Website and SSL Monitoring

Updated July 11, 2025 20:34

Hudu's website monitoring feature allows you to retrieve the public WHOIS information on a client's website; giving the ability to track website status, name expiration, and SSL certificate expiration.

Website pages could even be related to relevant credentials or assets, and the expirations get automatically added to a client's Expiration tab!

Guides

In order to start tracking a client's website; you'll need to navigate to an individual client space. Websites can be found on the left-hand side menu under Tools.

Adding Websites

Navigate to the Websites tab on the left-hand side menu.
- This first window will show you all of your existing client websites being tracked in a list format.
Click ((+ New)) in the top right-hand corner of the page.
Enter the URL of the website in the name field, add any notes, and/or disable certain monitoring aspects.
Click ((Create)) or ((Create and Add Another)) to add the selected URL.

Upon clicking into an existing website and/or adding a new website, you'll open a window displaying all the information pulled from the WHOIS information on a particular public website. This information includes:

Status
Name Expiration
SSL Certificate Expiration
A, MX, and AAAA records
Name Servers
TXT records
Full SSL certificate
DKIM/SPF/DMARC

Managing Monitoring and Tracking Settings

By default, website monitoring, DNS, WHOIS, and SSL certificate tracking are enabled to provide comprehensive visibility into your domain and site status. DMARC, DKIM, and SPF tracking are disabled by default and can be enabled as needed.

You can adjust these settings based on your specific needs. To enable or disable any type of monitoring or tracking, click into the website and choose the Edit option. From there, you can select which types of tracking you'd like to enable or disable.

Below is a breakdown of what each setting controls:

Disable Website Monitoring: Stops monitoring the availability and performance of your website. Useful if you manage uptime through another service or do not require alerts.
Disable DNS Tracking: Prevents tracking of DNS records.
Disable SSL Certificate Tracking: Disables monitoring of SSL certificate status and expiration. If disabled, you won’t receive alerts about expiring certificates.
Disable WHOIS Tracking: Stops tracking changes to domain registration information.

In addition to the above, you can enable advanced email authentication tracking:

Enable DMARC Tracking: Monitors your domain’s DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) policy and reports.
Enable DKIM Tracking: Tracks the status of your DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) records to ensure that email messages are properly signed and trusted by recipients.
Enable SPF Tracking: Keeps an eye on your SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records, which define which mail servers are permitted to send emails on behalf of your domain.

These options give you granular control over what is monitored, while still defaulting to a comprehensive overview.

Tools

Additional tools allow you to relate the website to other items, store additional documentation, and track metrics on websites. Expand each section to learn more!

Relationships

Website information pages can be directly related to other items within Hudu, allowing you to tie a website directly to an asset for easy navigation.

See Relationships for additional information!

Expirations

The domain and SSL certificate of websites being tracked will automatically be added to the client's Expirations section; as well as can be found in your Hudu admin >> global Expirations tab.

Visit Expirations for additional information.

File Storage

The Files section is a toggle-able module that allows users to add files to the website. Any user can view the files attached. If a user is at least an "Author" role, they are able to upload their own files.

Click into the files section on the right-hand sidebar to browse files to upload, OR drag and drop files directly into the section to add. These files will populate into list format.

To update the name of the file, click the ((Edit)) icon to the right of the file name. Ensure that you click Save after updating the name.

There is no limit to the number of files allowed to be uploaded but said uploaded individual files cannot exceed 100 MB per file.

Comments

The comments section allows for simple text-field entries and serves to provide an area for any additional information that may not fit directly into your asset layout fields or other categories/sections.

Global Website View

By navigating to your Hudu Global area >> Websites; you’ll be able to access a global view of all websites stored within your Hudu environment, regardless of which client (space) they belong to. Only groups with access to Global will see this option on the toolbar.

Additional Abilities

The sections below will serve to introduce additional features associated with websites. The items below can all be found at the bottom of the right-hand action menu when inside of an asset page.

Activity Logs

Activity Logs serve to provide a detailed information page on what actions have been performed to the specific website you currently reside. Any action performed on a website is recorded in the Hudu admin global Activity Logs.

Activity logs can be filtered by:

Client name.
The action performed;
By the user who performed the action;
or by the IP address from which the action was performed.

View who has Access

This feature will allow admins and super-admins to view who has access to the specific website you're currently looking at.

Users that have access to the asset will be designated by a green check mark.
Users that are restricted from accessing the asset will be designated by a red X.

Print to PDF

Physical copies of website information may still be required. By clicking the Printer icon at the top right of the page, you'll open a new window with a PDF Handoff containing all of the specific website information.

Website Version History

Track changes and compare differences with the new website version history tool. When viewing a website in Hudu, look for the activity feed in the right-hand tool panel and click an update to access the site version history.

FAQ

.au (Australian) and .nz (New Zealand) domain names not showing expiration dates in Hudu "website" monitoring section.

Answer: Australia and New Zealand do not publicly release all of a website’s WHOIS information.
WHOIS queries on .au and .nz domain names will not reveal information such as the creation or expiry dates for the website address.

When enabling SPF and DMARC monitoring, does Hudu perform DNS lookups on subdomains?

Answer: Currently, Hudu does not perform DNS lookups on subdomains when monitoring SPF and DMARC records.