• Article

Web Application Availability Monitoring Template

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, System Center 2012 - Operations Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Operations Manager

The Web Application Availability Monitoring template lets you create availability monitoring tests for one or more web application URLs and run these monitoring tests from internal locations. In addition to state and alert views, you can display the status of these tests in a provided map dashboard and a details dashboard.

Scenarios

Use the Web Application Availability Monitoring template in scenarios where you have to monitor web-based applications from different locations to see if they are working according to certain requirements, which you can specify.

Internal Locations

You might have web applications that must be available at all times at internal locations. Use the Web Application Availability Monitoring template to see which web applications are available from which internal locations.

Monitoring Performed by the Web Application Availability Monitoring Template

By default, the Web Application Availability Monitoring template configures the following monitoring by default. You can modify the monitor in the Change Configuration page of the Web Application Availability Monitoring template.

Monitor description

Default values

Web Application Monitor

  • The monitor is enabled by default.

  • Test Frequency: 10 minutes

  • Performance data collection interval: 1 every 10 minutes

  • Test time-out: 45 seconds

  • HTTP status code: 400 (An alert will be generated if the HTTP status code is 400 or greater.)

  • Number of consecutive times a criteria should fail before an alert is generated: 1

  • Generate alerts from each test: enabled

  • Allow redirects: enabled

  • HTTP version: HTTP/1.1

  • HTTP method: GET

  • HTTP headers: accept “/”

  • HTTP headers: accept language of your product

  • HTTP headers: accept encoding GZIP

Performance Data Collection

  • Transaction response time: enabled

  • Response time: enabled

  • TCP connect time: enabled

  • Time to first byte: enabled

  • Time to last byte: enabled

  • DNS resolution time: enabled

  • Content size: enabled

  • Content time: enabled

  • Download time: enabled

Viewing Monitoring Data

All data collected by the Web Application Availability Monitoring template appears in the Web Application Availability Monitoring folder in the Application Monitoring folder in the Monitoring navigation pane. The Application Availability Monitoring folder contains the default views and subfolders that provide Test State, Web Application Status, and alerts related to the tests being monitored. By using the Test State view, you can see the test state of the individual tests. The state of each object matches the state of the targeted object that has the worst health state so that you see the worst state of the monitors that are running. If one or more of the tests are shown with an error while at least one other test is healthy, it could indicate a problem for that particular test location. If all of the components are unhealthy, it could indicate a problem with the web application itself.

Web Application Availability Monitoring folder

Web Application Availability Monitoring folder

To view the state of the individual monitors, open the Health Explorer for each test.

Wizard Options

When you run the Web Application Availability Monitoring template, you have to provide values for options as listed in the following tables. Each table represents a single page in the wizard.

General

General page

The following options are available on the General page of the wizard.

Option

Description

Name

Enter the friendly name used for the template and test group that you are creating. This name is displayed in the Operations Console in the Web Application status view and is used for the folder under the Web Application Availability Monitoring folder.

Note

After you have given the template a name and saved the template, this name cannot be edited without deleting and re-creating the template.

Description

Describe the template. (Optional)

Select destination management pack

Select the management pack to store the views and configuration created by the template. Use the same name for your new management pack as the test group so you can easily pair the two names. You can use an existing management pack or create a new management pack.

For more information about management packs, see Selecting a Management Pack File.

What to Monitor

What to Monitor page

Add URLs to the list by typing, pasting, or importing a file into the table, including the appropriate protocol (http:// or https://). You can paste entire rows as pairs of comma-separated values (CSV) that are in the format ‘Name, URL’, or you can paste just the list of URLs.

The following options are available on the What to Monitor page of the wizard.

Option

Description

Name

Name of the website you want to monitor.

URL

URL of the website you want to monitor in the format: http://www.website.com

Add

Add URLs to monitor from an external file. You can paste a list of URLs or rows of a spreadsheet as pairs of comma-separated values that are in the format: Name, URL

Where to Monitor From

Where to Monitor From page

Select the internal locations from which you want the URLs to be monitored.

The following options are available on the Where to Monitor From page of the wizard.

Option

Description

Internal locations

The internal locations you are configuring to monitor from.

Add/Remove

Add or remove internal locations you want to monitor from.

Select Internal Locations

Select internal locations page

Select the internal locations from which you want to monitor the URLs you specified on the What to Monitor page. Click Add to add internal locations and then search for and select the internal locations that you want to monitor from.

The following options are available on the Select internal locations page of the wizard.

Option

Description

Search for

Option showing the kind of locations you search will look for. You can choose agents or pools.

Filter by part of name

Filter your search of internal locations.

Search

Search for locations that are available to monitor from. Available locations are displayed in the in the Location area.

Where to monitor: Name

List of the internal locations from which you can select to monitor from.

