ManageEngine® Applications Manager Chapter 5.8 HTTP URL Monitors |
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In an environment, where downtime of any website applications and services can cause negative impact on the business performance, problems must be accurately identified and solved. Applications Manager acts as a continuous URL monitoring service that keeps a constant watch over the specified URL or website pages. They test the website applications and web services to ensure that they are functioning properly.
URL monitors verify the availability of specified, addressable, standard HTTP and HTTPS URLs. They scan the HTTP and HTTPS pages looking for a predefined keyword to check whether the website is available.
There are two ways of URL monitoring provided by Applications Manager.
The difference between the two types of monitoring is that URL Monitoring monitors single HTTP and HTTPS URL, whereas URL sequence monitors a set of HTTP and HTTPS URLs in sequence. Also, any HTTP and HTTPS URL can be monitored using URL Monitoring.
Note: Get to know how URL monitors can be used for monitoring Response Time across multiple locations - Blog
Please go through the following sections to know about the configuration details.
To configure for URL monitoring, follow the given steps:
Select New Monitor. Choose HTTP-URLs.
Provide any display name for the HTTP-URL monitoring.
Provide the HTTP/HTTPS URL address, you want to monitor.
Enter any keyword as
match content. The URL monitoring
searches the keyword in the content of the URL page to check the availability
of the URL. This is optional.
Note: The content search is case-sensitive. If you provide 2
words, the content match is performed for the words separately. For example,
if you specify the content as applications
manager, the match is found for applications
and manager
separately. If you need the content match to be performed for the complete
text, specify the 2 words in quotes, example "applications
manager".
Provide the polling interval for which Applications Manager updates the status of the monitor.
Choose between the Post and Get, which are the two types of Form method for any HTTP/HTTPS URL.
Click Add URL Monitor to initiate monitoring of the specified URL.
Apart from the basic URL Monitoring, Applications Manager also provides you with advanced options that furnish effective and more flexible URL Monitoring. This is optional and you need to choose these options only if the HTTP/ HTTPS URL requires Form-based authentication.
Provide the request parameters,
if any. The request parameters must be provided as name=value pairs for
Post and Get methods.
For example, if you want to monitor a URL like, http://appmanager:9090/showresource.do?haid=1&type=UrlMonitor&method=getMonitorForm,
then provide "?haid=1&type=UrlMonitor&method=getMonitorForm"
as request parameter.
Enter a keyword which when matches with the content in the URL must be notified of error in Error If Match field. Note: The search is case sensitive. Multiple keywords should be put within quotes. Otherwise, it will be treated as 'Any' one of the multiple keywords.
Enter the Response Code details by choosing them from the combo box. By default, it is greater than 200. Hence the error will be notified once the criteria mentioned are met.
Enter the time, in minutes, for which the URL monitor should wait for a page to complete downloading before timing out in Time out field.
Check "If monitor detects error, re-try immediately to verify error", where the monitoring is automatically performed when it detects an error, i.e. when an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.
Provide the User name and password, if the URL requires Form-based authentication.
Note: To monitor NTLM authenticated URLs, copy the cryptix-jce-provider.jar from http://www.cryptix.org/cryptix-jce-20050328-snap.zip to <AppMgr Home>\lib\ext. Restart Applications Manager. |
The purpose of URL Sequence is to monitor multiple web pages of an online application. It checks pages with dynamically generated information enhancing interactive transactions such as logging into a login page, creating an account using a web form, instructing the application to perform some action, etc.
URL Sequencing starts with a specific URL such as the Login page and then followed by additional links/URL in it. The URL Sequence monitoring thus performs end-to-end verification of particular transactions helping you to troubleshoot any problems while monitoring.
Note: If you are connecting to an URL using a proxy server, then you must configure proxy to initiate the URL sequence monitoring. Refer to the Configuring Proxy section of Performing Admin Activities, for further details. |
There are two methods to configure a URL Sequence,
You can use the recorder.exe that is bundled with Applications Manager to automatically configure the URL Sequence. Recorder.exe is found under the /bin directory.
On running the exe, the URL Sequence Recorder console and Control Panel is opened up. Follow the steps given below to configure the URL Sequence:
Enter the URL address that you want to monitor and click on 'Go'.
