Health check templates - Global Traffic Manager - Alibaba Cloud DNS

Create a health check template and apply it to an IP address to monitor health status in real time. When an address becomes unavailable, Global Traffic Manager automatically removes the unhealthy node to maintain service continuity.

Key concepts

Health check template: A preset configuration for health checks on addresses. Health checks support PING, TCP, HTTP, and HTTPS protocols.

Health check task: Applying a health check template to an address creates a health check task. You can apply multiple templates to one address, and use a single template for multiple addresses.

Create a health check template

Go to Alibaba Cloud DNS - Global Traffic Manager.

Click Health Check Template > Create Health Check Template, configure the parameters, and submit.

Ping health checks

Parameter	Description
Template Name	Name of the Health Check Template. Use a name that indicates the health check protocol for easy identification.
Type	The IP address type of the detection node. IPv4 and IPv6 are supported.
Protocol	Select `ping` to monitor network reachability, packet loss rate, and latency for the IP address.
ICMP Packages Sent	Number of ICMP packets sent per ping health check, used to calculate the packet loss rate. Valid values: 5, 10, 15, or 20.
Packet Loss Rate	Packet loss rate = (Lost packets / Total ICMP packets sent) × 100%. An alert triggers when this rate reaches the threshold. Valid values: 10%, 30%, 50%, 80%, 90%, or 100%.
Interval	Interval between consecutive health checks. Valid values: 15 seconds, 1 minute (default), 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. The 15-second interval is supported for Ultimate Edition instances only. When set to 15 seconds, the ICMP Packets Sent parameter is fixed to 5. Other intervals are available for both Standard Edition and Ultimate Edition instances.
Timeout Period	Maximum wait time for a response per packet. If no response is received within this period, the health check times out. Valid values: 2, 3, 5, or 10 seconds.
Retries	Number of consecutive failures before the system marks the service as unhealthy. Prevents false alarms from transient network issues. Valid values: 1, 2, or 3. 1: Marked unhealthy after one failure. 2: Marked unhealthy after two consecutive failures. 3: Marked unhealthy after three consecutive failures. Important If the destination is unreachable or returns an ICMP destination unreachable message, those attempts do not count toward the failure rate or trigger an alert. Resolve the network issue or switch to an HTTP health check.
Detection Node	IPv4 detection: ISP nodes: Tianjin Unicom, Shenzhen Mobile, Xi'an Telecom, Shanghai Telecom, Shanghai Unicom, Shanghai Mobile, Dalian Mobile, Changsha Telecom, Qingdao Telecom, Zhengzhou Telecom, Harbin Telecom, Harbin Unicom, Harbin Mobile, Nanjing Unicom, Nanjing Mobile, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Unicom, Beijing Mobile BGP nodes: Chengdu, Qingdao, Shanghai, Zhangjiakou, Hohhot, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing, Ulanqab, Guangzhou Overseas nodes: Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, California, Hong Kong (China), Germany IPv6 detection: ISP nodes: Shanghai Telecom, Shanghai Unicom, Shanghai Mobile, Harbin Telecom, Harbin Unicom, Harbin Mobile, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Unicom, Beijing Mobile BGP nodes: Chengdu, Shanghai, Hohhot, Shenzhen, Beijing, Ulanqab, Guangzhou Overseas nodes: Hong Kong (China) Important If all addresses in the pool are Alibaba Cloud IP addresses and you use a blackhole policy for fault testing, select ISP nodes. Blackhole filtering takes effect on the internet between Alibaba Cloud and ISP networks. Since traffic between Alibaba Cloud IP addresses primarily flows within the internal network, using BGP nodes may degrade the effectiveness of the detection. Differences between BGP nodes and ISP nodes: BGP nodes automatically select the optimal carrier line. For example, for a BGP node in Shanghai, if the China Mobile line fails, the detection point might select the China Telecom line, unless all lines have failed. In contrast, an ISP node uses only its specific carrier network and has no failover mechanism. To configure a server-side whitelist for access sources, click View Monitoring Node IP Addresses to retrieve the IP addresses of the detection nodes. If the target IP address is outside the Chinese mainland, select overseas nodes.
Detected Node Failure Rate	Ratio of unhealthy detection nodes to total selected nodes. When this rate exceeds the threshold, the system marks the service as unhealthy. Valid values: 20%, 50%, 80%, or 100%.

