal servers - Physical servers without containerization
• Legacy servers - Older systems without modern monitoring tools
• Shared hosting - Limited access, but cron and curl work
• MSP environments - Multiple client servers without unified infrastructure

DeadManPing doesn't run your backups. Your cron does. DeadManPing only observes if the ping arrived.

How It Works: One Curl Line

After each successful backup, your script pings a monitoring service. If the ping doesn't arrive within the expected interval, you get an alert. No infrastructure required.

Simple Backup Example

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# Run backup (rsync, tar, database dump, etc.)
rsync -avz /data/ user@backup-server:/backups/

# One curl line - no infrastructure required
curl -X POST "https://deadmanping.com/api/ping/backup-daily"

That's it. No agents, no Kubernetes, no Prometheus. Just one curl line.

With Payload Validation

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# Run backup
BACKUP_FILE="/backups/db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql"
pg_dump mydb > "$BACKUP_FILE"

# Get file size
FILE_SIZE=$(stat -c%s "$BACKUP_FILE" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)

# Ping with file size - DeadManPing validates size > 0
curl -X POST "https://deadmanping.com/api/ping/backup-db?size=$FILE_SIZE"

You can include backup data (file size, status, etc.) in the ping payload. DeadManPing validates this data and alerts if backups are empty or incorrect.

Use Cases: When Infrastructure-Free Monitoring Makes Sense

• MSP (Managed Service Providers) - Monitor backups across 50+ client servers without unified infrastructure
• Small businesses - VPS hosting without DevOps team or Kubernetes expertise
• Legacy systems - Older servers that can't run modern monitoring tools
• Cost-sensitive environments - Avoid expensive monitoring infrastructure
• Quick setup - Need backup monitoring in minutes, not days

Related Articles

Learn more about cron job monitoring and troubleshooting:

• Backup Didn't Run - How to Detect

  How to detect when backup jobs don't run using dead man switch monitoring.

• Dead Man Switch for Backups

  Implement dead man switch monitoring for backup jobs to detect failures immediately.

• Backup Monitoring Service

  Backup monitoring that doesn't touch your execution.

• Detect Empty Backup File

  How to detect when backup files are empty or zero bytes.