automated synthetic monitoring helps your applications and websites provide an outstanding user experience by simulating user traffic from various locations around the world. It offers metrics to assist in diagnosing issues quickly and improving performance.
Note that users without an admin role in New Relic do not have the capability to add, edit, or delete Synthetics monitoring features (or view secure credentials). Read this guide for more information about how to get synthetics monitoring to work in new relic and new Relic admin roles.
New Relic is a software analytics company offering real-time visibility into the performance of software applications and IT infrastructure. DevOps teams, developers and IT professionals use it to diagnose issues quickly and optimize application performance.
To begin using synthetic monitoring, enable it for your account by clicking “Synthetics” in the New Relic UI. Once enabled, create monitors that mimic specific transactions or workflows.
Choose between Synthetic Browser, Scripted Browser and API Test when setting up your monitors. Based on which monitor type you select, additional options such as monitoring frequency, locations from which to run it and alert conditions may become available to you. For instance, scripted browser monitors allow a custom script to navigate directly to a website and take certain actions while verifying resources are present, helping isolate issues that might otherwise be caused by external factors like network connectivity and geography.
Creating a Monitor
Synthetic monitoring involves running test scripts that simulate end-user activities such as navigation, form submission, or shopping cart transactions to provide an ongoing baseline for app performance despite periods of low user engagement. This ensures a steady, constant measure of its overall health 24/7/365.
Synthetic reports can be used to ensure business-critical functionality is functioning as intended and quickly identify its root cause, while regression testing of new production features prior to release or during routine maintenance reveals obstacles which might impact end user experience.
To create a monitor, head into the New Relic Admin panel and click Monitoring Tools, Add monitoring tool. When prompted to configure a new monitor, choose New Relic Synthetics from New Relic Synthetics then follow its prompts until completed – once saved and enabled save and enable monitor and then create Alert policy which determines how alerts will be generated when your monitor triggers alert policies offer two options for aggregating alerts: By Monitor or By Alert Condition.
Defining Alert Conditions
Once your monitor is configured, set conditions that should trigger an alert. For instance, specify text to search in the page DOM or set an hourly threshold so your monitor waits until its target website responds before moving onto another monitor or policy for more notifications.
Synthetics monitoring provides valuable insights for capacity planning and scalability initiatives. Test results and performance metrics help identify bottlenecks, assess infrastructure requirements and ensure your application can handle peak demand without going bankrupt.
Make sure that the synthetic monitors that represent important workflows and transactions that matter to your users accurately. As your application evolves, revisit your monitoring goals as necessary and add any additional critical transactions or processes with new synthetic monitors as necessary. Use synthetics dashboards, reports and alerting capabilities to quickly take appropriate action. Check out this guide on how to get synthetics monitoring to work in new relic.
Defining a Schedule
Synthetic monitoring simulates real user interactions to test your website or web application, giving you insight into its performance across a variety of operating systems and browsers. We store monitor results for thirteen months so you can look back on its development over time.
Manage multiple synthetic monitors easily using our user interface (UI). Instead of opening multiple tabs to view monitor violations and alert conditions, now all can be seen within one experience, plus all monitors can be paused or unpaused with one click.
Synthetics are designed for seamless control. In addition to our unified experience, our REST API enables you to automate tasks such as creating and updating ping, simple browser, scripted browser and API test monitors as well as expanding monitor coverage in new locations. Click here for more details and start your journey now.