TCP health checks

Parameter	Description
Template Name	Name of the Health Check Template. Use a name that indicates the health check protocol for easy identification.
Type	The IP address type of the detection node. IPv4 and IPv6 are supported.
Protocol	Select `tcp` to monitor network reachability, port availability, and latency for the target IP address.
Interval	Interval between consecutive health checks. Valid values: 15 seconds, 1 minute (default), 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. The 15-second interval is supported for Ultimate Edition instances only. Other intervals are available for both Standard Edition and Ultimate Edition instances.
Timeout Period	Maximum wait time for a response per packet. If no response is received within this period, the health check times out. Valid values: 2, 3, 5, or 10 seconds.
Retries	Number of consecutive failures before the system marks the service as unhealthy. Prevents false alarms from transient network issues. Valid values: 1, 2, or 3. 1: Marked unhealthy after one failure. 2: Marked unhealthy after two consecutive failures. 3: Marked unhealthy after three consecutive failures.
Detection Node	IPv4 detection: ISP nodes: Tianjin Unicom, Shenzhen Mobile, Xi'an Telecom, Shanghai Telecom, Shanghai Unicom, Shanghai Mobile, Dalian Mobile, Changsha Telecom, Qingdao Telecom, Zhengzhou Telecom, Harbin Telecom, Harbin Unicom, Harbin Mobile, Nanjing Unicom, Nanjing Mobile, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Unicom, Beijing Mobile BGP nodes: Chengdu, Qingdao, Shanghai, Zhangjiakou, Hohhot, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing, Ulanqab, Guangzhou Overseas nodes: Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, California, Hong Kong (China), Germany IPv6 detection: ISP nodes: Shanghai Telecom, Shanghai Unicom, Shanghai Mobile, Harbin Telecom, Harbin Unicom, Harbin Mobile, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Unicom, Beijing Mobile BGP nodes: Chengdu, Shanghai, Hohhot, Shenzhen, Beijing, Ulanqab, Guangzhou Overseas nodes: Hong Kong (China) Important If all addresses in the pool are Alibaba Cloud IP addresses and you use a blackhole policy for fault testing, select ISP nodes. Blackhole filtering takes effect on the internet between Alibaba Cloud and ISP networks. Since traffic between Alibaba Cloud IP addresses primarily flows within the internal network, using BGP nodes may degrade the effectiveness of the detection. Differences between BGP nodes and ISP nodes: BGP nodes automatically select the optimal carrier line. For example, for a BGP node in Shanghai, if the China Mobile line fails, the detection point might select the China Telecom line, unless all lines have failed. In contrast, an ISP node uses only its specific carrier network and has no failover mechanism. To configure a server-side whitelist for access sources, click View Monitoring Node IP Addresses to retrieve the IP addresses of the detection nodes. If the target IP address is outside the Chinese mainland, select overseas nodes.
Detected Node Failure Rate	Ratio of unhealthy detection nodes to total selected nodes. When this rate exceeds the threshold, the system marks the service as unhealthy. Valid values: 20%, 50%, 80%, or 100%.

