Domain expiry monitoring, because a lapsed domain is total downtime

How the expiry date is found

Domain expiry rides along with the SSL / domain monitor. On each check Tenium works out the registrable domain of the host you entered (www.clienta.co.uk becomes clienta.co.uk), then asks the public RDAP service for the registration record and reads the expiration event and the registrar name. The lookup happens at most once a day per monitor, because registry data does not move faster than that. The date lands on the monitor page with a days-left counter, and again in the certificates and domains table of client reports.

RDAP is the modern, structured replacement for WHOIS, but coverage is not universal. Most generic TLDs and many country codes publish it; some country-code registries do not, or hide the expiry date. In those cases the monitor records a lookup error instead of inventing a date, and the quickest test is to add the domain and look at the monitor page after the first run.

Warnings at 30, 14 and 3 days

Alerts go out when the remaining time drops below 30, then 14, then 3 days, once per threshold. Renewing the domain moves the date and starts the sequence over. These dates are fixed. The first warning is the useful one: a month is enough to chase a client for a card number, approve a transfer or find out who owns the registrar login. The 3-day warning is a last call, and if it is the first one anyone saw, treat it as an incident.

The feature needs a plan that includes SSL and domain checks, which means Starter ($7 a month) or above.

The person who can renew is rarely the person who gets the email

Domains lapse for human reasons far more often than technical ones. The registrant address belongs to a former employee, the card on file expired, the registrar account was created by a freelancer who left, or the client believes that the agency handles it while the agency believes the client does. Make sure at least one alert contact is a person with authority over the registrar account, not just the developer on call. For agencies, the client workspace is a natural place to attach the client's own address as a contact.

A short checklist that removes most of the risk:

• Turn on auto-renew, and confirm the payment method is not about to expire.
• Register for several years at once if the client agrees; it also helps stability.
• Enable registrar lock so an unauthorised transfer is harder.
• Keep the registrant contact on a role address such as [email protected], not on a person.
• Record which account holds each domain, for example in the monitor's tags.

What happens after expiry, and why 3 days is late

Expiry is rarely instant death. Most registries grant a renewal grace period after the date, then a redemption period in which recovery costs extra, and finally a short pending-delete stage before the name is released. The exact lengths differ per registry and registrar, and many registrars switch DNS to a parking page on day one regardless. That is why the first warning is placed a month ahead: after the date you are negotiating with a registrar, not renewing a domain.

What this monitor does not cover

Tenium does not alert on a registrar transfer, a status flag change or a nameserver change in the registration record. Nameserver hijacks can still be caught from the outside: create a DNS monitor on the NS record of the domain with your real nameservers as the expected values. Once public resolvers pick up a different delegation, the check fails. Because it goes through resolvers, it shows the change after caches expire, not the second it is made at the registrar. See DNS monitoring.

One more constraint follows from how the monitor works: it first opens a TLS connection to the host, so the hostname you enter has to answer on port 443 (or the port you configure). A domain without any HTTPS service, or a parked domain, fails the certificate half before the registry lookup runs. For such domains, a simple reminder in a calendar is a safer net than a monitor that cannot connect.

Many domains, one view

Each domain you monitor appears with its days-left count in the monitor list and in the monthly client reports, so a portfolio of forty names can be reviewed in a minute. Tagging each monitor with the registrar name lets you filter by account when it is time to renew in batches. The free domain expiry tool is handy for a one-off lookup before you commit to a monitor.