ManageEngine® Applications Manager HTTP URL Monitors | ||
In an environment, where the downtime of any website applications and services can cause a negative impact on the business performance, problems must be accurately identified and solved.
Applications Manager acts as a continuous URL monitoring service that keeps constant watch over a specified URL or website page. 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.
Please go through the following sections to know about the configuration details.
To configure for URL monitoring, follow the given steps:
General
Monitor display name, URL address, polling interval and
timeout parameters are specified here
Display Name : Unique name to identify the monitor.
URL Address : The address of the site which needs to be monitored.
Polling
Interval : The data collection interval,i.e,
the time period between two consecutive checks,made by
APM, for the status of the site.
Timeout
: Specifies the connection timeout, i.e, the maximum
amount of time taken by APM to establish a connection with
the site.
HTTP Configuration
Connection related parameters are specified here
Form Submission Method : Specify the method to be used for connecting with the site, GET or POST. Default selection is GET.
Request Parameters :
The request parameters must be provided as name=value pair for POST and GET methods.
For example, if you want to monitor a URL of the format "http://appmanager:9090/showresource.do?haid=1&type=UrlMonitor&method=getMonitorForm", then provide "?haid=1&type=UrlMonitor&method=getMonitorForm" as the request parameters.
Basic/NTLM Authentication : Provide the Username and Password for URLs requiring Form-based authentication.
Error if Response Code is :
This
field allows you to place a conditional check on the
response code. If the specified criteria is met, an
alert is generated.
Enter the Response Code and comparision details by choosing them from the combo box.
By default, it is greater than 200. Hence, an alert is generated if the response code is greater than 200.
If monitor detects error, re-try immediately to verify error : Enabling this will ensure that the monitoring is automatically performed when it detects an error, i.e. when an error is detected, the monitor will be scheduled to run again immediately.
User Agent String : The User-Agent string specified here will be sent as a part of the request header information.
Custom HTTP Headers : Sometimes you might want to customize the default HTTP request header information. In such cases, the additional header information can be added here.
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"
Content Check
The criteria that the content of the URL page should adhere to are specified here.
Should contain :
Checks if the given text is present in the page content.
If you provide 2 words, the content match is performed separately for both the words. 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".
The check is not case sensitive by default (as of APM v12710). In order to perform a case sensitive check, enable the "Do case sensitive keyword search" option.
To perform a content search using a regular expression, enable the "Regular Expression" option.
Should not contain :
If a particular keyword or text should not be present in the page content, it can be specified here. If the text is present, an error is thrown.
Multiple keywords should be put within quotes. Otherwise, it will be treated as 'Any' one of the multiple keywords.
The check is not case sensitive by default (as of APM v12710). In order to perform a case sensitive check, enable the "Do case sensitive keyword search" option.
If you are adding a new monitor from an Admin Server, select a Managed Server.
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 We support NTLMv1 and NTLMv2 authenticated URLs. 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. |
You can use the Transaction Recorder Tool to record all user online transactions in their exact sequence. These transactions will then be replayed at regular intervals of time and notifications will be sent when any error is detected.
Browse through the following topics to use the Transaction Recorder tool:
Hardware/Software Requirements
Download and Installation
Recording a Sequence
Editing captured URL's
Saving a transaction
You must download and install the recorder tool to record the sequence of user transactions. Every step of the transaction will be captured and recorded. You also can modify or edit your transactions.
Hardware/Software Requirements
The Transaction Recorder is developed using the Microsoft .NET Platform version 2.0. This is the minimum software requirement. A minimum of 2 MB of disk space is also required for installing the software.
Download and Installation
Download the new Recorder and start the installation process. The installation wizard takes you through a four step process after which the Recorder will be started:
A welcome screen is displayed, after which you will be asked for confirmation of the license requirements. Click Yes.
After confirmation, a Chose Destination Location screen is displayed. The user is allowed to select the drive and directory where he wishes to install the Transaction Recorder. Click Browse and select the Destination Location. The default installation path is "C:\Program Files\Applications Manager\Transaction Recorder". Click Next.
Review the settings in the confirmation dialog and click Back if you wish to make changes. If not, click Next. The Recorder will be installed in your machine.
After the installation is completed, click Finish. Make sure the "Start Transaction Recorder" option is checked, if you would like to start the tool automatically after the installation is complete.
After installing, the Transaction Recorder can be accessed under All Programs in Windows Start Menu. You can record a new transaction following these steps:
Record the Sequence.
Click on the New button to start a new recording.
Enter the URL of the application you wish to monitor then press enter to load the corresponding web page.
Follow the sequence of steps that you wish to monitor.
After you have completed the sequence, click Preview & Save. A Login Credentials dialog box is displayed.