Where to monitor: Location

Add

Add the internal locations you have selected to the Selected locations area. These are the locations you are configuring the wizard to monitor from.

Selected locations: Name

These are the internal locations you have chosen to monitor from.

Selected locations: Location

List of the locations you have chosen to monitor from.

View and Validate Tests

View and Validate Tests page

This is a summary of all tests that will be run. Select an internal location and click Run Test to validate the test configuration. Select Change configuration to change the default settings for all tests in this template.

The following options are available on the View and Validate Tests page of the wizard.

Option

Description

Look for

Search for and returns results for items in the list of test names, URLs, Locations, and Agent/Pools. Use this to find specific tests or sets of tests that you want to validate.

Test Name

Name of a test.

URL

URL for a specific test.

Agent/Pool

The Agent or Pool location for your internal URL tests.

Run Test

Run a validation test for internal tests that are selected.

Change Configuration

Open the Change Configuration page where you can change the settings for all tests in the template you are authoring.

Test Results: Summary Tab

Test Results Summary tab

The following options are available on the Test Results Summary tab of the wizard.

Option

Description

Summary tab

Confirms if the test request was correctly processed and shows the URL and Location used in the test. Additionally. The specific tests and results are shown: Status code, DNS resolution time, and Total response time.

Test Results: Details Tab

Test Results Details tab

The following options are available on the Test Results Details tab of the wizard.

Option

Description

Details tab: URL

See detailed information about the test. Displays which URL was tested.

Details tab: Result

Displays whether the test request was processed successfully or not.

Details tab: DNS resolution time (milliseconds)

Displays the DNS resolution time which checks that website performs as you expected it to. What’s the IP address of the URL you are. Time it takes for DNS to get the IP address for the website.

Details tab: Total response time (milliseconds)

Displays the Total response time from same as transaction time performance counter.

Details tab: HTTP status code

Displays the HTTP status code when you ping a website, you get a status code.

Details tab: Response body size (bytes)

Displays the Response body size of the HTTP response information.

Details tab: Server certificate expiration (days)

Displays the certificate expiration of the date when the site expired. Website can have expired certificates.

Test Results: HTTP Request Tab

Test Results HTTP Request tab

The following options are available on the Test Results HTTP Request tab of the wizard.

Option

Description

HTTP Request tab

Displays details about the HTTP request of the test what is sent to the website.

Test Results: HTTP Response Tab

Test Results HTTP Response tab

The following options are available on the Test Results HTTP Response tab of the wizard.

Option

Description

What is shown on this tab

Displays details about the HTTP Response for the test comes back from website.

Test Results: Raw Data Tab

Test Results Raw Data tab

The following options are available on the Test Results Raw Data tab of the wizard.

Option

Description

What is shown on this tab

Displays all of the data unformatted that we get back from the site. If there’s a problem with the website, this information might help you figure out what might be wrong with the website.

Change Configuration for Test Set

Change Configuration for Test page (top)

Change Configuration for Test page (bottom)

The following options are available on the Change Configuration for Test Set page of the wizard.

Important

Settings on this page apply to all tests in the template.

Option

Description

Test Frequency/Performance Data Collection Interval: Test frequency

Enter the how often you want to run each test.

Test Frequency/Performance Data Collection Interval: Performance data collection interval

Enter the frequency with which you want to collect performance data. This specifies whether you want to collect performance data every interval or not. For example, if the interval is 10 minutes and the collection interval is set to 2, this means that performance data will be collected every other interval, or once every 20 minutes.

Test Frequency/Performance Data Collection Interval: Test time-out

Enter how long you want the test to keep a request active until the test times out and cancels.

Alerts: Criteria for error health state: Transaction response time

Specify if transaction response time is a factor that should or should not generate an error health state. If it is specified to generate an error health state, set the threshold in seconds that a transaction must exceed before it generates an error health state.

Alerts: Criteria for error health state: Request (Base page): HTTP status code

Specify if the HTTP status code is a factor that should or should not generate an error health state. If it is specified to generate an error health state, set the HTTP status code to the number for which you want it to generate an error health state.

Alerts: Criteria for error health state: Request (Base page): Content match

Specify if any content matches should or should not generate an error health state. If it is specified to generate an error health state, specify the content you wish to match.

Alerts: Criteria for error health state: Request (Base page): Check for redirects

Specify if the presence of redirects should or should not generate an error health state.

Alerts: Criteria for warning health state: Transaction response time

Specify if the transaction response time is a factor that should or should not generate a warning health state. If it is specified to generate warning health state, set the threshold in seconds that a transaction must exceed before it generates a warning health state.

Alerts: Criteria for warning health state: Request (Base page): HTTP status code

Specify if the HTTP status code should or should not generate a warning health state. If it is specified to generate warning health state, set the HTTP status code to the number for which you want it to generate a warning health state.

