In this video, I explore how to set up Uptime Kuma on a Free VPS using Docker Compose to create a robust, 24/7 monitoring solution for your home lab or AI applications. I dive into the practical logic of utilising free-tier cloud resources to ensure your services stay online without adding to your monthly overhead.
The discussion covers the end-to-end deployment of a modern monitoring stack. I walk through my docker-compose.yaml configuration, which integrates Uptime Kuma for service availability alerts, Caddy for automatic SSL encryption, and the Beszel Agent for lightweight host metrics.
Practical Tips: Best practices for managing your monitoring environment via the terminal and keeping your containers up to date.
Whether you're looking to monitor a complex AI workflow or just want a reliable status page for your personal projects, this setup provides a professional-grade solution at zero cost, and that includes running from a free VPS server.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro: The Power of a Free Monitoring VPS
00:08 Tour of the Uptime Kuma Dashboard
00:32 Understanding Service Availability & Response Times
00:57 Monitoring More Than Just Websites (TCP & ICMP)
01:15 Public Status Pages for Users
01:38 Infrastructure Logic: Why "Outside-In" Monitoring Matters
04:25 Different hosting options considered
07:28 Big Free Tier VPS Providers Pros and Cons
10:17 Visualizing Server Resources with Beszel
12:44 Conceptual Overview of the Free VPS and Applications
15:02 Security & Firewall Best Practices for VPS
16:04 Docker Compose Walkthrough: Caddy, Kuma, and Beszel
18:08 Updating your Containers
19:33 Outro: Final Thoughts
LINKS:
My Uptime Docker Compose Stack — https://github.com/Danie10/yaml-snippets/blob/main/uptimevpscompose.yaml
My Caddyfile config — https://github.com/Danie10/yaml-snippets/blob/main/uptimevpsCaddyfile
Automate update script for containers — https://github.com/Danie10/yaml-snippets/blob/main/uptimevps_update_stack.sh
My Beszel video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI5WuZt6_ak&t=23s
My Change Detection video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2XuD_pr_6w
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