ITRS Synthetic monitoring Technical Reference

Overview

ITRS Synthetic Monitoring (powered by Apica) allows you to monitor websites, web applications, and web services. The integration with Geneos enables you to retrieve all the checks and alert statistics configured in the Apica dashboard and display them as dataviews in Geneos.

The ITRS Synthetic Monitoring integration provides a Gateway configuration file that enables monitoring of the Apica environment through a set of pre-configured Toolkit samplers. The script can be configured by a set of environment variables and command line options.

This technical reference provides information on the metrics and dataviews for the samplers available through the integration. If you are setting up the integration for the first time, see the ITRS Synthetic Monitoring User Guide.

Audience

This technical reference is intended for users who will be using Active Console to monitor data from the Apica environment. If you are setting up the integration for the first time, see the ITRS Synthetic Monitoring User Guide.

Environment configuration

The default environment configuration is created by the apicaMonitoring.xml script. You can create a new environment or modify the default ApicaConfiguration environment variables according to your system.

Environment variables

The apicaMonitoring.xml script provides the variables that are set in the Environments section. They are configured to ensure that the integration monitors your target Apica environment.

Variable	Type	Description
APICA_USER	String	Username you are connecting with.
APICA_PASS	String	Password for the specified user.
APICA_SVR	String	Server you are connecting to.
PYTHON_PATH	String	Location of the sampler script. It can change depending on the environment.
GROUPNAME	String	Folder name of the dataview group.
APICA_SAMPLETIME	Integer	Amount of time for dataviews to resample (in seconds).

Command line options

Command line options can be used instead of, or along with, the Environment variables.

Option (long)	Option (short)	Type	Description
--user	-u	String	Username you are connecting with.
--password	-pw	String	Password for the specified user.
--server	-s	String	Server you are connecting to.

For example:

If you want to retrieve a particular group using a command line option:

$ ./scripts/Get_Apica_Checks.py -s <server> -u <username> -pw <password> -g YourGroup "GroupBAR"

If you want to retrieve a particular group using environment variables:

$ export APICA_SERVER=<server>
$ export APICA_USER=<username>
$ export APICA_PASS=<password>
$ export APICA_GROUP_A=YourGroup
$ export APICA_GROUP_FOO="GroupBAR"
$ ./scripts/Get_Apica_Checks.py

When you declare both groups and subgroups, the script iterates through each check group and looks for the specified subgroups. You can use environment variables or command line options for this.

Command line options:

$ ./scripts/Get_Apica_Checks.py -s <server> -u <username> -pw <password> \
-g YourGroup \
-sg YouSubGroup "SubGroup FOOBAR";

Environment variables:

$ export APICA_SERVER=<server>
$ export APICA_USER=<username>
$ export APICA_PASS=<password>
$ export APICA_GROUP_A=YourGroup
$ export APICA_SUBGROUP_A=YourSubGroup
$ export APICA_SUBGROUP_FOO="SubGroup FOOBAR"
$ ./scripts/Get_Apica_Checks.py

You can combine environment variables with the command line options:

$ export APICA_SERVER=<server>
$ export APICA_USER=<username>
$ export APICA_PASS=<password>
$ export APICA_GROUP_A=YourGroup
$ ./scripts/Get_Apica_Checks.py -g "GroupBAR" -sg "SubGroup FOOBAR"

Metrics and dataviews

The sections below list metrics and example dataviews available with the Synthetic Monitoring integration.

By default, the integration displays dataviews from the following samplers:

Apica-AllChecks
Apica-Severity.

Two additional dataviews are available when you set up the following samplers:

Apica-GroupChecks
Apica-SubGroupChecks.

If you want to drill down to more details of a metric, follow these steps:

Right-click a field with an information icon
Go to Knowledge base.
Click Apica Check Page.

You are redirected to Apica dashboard with the details of the selected metric.

Apica-AllChecks

This dataview displays all metrics of the configured checks from your Apica environment.

Headline field	Description
execDuration	Elapsed time for the Toolkit plug-in to run the script. Unit: seconds

Headline field

Description

execDuration

Elapsed time for the Toolkit plug-in to run the script.

Unit: seconds

Column Name	Description
enabled	Flag indicating whether the check is enabled or not. If the check is disabled, it will not run.
severity	Severity type. The following severities are available: I — Information W — Warning E — Error F — Fatal
sla_percent_current_month	SLA percentage for the specified time threshold, in this case current month.
name	Name of the check.
location	Country and city of origin for the check.
check_type_api	Check type API Example: browser
check_type_name	Check type name Example: Firefox
timestamp_utc	Time when the last check ran (UTC).
url	Target URL for the check.
message	Messages generated by the check.
value (unit)	Value returned for the check. The value and units depend on what is configured for the specific check (for example: total page size - bytes, total browser render time - milliseconds).
interval_seconds	Frequency of execution of the check. If checks are executed manually, the value is shown as 0.
attempts	Number of attempts that can be made to verify the results.
groups	Name of a group that is checked.
subgroups	Name of a subgroup that is checked.

Synthetic Monitoring Dataview - AllChecks

Apica-Severity

Headline field	Description
execDuration	Elapsed time for the Toolkit plug-in to run the script. Unit: seconds

Headline field

Description

execDuration

Elapsed time for the Toolkit plug-in to run the script.

Unit: seconds

Column Name	Description
Name (id)	Name of a group and subgroup. Subgroup names are indented.
Fatal	Number of alerts that are of Fatal severity type.
Error	Number of alerts that are of Error severity type.
Warning	Number of alerts that are of Warning severity type.
Information	Number of alerts that are of Information severity type.

Synthetic Monitoring Dataview - Severity

Apica-GroupChecks

This dataview displays all metrics of the configured checks relevant to the selected Groups.

Apica-GroupChecks sampler is configured using the same keys as Apica-AllChecks sampler. Refer to the Apica-AllChecks for more information.

By default, this sampler is not set up to display a dataview. You need to configure it to be able to view the metrics by associating it with a managed entity.

Synthetic Monitoring Dataview - GroupChecks

Apica-SubGroupChecks

This dataview displays all metrics of the configured checks relevant to the selected SubGroups.

Apica-SubGroupChecks sampler is configured using the same keys as Apica-AllChecks sampler. Refer to the Apica-AllChecks for more information.