Alerts: Criteria for warning health state: Request (Base page): Content match

Specify if any content matches should or should not generate a warning health state. If it is specified to generate a warning health state, specify the content you wish to match.

Alerts: Criteria for warning health state: Request (Base page): check for redirects

Specify if the presence of redirects should or should not generate a warning health state.

Alerts: Number of consecutive time a criteria should fail before an alert is generated

Specify the number of consecutive times selected criteria in the Alerts section list should fail before an alert is generated.

Alerts: Generate alerts from each test

Select to receive an alert for each URL test for an application.

Alerts: Generate a single summary alert

Select to receive a summary alert for an application, rather than choosing to receive an alert for each URL test for an application. This is helpful if you are monitoring a vertical website or an application because this will reduce the number of alerts you receive and keep the focus of your alerts the overall state of the application.

You can further reduce alerts by raising the threshold for how many failures you want to have before receiving an alert. Together, these two approaches will focus your alerts on what is most important to you: How well the application is running, given the performance you require.

Performance Collection: Transaction response time

Cumulative response time: DNS_RESOLUTION_TIME + TCP_CONNECT_TIME + TIME_TO_LAST_BYTE

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): Response time

Processing time for the request, such as opening a browser and waiting for all resources to load.

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): TCP connect time

Time taken to establish a TCP connection to the target server and receive the initial greeting from the service.

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): Time to first byte

Time take since the TCP connection is established till the first byte of response is received.

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): Time to last byte

Time from when TCP connection is established until the last byte of response is completely received.

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): DNS resolution time

Time taken to resolve the URL domain name to the IP address.

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): Content size

Size of the response body received.

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): Content time

Base page download time (base page only).

Performance Collection: Request (Base page): Download time

Processing time for the request, such as opening a browser and waiting for all resources to load.

General Configuration: Evaluate resource health

Specify whether to evaluate the health of the entire resource.

General Configuration: Allow redirects

Specify if redirects can be allowed and not cause an error or warning state.

General Configuration: HTTP version

Specify the HTTP version being tested.

General Configuration: HTTP method

Specify the HTTP method.

General Configuration: Request body

HTTP Headers: Headers column

Specify which headers can be accepted.

HTTP Headers: Value column

Specify the value in the header that can be accepted.

HTTP Headers: Add

Add header names and values that can be accepted.

HTTP Headers: Edit

Opens the HTTP Header Properties page where you can change the Name or Value of the selected HTTP headers.

HTTP Headers: Remove

Removes selected header from the accepted list.

Proxy Server: Use a proxy server

Specify whether to use a proxy server.

Proxy Server: Address

Specify the address of the proxy server.

Proxy Server: Port number

Specify the port number.

Summary

Summary page

The Summary page of the wizard lists the settings you have configured for the Web Application Availability Monitoring template. If you want to change any of these settings, click Previous or the template page until you reach the page with the settings that you want to change.

Creating and Modifying Web Application Availability Monitoring Templates

For the procedure to run the .NET Application Performance Monitoring wizard, see How to Configure Web Application Availability Monitoring

To modify an existing Web Application Availability Monitoring template

  1. Open the Operations console with a user account that has Author credentials in the management group.

  2. Click the Authoring workspace.

  3. In the Authoring navigation pane, expand Management Pack Templates, and then select Web Application Availability Monitoring.

  4. In the Web Application Availability Monitoring pane, locate the template you want to change.

  5. Right-click the test group that you want to modify, and then select Properties.

  6. Using the tabs to navigate the pages of settings, make the desired changes, such as reconfiguring criteria for tests in this group, and then click OK.

Viewing Web Application Availability Monitoring Monitors and Collected Data

After you configure monitoring for an application, these three views will help you get started with the monitoring experience.

To view all Web Application Availability Monitoring monitored applications

  1. Open the Operations console.

  2. Click the Monitoring workspace.

  3. In the Monitoring navigation pane, expand Application Monitoring, expand Web Application Availability Monitoring, and then click Web Application Status.

To view the state of each monitor

  1. Open the Operations console.

  2. Click the Monitoring workspace.

  3. In the Monitoring navigation pane, expand Application Monitoring, expand Web Application Availability Monitoring, and then click Test State.

  4. In the Test State view, right-click an object. Select Open, and then click Health Explorer.

To view the performance collected for an application component

  1. Open the Operations console.

  2. Click the Monitoring workspace.

  3. In the Monitoring navigation pane, expand Application Monitoring, expand Web Application Availability Monitoring, and then click Web Application Status.

  4. In the Test State pane, right-click an object. Select Open, and then click Performance View.

  5. In the Legend pane, select the counters that you want to view.

  6. Use options in the Actions pane to modify the Performance view.