Configuring Real User Monitoring
To configure RUM monitors, you have to download the DEM Collector (formerly RUM Agent) and install it in a location accessible to the website you want to monitor. Once the agent is enabled, it will collect performance data from the end users and transmit it to the Applications Manager server. This data will then be processed by Applications Manager and used to measure the digital user experience of the web applications in the Real User Monitor.
Browse through the following topics to learn more about configuring RUM:
Installing DEM Collector
To start Real User Monitoring, you must first install the DEM Collector. Please note that the DEM Collector will work only if the Applications Manager server is running.
Note:
- End users accessing the website monitored in Applications Manager should have access to the DEM Collector.
- The DEM Collector should be able to communicate with Applications Manager.
- For DEM Collector v1, whenever new RUM monitor is added or an existing RUM monitor is updated in Applications Manager, the DEM Collector should be restarted; ie. Stop the DEM Collector and execute the StartServer.bat or StartServer.sh again in terminal from the <DEM Collector Home> directory.
- Any configuration change in DEM Collector also requires a DEM Collector restart.
Windows
Follow the steps given below to install the DEM Collector in Windows systems:
- Download the DEM Collector (.exe) file for Windows.
- Execute the downloaded file. The installshield wizard will open up. Click Next to continue. Read the license agreement and click the Next button.
- Provide the location where the DEM Collector should be installed in your machine and click Next. Click Browse if you want to provide a different location of installation.
- Specify the name of the folder to be placed in Programs folder and click Next. Default name and location is ManageEngine\RUMAgent.
- 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.
- If you want to install DEM Collector as a service, select the Install Digital Experience Monitoring Collector as Service option and click Next. Please note that you need to have administrative privileges to install the DEM Collector as a service.
- In the final step of the installation wizard, option to Launch the Digital Experience Monitoring Collector 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 DEM Collector in Linux systems:
- Download the DEM Collector (.bin) file for Linux.
- Execute the downloaded file. The installshield wizard will open up. Click Next to continue. Read the license agreement and click the Next button.
- Provide the location where the DEM Collector should be installed in your machine and click Next. Click Browse if you want to provide a different location of installation.
- 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.
- Click Finish to complete the installation process.
Starting DEM Collector
Note:
You can check whether the DEM Collector is started or not by accessing the following URL from the browser:
<agentProtocol>://<agentHost>:<agentPort>
where,
<agentProtocol> - Protocol to establish connection with DEM Collector. (http or https)
<agentHost> - Hostname of the machine where DEM Collector is installed.
<agentPort> - Port in which the DEM Collector is running. To change the DEM Collector's default port, refer here.
- To change Application Manager's instance details in the DEM Collector after installation, refer here.
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 DEM Collector.
- Upon executing the command, the DEM Collector will be started and a new window will open in the browser displaying all DEM Collector related information such as it's 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: The above steps are for non-service installations alone. In the case of service installations, you can start the DEM Collector directly by starting the ManageEngine Digital Experience Monitoring Collector service from Windows services.
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 DEM Collector.
- Upon executing the command, the DEM Collector will be started and a new window will be opened in the browser displaying DEM Collector related information such as it's 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: To start DEM Collector as a Linux service: (Applicable only for DEM Collector version 4.4 and above)
- Go to <DEM Collector Home>/bin directory, execute the installService.sh file. On executing this file, ManageEngine Digital Experience Monitoring Collector service will be added in Linux Services and the startup type will be set as Automatic, by default. However, for installing DEM Collector as a service, you need to have root privileges in that system.
- Now, when you start a Linux system, DEM Collector will start automatically. You can swap between Automatic and Manual modes.
- To uninstall this service, go to <DEM Collector Home>/bin directory and execute the uninstallService.sh file.
Uninstalling DEM Collector
Note: Before uninstalling, exit the command prompt and close all the files and folders opened in the <DEM Collector Home> directory. If the DEM Collector is running, stop the agent before uninstalling it to remove all related files completely.
Windows
- If the DEM Collector is running, 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 - DEM Collector → Click Uninstall. Then follow the instructions shown on screen to uninstall the agent.
Linux
- If the DEM Collector is running, 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 <DEM Collector Home>/_Applications Manager - DEM Collector_installation directory and execute "./Change\ Applications\ Manager\ -\ DEM\ Collector\ Installation" and follow the process.
Creating a new Real User Monitor
Follow the steps given below to create a new Real User Monitor:
- Click on Add New Monitor link under New Monitor.
- Select Real User Monitor under Web Server/Services category.
- Enter the display name of the web application.
- Enter the Website URL to be monitored.
- Enter the Apdex Threshold response time (in milliseconds) used for calculating Apdex score and determining user experience.
- Select the Application Framework Type of the web application to be monitored. (Traditional or Single Page Application)
- Enable the Track Ajax calls checkbox to monitor the performance of Ajax calls.
- Enable the Track cross-domain Ajax calls checkbox to monitor the performance of Ajax calls to domains other than parent domain (external domains).
- 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)
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
- 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.
- 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.
- Choose the Associate monitor instance with DEM Collector option from the dropdown to associate monitor to specific DEM Collector, so that data collection will happen only in that agent.
- 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.
- Click on Add Monitor(s).
Upon adding the monitor, a script code will be generated in the Monitor Dashboard page under the 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. Learn more
<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 DEM Collector's host and port respectively. Finally, save the changes.
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 DEM Collector is 7070 (for HTTP) and 7443 (for HTTPS).
- The connectivity status between the DEM Collector and Applications Manager will be displayed in the DEM Collector web console.
- Real User Monitor does not show ISP details by default. A third-party geolocation API needs to be purchased and configured in DEM Collector to obtain ISP data. Learn more.
- For users with DEM Collector 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.
