Configuration Options for Synthetic Tests

Dynamic Test

Basic Configuration Options

Configuration OptionRequired / OptionalDescription

Test Name

Required

An optional field for a user-defined name. If left blank, the URL/Target field value will be used.

Target

Required

The name of the application on which the test is configured. The options include:

  • Webex

  • Microsoft Teams

  • Zoom

The option Zoom also includes Zoom Rooms. For Zoom Rooms application running on a Windows/macOS device, the agent (version 1.141 or later) will automatically activate the automated session tests.

How often should we run tests?

Required

The frequency of the test should be run. The default is one minute.

Which agents should we send data from?

Required

The agents the test should be run on. There are three options available:

  • All Agents: The test is assigned to all available agents.

  • Specific Agents: The test is assigned to user-defined agents.

  • Agent Labels: The agent is assigned based on pre-configured labels. See Configure Endpoint Agent Labels for more information.

Prioritise this test

Optional

This is a toggle switch that overrides the default priority definition. By default, this is toggled off.

Max No. of Agents per test

Required

Specifies the maximum number of agents that should run the test each interval from the list of available agents. The default value is 25.

Advance Settings Options

Configuration OptionRequired / OptionalDescription

Protocol

Required

Supported protocols. The options include:

  • Auto-detect*: The default option selected.

  • ICMP: Use ICMP only.

  • ICMP + TCP Connect: Enables a TCP connection with a 10 second timeout, and closes the connection if it was able to connect. Unsuccessful connections count towards the TCP Connection Failures metric.

  • Prefer TCP: Falls back to ICMP if TCP is unavailable.

  • TCP: Use TCP only.

Preferred Stack

Required

Specifies if the agent-to-server test should use IPv4 or IPv6 networks. The available configuration options are:

  • IPv4 only

  • Prefer IPv6

  • Force IPv6

* Auto-detect works by trying several probes to identify the best test method for the agent's current network conditions. For example, some ISPs limit ICMP traffic, some firewall vendors block SACK traffic and more. The system will discover and adjust its settings at each network change event to use the best method.

Scheduled Test - HTTP Server

Basic Configuration Options

Configuration OptionRequired / OptionalDescription

Test Name

Required

Enter the name of the test.

Web URL

Required

The target URL for the HTTP server test.

Which agents should we send data from?

Required

The agents the test should be run on. There are three options available:

  • All Agents: The test is assigned to all available agents.

  • Specific Agents: The test is assigned to user-defined agents.

  • Agent Labels: The agent is assigned based on pre-configured labels. See Configure Endpoint Agent Labels for more information.

Prioritise this test for the selected agents

Optional

This is a toggle switch that overrides the default priority definition. By default, this is toggled off.

Proxy Options

Required

Define which proxy should be used when running the HTTP server test.

Max No. of Agents

Required

Specifies the maximum number of agents that should run the test each interval from the list of available agents.

Advanced Settings Options

Configuration OptionDescription

Timeout

The number of second until the test terminates due to an unresponsive target server.

Target Response Time

Sets the color legend on the global map, and the corresponding font colors for the agent results table. For example, Response Time for an HTTP server test sets the range of the legend from 0 seconds (green end) to 2x the Target Time for View (red end).

Data Collection

Enable this option to collect network metrics and create a path visualization.

Scheme

Defines the type of authentication. The available options are:

  • None

  • Basic (requires username and password configuration)

  • NTLM (requires username and password configuration)

Preferred Stack

Specifies if the agent-to-server test should use IPv4 or IPv6 networks. The available configuratio options are:

  • IPv4 only

  • Prefer IPv6

  • Force IPv6

Request Method

Select the HTTP request method - either GET or POST. If POST is selected, you may specify data in the POST Body field. The default is GET.

Follow Redirects

Enable to have the pathtrace follow any redirects that are in place within the monitored domain.

SSL Version

Defines the SSL version used.

Verify SSL Certificate

Uncheck this box to ignore certificate errors during SSL/TLS negotiation. By default, certificate-related errors will result in a test error.

User Agent

Defines the browser version and device used.

Custom Headers

Enter one or more HTTP header strings in the form stringname: value. Ensure there is a space between the colon and value.

Override DNS

Instead of using standard DNS resolution, this option allows you to specify the IP address to which the target's domain name will resolve. This option is useful for targeting a specific server within a cluster, or when testing HTTPS URLs which require a server name indication (SNI) in the SSL/TLS negotiation that is different from the domain name-to-IP address mapping required to access the URL.

Desired Status Code

Sets the HTTP status code returned by the server that is defined as a successful test (i.e. no errors will be displayed in the test table results, no response code-based alerts generated etc). By default, either a 200-level or 300-level status code is considered a successful return code. Uncheck this box and enter a response code in the field below to use a different expected response code.

Verify Content

Search the HTTP headers and body for text which matches the expression in the Verify Content field. The expression can be a literal text or a POSIX regular expression. If no match occurs, the test shows an error condition.

Limit Download Size

Load only the first number of kilobytes (kB) specified in the field below the Enable box. The result is not guaranteed to be exactly the number specified but can be slightly more, yet always within a few percent, or less as the size of the download is increased. Note that this function does not use an HTTP Range header, so the HTTP response code should not be affected (i.e. success is a 200 OK response, not a 206 Partial Content response).

After configuring the test, visit the Alerts > Alert Rules section to create the alert rules for this test.

Scheduled Test - Network

Basic Configuration Options

Configuration OptionRequired / OptionalDescription

Test Name

Required

Enter the name of the test.

Target

Required

The target domain name or IP address for the agent-to-server test.

Which agents should we send data from?

Required

The agents the test should be run on. There are three options available:

  • All Agents: The test is assigned to all available agents.

  • Specific Agents: The test is assigned to user-defined agents.

  • Agent Labels: The agent is assigned based on pre-configured labels. See Configure Endpoint Agent Labels for more information.

Prioritise this test for the selected agents

Optional

This is a toggle switch that overrides the default priority definition. By default, this is toggled off.

Proxy Options

Required

Define which proxy should be used when running the HTTP server test.

Max No. of Agents

Required

Specifies the maximum number of agents that should run the test each interval from the list of available agents.

Advance Settings Options

Configuration OptionDescription

Protocol

Supported protocols. The options include:

  • Auto-detect*: The default option selected.

  • ICMP: Use ICMP only.

  • ICMP + TCP Connect: Enables a TCP connection with a 10 second timeout, and closes the connection if it was able to connect. Unsuccessful connections count towards the TCP Connection Failures metric.

  • Prefer TCP: Falls back to ICMP if TCP is unavailable.

  • TCP: Use TCP only.

Preferred Stack

Specifies if the agent-to-server test should use IPv4 or IPv6 networks. The available configuration options are:

  • IPv4 only

  • Prefer IPv6

  • Force IPv6

* Auto-detect works by trying several probes to identify the best test method for the agent's current network conditions. For example, some ISPs limit ICMP traffic, some firewall vendors block SACK traffic and more. The system will discover and adjust its settings at each network change event to use the best method at that point in time.

After configuring the test, visit the Alerts > Alert Rules section to create the alert rules for this test.

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