# Heartbeat plugin installation

<!-- Version variant: heartbeats_5; default: [/monitoring/heartbeats/install-plugin.md](/monitoring/heartbeats/install-plugin.md) -->


> [!NOTE]
> This plugin can be enabled and configured with the [ServicePlatform Connector plugin](/platform/connecting.md).

To install the heartbeat plugin in an endpoint, reference the [NServiceBus.Heartbeat NuGet package](https://www.nuget.org/packages/NServiceBus.Heartbeat/) and configure the endpoint to send heartbeats:

<!-- snippet: HeartbeatsNew_Enable -->

```cs
var endpointConfiguration = new EndpointConfiguration("MyEndpoint");
endpointConfiguration.SendHeartbeatTo(
    serviceControlQueue: "ServiceControl_Queue",
    frequency: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(15),
    timeToLive: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
```

<!-- endsnippet -->

> [!NOTE]
> `ServiceControl_Queue` is a placeholder for the name of the [ServiceControl Error instance input queue](/servicecontrol/queues.md#error-instance-input-queue). The name of the ServiceControl input queue matches the [ServiceControl instance name](/servicecontrol/servicecontrol-instances/configuration.md#host-settings-servicecontrolinstancename) configured in the ServiceControl Management application.

### Heartbeat interval

The plugin sends heartbeat messages with a default frequency of 10 seconds. As shown above, the frequency may be overridden for each endpoint.

> [!NOTE]
> The frequency must be lower than the [`HeartbeatGracePeriod`](/servicecontrol/servicecontrol-instances/configuration.md#plugin-specific-servicecontrolheartbeatgraceperiod) in ServiceControl.

### Time-To-Live (TTL)

The plugin sends heartbeat messages with a default TTL of four times the frequency. As shown above, the TTL may be overridden for each endpoint. See the documentation for [expired heartbeats](expired-heartbeats.md) for more information.

### Identifying scaled-out endpoints

When the heartbeat plugin is installed in a scaled-out endpoint, each endpoint instance must be configured with a unique [host identifier](/nservicebus/hosting/override-hostid.md). The identifiers are used by ServiceControl to keep track of all instances and to identify which instance sent a given heartbeat message.