JO SERVER MONITOR

Setup Guide • Joint Operations Server Watchdog

Windows 10/11 • ~25 MB • No install required

1. What Is JO Server Monitor?

JO Server Monitor is a lightweight watchdog for your Joint Operations dedicated server. It runs in the background, checks your server every 15 seconds, and sends you an alert if it goes down — by email, Discord, Slack, Telegram, ntfy, Gotify or webhook. When the server comes back up, it sends a recovery alert too.

What it does:

Pings your server's admin port every 15 seconds (configurable)
Sends an alert when the server goes offline — email, Discord, Slack, Telegram, ntfy, Gotify or HTTP webhook, several at once if you like
Parses crash reports from SYSDUMP.TXT and includes them in the alert
Sends a recovery alert when the server comes back online
Runs in the system tray when you close the window — right-click to restore or quit

🆕 v1.3.1 (September 2026): restores the system-tray icon that v1.3 shipped without (build fault, not a code change). v1.3: the server check no longer leaves a connection lingering on the game server. Older versions left one behind on every poll; over a few days those built up inside the server and could crash it while empty. If your JO server keeps sysdumping with nobody on it, update to v1.3.

2. Requirements

Windows 10 or 11
A running Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising dedicated server
Admin access to that server (the admin port number)
Somewhere to receive alerts — an email address, or a Discord/Slack webhook, Telegram bot, ntfy or Gotify topic, or any HTTP webhook

3. Installation

Download JOMonitor.exe using the button above
Put it anywhere on your PC (e.g. C:\JO Monitor\)
Double-click JOMonitor.exe to launch

No installer, no dependencies. Just run it.

4. Server Settings

When you first open JOMonitor, fill in the top section:

Field	What to enter
Server Host	Your server's IP address. Use `127.0.0.1` if the server runs on the same PC.
Port	The admin port from your server's `game.cfg` (the `AdminPort` value). This is NOT the game port — it's the remote admin port.
Interval (s)	How often to check the server, in seconds. Default is `15`. Lower = more responsive, higher = less network traffic.
JO Server Directory	Optional. The folder where your server runs. If set, the monitor will watch for `SYSDUMP.TXT` crash reports and include them in alert emails.

💡 Tip: The "Port" field is the admin port, not the game port. If your players connect on port 27888 but your admin port is 40000, enter 40000.

5. Email Alerts Setup

JOMonitor supports two email methods. Choose the one that works best for you:

Agent Mail (Recommended)

Standard Email (SMTP)

Using Agent Mail

Agent Mail is a simple email relay service. You don't need to give it your email password — it just needs an API key and an inbox address, and it sends the alert email on your behalf.

📧 What is "Agent Mail"?

Think of it as a middleman. It takes the alert message from the monitor and delivers it to your email inbox. You need a free account at agentmail.to to get an API key.

Fill in these fields in the Email Alerts section:

Field	What to enter
Method	Select `agent_mail` from the dropdown
API Key	Your Agent Mail API key. Get one for free at agentmail.to. It looks like a long string of letters and numbers.
Inbox	The Agent Mail inbox address. This is NOT your personal email. It's the sending address that Agent Mail provides. It usually looks like `something@agentmail.to`. Leave the default if you're unsure.
Alert to	This IS your personal email address — where you actually want to receive the alerts (e.g. `yourname@gmail.com`).

⚠️ Common mistake: Don't put your personal email in the "Inbox" field. The Inbox is the Agent Mail sending address. Your personal email goes in the "Alert to" field.

Getting an Agent Mail API Key

Go to agentmail.to
Create a free account
Find your API key in the dashboard
Copy it and paste it into the "API Key" field in JOMonitor

Using Standard Email (SMTP)

If you'd rather use your own email account directly (Gmail, Outlook, etc.), choose the SMTP method. This uses your email provider's server to send alerts.

