Heartbeat / Dead Man's Switch Calculator

Pick safe heartbeat and cron-monitor intervals and grace periods to avoid false alerts.

Runs 100% in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded or stored.

Check interval
5 min
Expected ping period
Grace period
11m
11.0 min
Alert after
3 missed
pings
Fires within
15m
15 min
The math
Run interval        = 5 min (expect a ping every 5 min)
Jitter buffer       = 5 min x 20% = 1.0 min
Grace period        = jitter buffer + detection delay
                    = 1.0 min + 10 min = 11.0 min
Missed-ping threshold = ceil(grace / interval) = ceil(11.0 / 5) = 3
Alert fires after   = 3 missed pings x 5 min = 15 min after the last expected ping

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