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:

  1. Right-click a field with an information icon
  2. Go to Knowledge base.
  3. 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

 

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.

Apica-Severity

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.

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.

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.

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.

Further reading

To learn more about setting up the Synthetic Monitoring samplers on a Gateway, see the ITRS Synthetic Monitoring User Guide.