Fill in these fields in the Email Alerts section:

Field	What to enter
Method	Select `smtp` from the dropdown
SMTP Server	Your email provider's SMTP server address: Gmail: `smtp.gmail.com` Outlook/Hotmail: `smtp-mail.outlook.com` Yahoo: `smtp.mail.yahoo.com`
Port	Usually `587` for most providers (TLS)
Username	Your full email address (e.g. `yourname@gmail.com`)
Password	Your email password. For Gmail, you'll need an App Password (see below).
Alert to	Where to send the alerts. Usually the same as your username, but can be a different address.

⚠️ Gmail users: Google blocks "less secure apps" from logging in with your normal password. You need to create an App Password:

Go to your Google App Passwords page
Select "Mail" and "Windows Computer"
Click Generate
Copy the 16-character password it gives you
Paste that into the "Password" field in JOMonitor (not your normal Gmail password)

Other notification channels (Discord, Slack, Telegram and more)

Since v1.2 you are not limited to email. In the Notification Channels box, click + Add, pick a type, and fill in the fields for it:

Discord or Slack — paste a webhook URL from your server or workspace settings
Telegram — a bot token from @BotFather and the chat to post to
ntfy — a topic name (on ntfy.sh or your own server), optional token and priority
Gotify — your Gotify server URL and an app token
Webhook (HTTP) — any URL; JOMonitor POSTs the alert as JSON (subject, body, timestamp)

Every enabled channel fires on every alert, so you can have email plus a Discord ping at the same time. Untick a channel to pause it without deleting it.

6. Testing Your Alerts

Before you start monitoring, click the 🔔 Test Alerts button. This sends a test alert through every enabled channel so you can confirm everything is working.

If the test succeeds, you'll see "✓ All test alerts sent successfully!" in the log. Check your inbox (and spam folder), Discord channel or phone for the test message.

If it fails, double-check your API key, inbox address, and alert email address.

7. Start Monitoring

Fill in all your settings (server, notification channels)
Click 💾 Save Settings
Click 🔔 Test Alerts to verify your alerts arrive
Click ▶ Start Monitoring

The monitor will now ping your server every 15 seconds. If the server goes down, you'll get an email within 30 seconds (two failed checks). When it comes back up, you'll get a recovery email.

💡 Tip: When you close the JOMonitor window, it minimises to the system tray instead of quitting. Right-click the tray icon to restore it or quit completely.

8. Crash Report Parsing

If you set the JO Server Directory field to your server's folder, the monitor will watch for SYSDUMP.TXT — the crash report file that Joint Operations creates when it crashes.

When a crash is detected, the monitor parses the crash report and includes the details in the alert email. This can help you figure out what went wrong without needing to be at the computer.

9. Auto-Start with Windows (Optional)

If you want JOMonitor to start automatically when Windows boots:

Right-click JOMonitor.exe and select Create shortcut
Press Win + R, type shell:startup, press Enter
Move the shortcut into the Startup folder that opens

JOMonitor will now start minimised every time you log in.

10. Troubleshooting

"Alert email not sending"

Click 🔔 Test Alerts first. If the test fails, check the log for which channel failed: for email, check your API key and the "Alert to" address; for Discord, Slack or webhooks, check the URL; for Telegram, check the bot token and chat ID.

"Server shows as down but it's running"

Check the admin port number. The monitor connects to the admin port, not the game port. Make sure the port matches what's in your game.cfg.

"Getting duplicate alerts"

The monitor only sends one alert per outage. If you're getting multiples, you might have two instances of JOMonitor running. Check your system tray.

"Crash reports not included in emails"

Make sure the JO Server Directory field points to the folder where your server executable (jotacserver.exe) is located. The monitor looks for SYSDUMP.TXT in that folder.

11. Building from Source (Optional)

If you want to modify the monitor or build it yourself:

Install Python 3.10+ from python.org
Open PowerShell in the monitor folder
Run python build.py
The executable will be in dist\JOMonitor.exe