HTTP/HTTPS health checks

Parameter	Description
Template Name	Name of the Health Check Template. Use a name that indicates the health check protocol for easy identification.
Type	The IP address type of the detection node. IPv4 and IPv6 are supported.
Protocol	Select `http` or `https` to monitor network reachability, service availability, and time to first byte for the target IP address.
Host Settings	The Host field in the HTTP(S) request header. Defaults to the primary domain name. Modify this field if the target website requires a specific Host value.
HTTP Path	URL path for the HTTP(S) health check. Default: /.
Verification Content	The system determines web server status based on the returned HTTP status code. The service is marked unhealthy when the status code meets the failure criteria: Failure code is greater than or equal to 400: Bad Request. The web server returns 400 or higher for requests with incorrect parameters. If you select this option, specify the exact URL path in the HTTP Path field. Failure code is greater than or equal to 500: Server Error (default): The web server returns 500 or higher for internal errors. Verify Response: The system checks whether the first 64 KB of the response body contains the specified string. If not found, the health check fails. The string can be in Chinese or English. Regular expressions are not supported.
Interval	Interval between consecutive health checks. Valid values: 15 seconds, 1 minute (default), 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. The 15-second interval is supported for Ultimate Edition instances only. Other intervals are available for both Standard Edition and Ultimate Edition instances.
Timeout Period	Maximum wait time for a response per packet. If no response is received within this period, the health check times out. Valid values: 2, 3, 5, or 10 seconds.
Retries	Number of consecutive failures before the system marks the service as unhealthy. Prevents false alarms from transient network issues. Valid values: 1, 2, or 3. 1: Marked unhealthy after one failure. 2: Marked unhealthy after two consecutive failures. 3: Marked unhealthy after three consecutive failures.
Enable SNI	Server Name Indication (SNI) is a TLS extension that lets the client specify the target hostname at the start of the TLS handshake, so the server presents the correct certificate.
Follow 3XX Redirection	When enabled, the detection node follows 3XX redirects (301, 302, 303, 307, 308).
Detection Node	IPv4 detection: ISP nodes: Tianjin Unicom, Shenzhen Mobile, Xi'an Telecom, Shanghai Telecom, Shanghai Unicom, Shanghai Mobile, Dalian Mobile, Changsha Telecom, Qingdao Telecom, Zhengzhou Telecom, Harbin Telecom, Harbin Unicom, Harbin Mobile, Nanjing Unicom, Nanjing Mobile, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Unicom, Beijing Mobile BGP nodes: Chengdu, Qingdao, Shanghai, Zhangjiakou, Hohhot, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing, Ulanqab, Guangzhou Overseas nodes: Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, California, Hong Kong (China), Germany IPv6 detection: ISP nodes: Shanghai Telecom, Shanghai Unicom, Shanghai Mobile, Harbin Telecom, Harbin Unicom, Harbin Mobile, Beijing Telecom, Beijing Unicom, Beijing Mobile BGP nodes: Chengdu, Shanghai, Hohhot, Shenzhen, Beijing, Ulanqab, Guangzhou Overseas nodes: Hong Kong (China) Important If all addresses in the pool are Alibaba Cloud IP addresses and you use a blackhole policy for fault testing, select ISP nodes. Blackhole filtering takes effect on the internet between Alibaba Cloud and ISP networks. Since traffic between Alibaba Cloud IP addresses primarily flows within the internal network, using BGP nodes may degrade the effectiveness of the detection. Differences between BGP nodes and ISP nodes: BGP nodes automatically select the optimal carrier line. For example, for a BGP node in Shanghai, if the China Mobile line fails, the detection point might select the China Telecom line, unless all lines have failed. In contrast, an ISP node uses only its specific carrier network and has no failover mechanism. To configure a server-side whitelist for access sources, click View Monitoring Node IP Addresses to retrieve the IP addresses of the detection nodes. If the target IP address is outside the Chinese mainland, select overseas nodes.
Detected Node Failure Rate	Ratio of unhealthy detection nodes to total selected nodes. When this rate exceeds the threshold, the system marks the service as unhealthy. Valid values: 20%, 50%, 80%, or 100%.

In the Detection node section, select detection nodes. For example, select Beijing and Shanghai under BGP nodes, set Detected Node Failure Rate to 100%, and click OK.