Monitoring alerting is a crucial aspect of modern infrastructure management. When it comes to status checks, there are four primary types: host checks, cluster checks, service checks, and process checks. Host checks monitor the up/down status of individual hosts, while cluster checks roll multiple host checks into a single check to detect widespread failures. Service checks monitor the availability of specific services or processes, offering an effective way to monitor distributed systems. Network checks verify connectivity between locations or hosts and external endpoints, providing valuable context for identifying regional network issues. The choice of alert type depends on the system being monitored, with individual and cluster-level alerts often preferred over host-level alerts due to the potential for widespread failures. As infrastructure evolves, it's essential to consider alternative alerting strategies that evaluate continuous domains, such as timeseries metric values.