Usage & Monitoring
The Lift portal gives you visibility into how your OpenBoxes instance is performing and how much of your plan's resources you are using. You can view usage metrics from the Dashboard and the Instance section of the portal.
Usage Dashboard
The usage dashboard shows three key metrics at a glance, each displayed as a progress bar against your plan's limit.
Storage
Tracks how much database storage your OpenBoxes instance is consuming. This includes all your supply chain data --- products, shipments, orders, inventory records, and transaction history.
| Plan | Storage Limit |
|---|---|
| Shared | 10 GB |
| Dedicated | 100 GB |
| Enterprise | Custom |
Storage usage is updated every hour.
Active Users
Shows how many users currently have access to your Lift account compared to your plan's user limit.
| Plan | User Limit |
|---|---|
| Shared | 10 |
| Dedicated | 50 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
This count includes all active users --- Admins, Managers, and Browsers. Pending invitations also count toward your limit.
API Calls
Tracks the number of API requests your OpenBoxes instance processes per month. This includes requests from the OpenBoxes web interface, any integrations, and external API consumers.
| Plan | Monthly API Limit |
|---|---|
| Shared | 100,000 |
| Dedicated | 1,000,000 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
API call counts reset on the first of each month.
Usage Details
For a deeper view, go to Instance > Usage to see:
- Storage trend --- A chart showing storage growth over the past 30 days
- API calls trend --- Daily API call volume for the current billing period
- Peak usage --- Highest recorded usage for each metric
- Usage breakdown --- Which areas of OpenBoxes are consuming the most storage
Approaching Your Limits
Lift notifies you as you approach your plan's limits so you can take action before hitting a cap.
Warning Thresholds
| Usage Level | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 75% | An informational email is sent to account Admins |
| 90% | A warning email is sent and a banner appears in the portal |
| 100% | A critical alert is sent (see below for what happens next) |
What Happens at 100%
The behavior when you hit a limit depends on the resource:
Storage at 100%:
- Your OpenBoxes instance continues to function
- Write operations that would exceed the limit may fail
- You receive a notification to upgrade your plan or reduce data
- Existing data is never deleted
Users at 100%:
- Existing users continue to have full access
- You cannot invite new users
- Remove an existing user or upgrade your plan to add more
API calls at 100%:
- Requests continue to be processed (no hard cutoff)
- You receive a notification that you have exceeded your plan
- Consistently exceeding API limits may result in a request to upgrade
We do not hard-block your operations when limits are reached. The goal is to keep your supply chain running while giving you time to upgrade or adjust.
Alerts and Notifications
Lift sends notifications through two channels:
Email Notifications
Usage alerts are emailed to all account Admins. Notification types include:
| Notification | When Sent |
|---|---|
| Usage warning (75%) | Once per metric per billing period |
| Usage critical (90%) | Once per metric per billing period |
| Usage exceeded (100%) | Once per metric per billing period |
| Weekly usage summary | Every Monday (optional) |
| Monthly usage report | First of each month |
Portal Notifications
Critical alerts also appear as banners in the Lift portal. These banners persist until the usage issue is resolved (by upgrading your plan or reducing usage).
Configuring Notifications
To adjust which notifications you receive:
- Go to Settings > Notifications in the portal
- Toggle individual notification types on or off
- Click Save
Note that critical usage alerts (90% and above) cannot be disabled --- these are essential for keeping your instance running smoothly.
Monitoring for Dedicated and Enterprise
[Dedicated] [Enterprise]
Dedicated and Enterprise tiers include additional monitoring capabilities:
Instance Performance
- Response time --- Average response time for OpenBoxes requests
- Uptime --- Instance availability over the past 30 days
- Memory usage --- How much memory your instance is consuming
- CPU usage --- Processor utilization
Uptime History
View your instance's uptime history with a timeline showing:
- Periods of full availability
- Scheduled maintenance windows
- Any unplanned downtime events
This is useful for tracking against your plan's SLA commitment (99.5% for Dedicated, 99.9% for Enterprise).
Best Practices
- Review usage monthly. Check your usage trends each month to anticipate when you might need to upgrade.
- Enable the weekly summary. The weekly usage email helps you stay aware of trends without logging into the portal.
- Plan storage growth. If your storage is growing steadily, project when you will approach your limit and plan an upgrade in advance.
- Monitor API usage after adding integrations. External integrations (EDI, ERP connectors, etc.) can significantly increase API call volume.