The challenge is you will see an outcome(success or failure) only when the server is up and running. So, if you receive an email (success or failure) your server is at least working and when you don't receive anything you may conclude it is down.
Couple of suggestions:
- you can create a small script using SDK to do this pulse check and if it unable to reach server let the script send an email to you (search for SDK samples and you should find some simple ones to implement)
- You can schedule a very basic report(that may take <1 sec or so to refresh), so you don;t overload the server
- Consider upgrading your server to 4.1 which is far more stable and the glitch(es) might have got fixed in 4.1 SPx. check the issues fixed pdf document.
Regards,
Naras