Setting up Real User Monitoring

To configure RUM monitors, you have to download RUM agent and install it in a location such that it is accessible to the website you want to monitor. Once the agent is enabled, it will collect performance data from the end users and transmit them to the Applications Manager server. This data will then be processed by Applications Manager and used for measuring the digital user experience of the web applications in Real User Monitor.

Browse through the following topics to learn more about configuring RUM:

System Requirements

RUM Agent have to be installed on a dedicated Windows / Linux machine - 8 GB RAM. RUM Agent can work with the Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition (with Managed Server) of Applications Manager.

Following table shows the recommended configuration of the system to deploy RUM agent in both Professional Edition / Plugin Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition / Plugin Enterprise Edition :

OS No of Monitors Processor Memory Hard Disk
Windows (Windows 11/ 10 (or) Windows Server 2022/ 2019/ 2016/ 2012 R2) /
Linux (Cent OS 7/ CentOS Stream 8 and above/ Debian/ Fedora/ openSUSE/ Oracle Linux/ RHEL 7, 8 and 9/ SUSE Linux Enterprise/ Ubuntu 14 to 22)		 1 - 20 2 Core / 2.0 GHz and above 8 GB RAM 40 GB
 
Note:
  • Each Applications Manager instance can support upto 20 RUM Agents.
  • On an average, a single RUM Agent can efficiently manage 5000 page views per minute i.e. 200 million page views per month. This performance may vary based on the hardware specifications of the hosting server.

Installing RUM agent

To start Real User Monitoring, you have to install the RUM agent. Please note that the RUM agent will work only if the Applications Manager server is running.

Note:
  • End users accessing the website monitored in Applications Manager should have access to RUM Agent.
  • RUM Agent should be available on the internet and should be able to communicate with Applications Manager.
  • For RUM agent v1, whenever new RUM monitor is added or existing RUM monitor is updated in Applications Manager, RUM Agent should be restarted ie. Stop RUM Agent and execute the StartServer.bat or StartServer.sh again in terminal from <RUM Agent Home> directory.
  • Any configuration change in RUM Agent also requires a RUM agent restart.

Windows

Follow the steps given below to install the RUM agent in Windows systems:

  1. Download the RUM Agent (.exe) file for Windows.
  2. Execute the downloaded file. The installshield wizard will open up. Click Next to continue. Read the license agreement and click the Next button.
  3. Provide the location where the RUM Agent should be installed in your machine and click Next. Click Browse if you want to provide a different location of installation.
  4. Specify the name of the folder to be placed in Programs folder and click Next. Default name and location is ManageEngine\RUMAgent.
  5. Specify the details of your Applications Manager instance such as Hostname, SSL port, and RUM API Key (which is available under Settings → REST API → Real User Monitor). Click Next to proceed.
  6. If you want to install RUM Agent as a service, select the Install Real User Monitoring Agent as Service option and click Next. Please note that you need to have administrative privileges to install the RUM agent as a service.
  7. In the final step of the installation wizard, option to Launch the Real User Monitoring Agent Now will be available. Select the option if required. Click Finish to complete the installation process.

Linux

Follow the steps given below to install the RUM agent in Linux systems:

  1. Download the RUM Agent (.bin) file for Linux.
  2. Execute the downloaded file. The installshield wizard will open up. Click Next to continue. Read the license agreement and click the Next button.
  3. Provide the location where the RUM Agent should be installed in your machine and click Next. Click Browse if you want to provide a different location of installation.
  4. Specify the details of your Applications Manager instance such as Hostname, SSL port, and RUM API Key (which is available under Settings → REST API → Real User Monitor). Click Next to proceed.
  5. Click Finish to complete the installation process.

Starting RUM agent

Windows

  • Open command terminal from the newly-installed <RUMAgent_Home> directory. (Eg: C:\Program File\ManageEngine\RUMAgent)
  • Execute the StartServer.bat command in the terminal to start the RUM Agent.
  • Upon executing the command, the RUM agent will be started and a new window will be opened in the browser displaying RUM Agent information such as agent version, hostname, port, and the connectivity status of the agent with the Applications Manager console.
  • You can stop the agent by executing the StopServer.bat -force command from command prompt.
Note:
  • Above steps are for non-service installations alone. In the case of Service installations, you can start the RUM agent directly by starting the ManageEngine Real User Monitoring Agent service from Windows services.
  • For users with Applications Manager v16200 and below, you can check whether the RUM Agent is started or not by acccessing the following URL from the browser:

    <agentProtocol>://<agentHost>:<agentPort>

    where,
    <agentProtocol> - Protocol to establish connection with RUM Agent. (http or https)
    <agentHost> - Hostname of the machine where RUM Agent is installed.
    <agentPort> - Port in which the RUM Agent is running. To change the RUM agent's default port, refer here.

  • In case you want to change Application Manager's instance details in RUM Agent after installation, refer here.