Via the UI, Click on the sequences that you want to monitor.
Click on Save Sequence , once you are finished with the sequence. This will save the URL Sequence in Applications Manager.
Enter the URL SequenceName.
Enter the Polling Interval. The default is 5 minutes.
Enter the Host and Port number of Applications Manager.
Enter the user and password of Applications Manager.
You can view the newly created URL Sequence in the Applications Manager Web Client.
Control Panel:
You can edit the URL Sequence with the help of Control Panel. The Control
Panel lists down all the recorded URLs in the particular Sequence.
Deletion of recorded URLS is possible using the del key.
Label:
Select any URL and enter the URL Label with which the URL would be identified, under URL Details.
Alarm Mechanism:
Alarms would be generated if you select the three options given
if the following keywords are found: Enter the keywords associated with the URL, the presence of those would trigger an alarm. For e.g., ErrorCode
if the following keywords are not found: Enter the keywords associated with the URL, the absence of those would trigger an alarm
if response code is: Select the response code for which alarm should be generated.
Basic Authentication:
If the URLs require basic authentication, then enter the Username and Password.
2. Creating a new HTTP-URL Sequence monitor through Applications Manager webclient:
Select New Monitor. Choose HTTP-URL Sequence.
Provide any Display Name for the URL sequence monitoring.
Enter the URL Address of a web page such as the Login page of a website.
Enter any html
content that is used to check the availability of the URL. This
is optional.
Note: The content search is
case-sensitive. If you provide 2 words, the content match is performed
for the words separately. For example, if you specify the content as applications manager, the match is found
for applications and manager
separately. If you need the content match to be performed for the complete
text, specify the 2 words in quotes, example "applications
manager".
Provide the polling interval time for which Applications Manager updates the status of the monitor.
Provide the Form Submission Method. You can provide Post or Get request parameters for the URL.
Click Add URL to start monitoring the specified URL. This opens a screen listing the previous URL address and you can configure for the next URL. The details are given below:
Choose any of the
4 options of Links, Forms, Frames, and Other URLs. The details are given
below:
Link: This lists all the available links/URLs in the starting
or Login page URL in a combo box.
Form: This lists all the names of Form type available in
the Login page URL in a combo box. The required parameters of the form
will be listed for input values in a text box provided below the combo
box. Fill the parameters with value.
Frame: This lists all the frames of the URL being monitored,
in a combo box. Select the URL of the frame.
Other: You can enter the URL you want to request along with
any name-value pairs needed to get to the next sequence step, even if
those values are available through some other page element (such as a
form).
Click either Add URL, if you want to continue the sequence. Click Add URL and Finish to add the URL and finish the sequence. Click Finish to complete the URL Sequence monitoring without adding the current sequence. The URL Sequence is a repetitive process depending on the number of web pages and actions, and you have to follow the above step 1 and step 2 to complete the sequence.
URL Sequence Monitoring also has advanced options that need to be followed for URLs with Form-based authentication. Refer to the steps (2-6) of URL Monitoring Advanced Options to know details on advanced options.
Note: If you would like to set User Agent for monitoring URL sequence, add the following key in AMServer.Properties file located in your Applications Manager installation folder.
Example: am.httpclient.useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Q312461; SV1)
Save the file and restart Applications Manager for the changes to take effect. |
Monitoring Dynamic URLs:
For Eg., If your login page has some hidden parameter that needs to be submitted while logging into your application and also the value for the hidden parameter is different for each login request. In this case, the hidden parameter value in the login page needs to be fetched dynamically and passed to the subsequent URL. For monitoring these kind of dynamic URL Sequences, you can use $<Parameter name> [eg., $sessionID = 12] in the Request Parameter text box of the URL. So, while monitoring the URL Sequence, $<Parameter name> will fetch the dynamic values and pass it to the next URL in the sequence. Note: While using the Recorder tool, you cannot specify the parameters in the Request Parameter text box, so instead, after adding the URL Sequence, go to corresponding URL's 'Edit Monitor' and enter the parameters.
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See Also
Monitor Information - HTTP URL Monitors | Create Other New Monitors
Servers |
Oracle EBS Monitor |