Provide the login credentials - Host Name, Port Number, User Name and Password. Check the Show Password checkbox to see the password. Click Close.
After successful login, a Preview Transaction screen will be displayed with a list of transaction steps and their corresponding URLs.
Filter URLs: In the Preview Transactions screen, click the Filter URL link on the top right corner to open a URL Filter Screen. URLs can be filtered based on the following three categories:
File Type / URL Extensions -- The captured URLs can be filtered based on their extensions. For example, .gif, png, jpg etc. for images, .js for scripts and more.
Content Type / MIME Type -- URLs can be filtered based on the MIME type like image, video, audio, text and application.
Domain Components -- You can also filter URLs based on the domains from which they originate. You have the option to include / exclude websites from a particular domain in the Domain Filter list.
Note: These domains are not stored for future references. You have to re-enter such preferences if you re-start the tool. |
You can add a new Extension, Content Type or Domain Component to the URL filter using the ADD button at the bottom of each list.
Move Up/ Move Down: Click on a URL to select it, then click Move Up or Move Down to move the url up or down the list of transaction steps.
Delete URL: Click on a URL from the list of transactions and click the Delete URL link on the top right corner to delete it.
Basic Configuration: You can edit basic URL details like URL link, Display name, header and post data by clicking the Basic tab at the bottom of the Preview Transaction screen.
Advanced Configuration:
Alert Configuration: You can configure the recorder such that alerts are generated when specific keywords are present/not present. Enter the keywords in the text boxes provided.
Basic Authentication Details: Enter Authentication details like username and password.
Response Code Configuration: You can configure the recorder to generate alerts if response time is greater than, equal to, not equal to, less than, less than or equal to a specified value.
After making all the required changes, click next to go to the save transactions screen.
Saving the transaction.
In the save transactions screen, you can configure or edit the following fields:
URL sequence name: The wizard generates a sequence name. You can edit the default sequence name.
Poll interval: Poll interval is the time in minutes between two consecutive attempts to check for each recorded URL.
Host name
Port number
Username and Password. (The username and password used for Applications Manager with administrative privilege should be used).
Click Save to save the changes.
You can modify an existing transaction
Click Re-record.
Record the Sequence.
Edit the captured URL's
Select the transaction which needs to be modified from the drop-down menu and the click Fetch URLs.
Click next to perform a side-by-side comparison of the list of old URL's and the list of newly recorded URL's.
Click Update to update the existing transaction with the currently recorded sequence in the server.
Note:
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Suppose your login page has hidden parameters that needs to be submitted while logging into your application and 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.
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' page and enter the parameters. Consider the following URL Sequence :
URL 1 : http://api.appmanager.com/oauth/token?client_id=32faff282a68a03c2eb0f41aeca63a88&grant_type=client_credentials&client_secret=9de7337627ab85f3
URL 2 : http://api.appmanager.com/bestoffer/97232/354992/offers.xml?access_token=fcdee0e94da9b934a4cef6c2dee70384
URL 3 : http://api.appmanager.com/selectoffer/97232/3549/offers.xml?access_token=fcdee0e94da9b934a4cef6c2dee70384
...
...
URL N : ...
In the above example access_token is a dynamic parameter whose value changes every time we login. In order to monitor the above sequence, follow the below mentioned steps :
Download the Transaction Recorder tool and record a new transaction sequence.
The recorder tool will have recorded all the steps along with dynamic request parameter for that session.
After adding the URL Sequence, click 'Edit Monitor' for the corresponding URL to enter the parameters.
In the Edit Monitor page, for the field 'Request Parameters (if any)' provide the dynamic request parameter as $parameter=TEXT:-:<parameter_name>:-:
For Eg - In URL 1: The 'parameter' is 'access_token' and 'parameter_name' is 'access_token='. So, for the text box correponding to the 'Request Parameters' provide $access_token=TEXT:-:access_token=:-: and save the page
Click 'Edit Monitor' for the second URL, remove the dynamic request parameter from the 'URL address' field and use the same parameter to fill the 'Request Parameters (if any)' field
For Eg - In URL 2: Edit http://api.appmanager.com/bestoffer/97232/354992/offers.xml?access_token=fcdee0e94da9b934a4cef6c2dee70384, remove the dynamic request parameter (access_token) and change the 'URL address' to http://api.appmanager.com/bestoffer/97232/354992/offers.xml?. Provide the 'Request Parameters' as $access_token=fcdee0e94da9b934a4cef6c2dee70384
Repeat the above steps for the rest of the URLs in the sequence where the dynamic parameter is present
So for every polling interval Applications Manager will search for this dynamically generated parameter and it will replace it.
See Also
Monitor Information - HTTP URL Monitors | Create Other New Monitors
File Directory Monitor |
Java Runtime Monitor |