ManageEngine® Applications Manager Real Browser Monitor
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Real Browser Monitor (RBM) provides live End-User experience measurement. RBM opens up a Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser and monitors a web application just like how a real user sees it. It supports playback from different geographical locations.
For eg., if you have different users logging in to your application from UK, US, Germany, Australia, etc. you can monitor their experience from a central Applications Manager Server. You could have the Applications Manager running in a data center in India and have the Real Browser Monitor agents deployed in other geographical locations and have it report Web Application Performance data to the central site. This way you can monitor the availability and performance of the website pages at different locations.
Components of RBM - Toolbar for Browser (Internet Explorer), EUM agent to be installed from where the "Internet Explorer" playback has to be performed and Applications Manager Server.
End User Monitoring(EUM) agents (separate .exe downloads) need to be installed in the client locations.
System requirement for the machine where EUM agent is to be deployed :
EUM agents have to be installed on a dedicated Windows Machine - 256 MB RAM, 1 GB HD, with Internet Explorer 6 or above. However, Applications Manager can be installed on Windows or Linux. This works with the Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition (with Managed Server).
EUM agents register to ManageEngine Applications Manager on startup. You need to specify the "host and Web Client Port" of Applications Manager the first time the agent is installed and running. The agents get listed automatically.
Using the RBM Toolbar you can record the required URL sequences and the actions that a typical end-user would access. The actions will be recorded as webscripts. The webscripts can be viewed in the webscript manager.
Real Browser monitor is created in Applications Manager server by calling the required webscripts and agents. The EUM agent will periodically check Applications Manager Server if RBM monitor has been configured for this agent. If available, the EUM agent will run the webscript associated, by invoking Internet Explorer. The recorded actions will be replayed in the browser. [Note: While playback is happening, do not close the Internet Explorer]. Once the playback is complete, EUM agent will update the results of the playback [response time, response code, etc] in Applications Manager.
Only one Internet Explorer used by EUM agent can run in the background / foreground while playback is in progress. This means only one transaction can be executing at a time. Applications Manager takes care of ensuring this synchronized playback.
The availability and performance of the websites are monitored in real time by using the Real Browser monitor. If the health of the URLs is critical, then alarms can be generated. Based on the alarms, the admin will fix the issue.
Monitoring End-User Experience with RBM Monitor
The availability and response time of the recorded URLs will be monitored according to the poll interval set. Alarms are configured based on threshold configurations. So, if the health of the URLs is critical, alarms will be generated.
The Availability tab gives the Availability history for the past 24 hours or 30 days. The Performance tab gives the Health history for the past 24 hours or 30 days and also the Total Response Time of the various monitors. The List view enables you to perform bulk admin configurations. Click on the individual monitors listed to view the following information:
Parameter |
Description |
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Name |
Denotes the name Real Browser Monitor |
Health |
Denotes the health (Clear, Warning, Critical) of the monitor based on its dependencies. |
Polling Interval |
Time set for the polling interval |
Agent |
Name of the EUM agent |
Script |
Name of the Webscript |
Availability | The current status of the monitor - whether up or down |
Validation | Results of the functions - Content Check, Element check will be updated for each URL. Content Check - You can validate a specific content in the page. Element Check - You can validate a specific element like Hyperlink in the page. |
Parameter | Description |
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Average Response Time |
The average response time for accessing an URL or total average response time of the URL Sequence (takes into account the avg.response time of the individual URLs in the Sequence) |
Current Response Time |
The current response time of the individual URL or the entire URL Sequence |
Parameter | Description |
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Current Page Size |
The current page size of the URL in bytes |
% Page Size Change |
The percentage change in current page size when compared to previous page size |
Previous Page Size | The page size of URL in the previous poll |
The RBM dashboard provides an overview of the status of your webscripts or transactions from multiple locations. If you click on the individual scripts listed, it will take you to a page which shows the following metrics:
This section provides a graphical representation of the total response time of the transaction across the different locations where the webscript is running.
This section provides a tabular representation of the current status and response time (in milliseconds) of the webscript from the locations where the script is running. The location showing maximum response time will be highlighted on the page. This indicates you the location from where the transaction is responding slow.
This section provides a good indication of how each individual url present within a transaction performs from different geographical locations. This section lists all the urls of the transaction and shows the response time of each url from multiple locations. The location from which the url has the maximum response time value will be highlighted. Click on any of the response time values listed to navigate to the 'Monitor Information' page of that particular url.
FAQ:
1. How does Real Browser monitor differ from URL Sequence monitor?
The URL sequence monitor supports only the recording of URL sequences and not the actions performed in the URLs. Also, RBM supports playback from different geographical locations unlike a URL sequence monitor.
See Also
Creating New Monitor - Real Browser Monitor
Web Server / Services |
HTTP URL Monitor |