Linux

  • Open command terminal from the newly-installed <RUMAgent_Home> directory. (Eg: \home\test\ManageEngine\RUMAgent)
  • Execute the sh StartServer.sh command in the terminal to start the RUM Agent.
  • Upon executing the command, the RUM agent will be started and a new window will be opened in the browser displaying RUM Agent information such as agent version, hostname, port, and the connectivity status of the agent with the Applications Manager console.
  • You can stop the agent by executing the sh StopServer.sh -force command from command terminal.
Note:
  • For users with Applications Manager v16200 and below, you can check whether the RUM Agent is started or not by acccessing the following URL from the browser:

    <agentProtocol>://<agentHost>:<agentPort>

    where,
    <agentProtocol> - Protocol to establish connection with RUM Agent. (http or https)
    <agentHost> - Hostname of the machine where RUM Agent is installed.
    <agentPort> - Port in which the RUM Agent is running. To change the RUM agent's default port, refer here.

  • In case you want to change Application Manager's instance details in RUM Agent after installation, refer here.

Uninstalling RUM agent

Note: Before uninstalling, exit out of the command prompt and close all the files and folders opened in the <RUM Agent Home> directory. If the RUM agent is running, you should stop the agent before uninstalling it to remove all files completely.

Windows

  • If the RUM agent is running, you should stop the agent before uninstalling it. You can stop the agent by executing the StopServer.bat -force command from command prompt.
  • Open Control Panel → Uninstall Program → right click on Applications Manager - RUM Agent → Click Uninstall. Then follow the instructions shown on screen to uninstall the agent.

Linux

  • If the RUM agent is running, you should stop the agent before uninstalling it. You can stop the agent by executing the sh StopServer.sh -force command from command terminal.
  • Open terminal from <RUM Agent Home>/_Applications Manager - RUM Agent_installation directory and execute "./Change\ Applications\ Manager\ -\ RUM\ Agent\ Installation" and follow the process.

Creating a new Real User Monitor

Follow the steps given below to create a new Real User Monitor:

  1. Click on Add New Monitor link under New Monitor.
  2. Select Real User Monitor under Web Server/Services category.
  3. Enter the display name of the web application.
  4. Enter the Website URL to be monitored.
  5. Enter the Apdex Threshold response time (in milliseconds) used for calculating Apdex score and determining user experience.
  6. Select the Application Framework Type of the web application to be monitored. (Traditional or Single Page Application)
  7. Enable the Track Ajax calls checkbox to monitor the performance of Ajax calls.
  8. Enable the Track cross-domain Ajax calls checkbox to monitor the performance of Ajax calls to domains other than parent domain (external domains).
  9. Enter the domain names wherein you do not want to track or monitor your website's performance under Domains to exclude. You can add multiple domains, if required. (Eg: zoho.com)
  10. Specify the User agents to excludeby entering the Browser name, OS or the complete string mentioned in the following format:
    Examples:
    • Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64)
    • AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko)
    • Chrome/68.0.3440.106 Safari/537.36
  11. Enable the Track Resource Performance checkbox to capture individual resources and group them as first party, third party and CDN resources. By default, Applications Manager does not capture website resources.
  12. Enable the Affect monitor availability in idle state checkbox for the monitor availability to be affected when the monitor has not polled data for more than the idle time value specified in the option Real User Monitor allowed idle time under Settings → Availability Settings.
  13. Choose the Associate monitor instance with RUM Agent option from the dropdown to associate monitor to specific RUM Agent, so that data collection will happen only in that agent.
  14. Choose the Monitor Group from the combo box with which you want to associate Real User Monitor (optional). You can choose multiple groups to associate your monitor.
  15. Click Add Monitor(s).

Upon adding the monitor, a script code will be generated in the Monitor Dashboard page under Copy Script tab. Copy and paste the following script code to the header or footer of the index page or a common page of your application or website which you would like to monitor.

<agentProtocol>://<agentHost>:<agentPort>/RUMScript.js?appKey=','apmr','oY3zeVg61GSpN0TMKaeRxyLfub2Ih9sG10000234)

In the copied script, replace <agentProtocol> with http or https, then replace the <agentHost> and <agentPort> with RUM agent's host and port respectively. Finally, save the changes and start/restart the RUM agent.

The RUM monitor you added will appear on the main RUM dashboard and data collection will begin when the website is accessed. Use the option provided in the Copy Script tab in the monitor's dashboard to verify whether the RUM Script is injected in your application or not.

Learn more about the metrics shown in RUM monitor dashboard

Note:
  • Default port numbers for accessing RUM agent is 7070 (for HTTP) and 7443 (for HTTPS).
  • The connectivity status between the RUM Agent and Applications Manager will be displayed in the RUM Agent web console.
  • Real User Monitor does not show ISP details by default. A third-party geolocation API needs to be purchased and configured in RUM agent to obtain ISP data. Learn more.
  • For users with RUM Agent v1, a restart of the agent will be required in the following cases:
    • Any change in Application Framework Type, Track Ajax calls, Track cross-domain Ajax calls, Domains to exclude, User agents to exclude, and Track resource performance values.
    • Whenever RUM monitor is added or updated in Applications Manager.