webmetrics web monitoring getting started...

Neustar® Webmetrics®

Web Monitoring | Getting Started Guide

Webmetrics

www.webmetrics.com

+1-877-524-8299

[email protected]

Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide

Version 1.2

Neustar, Inc.®

January 6, 2011

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All other trademarks and/or service marks identified or referenced are the property of their respective owners and subject to their usage requirements.

Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ 1

Contacting Webmetrics ..................................................................................................................................... 1

Documentation Conventions.............................................................................................................................. 1

Web Console.............................................................................................................................................................. 2

URL ................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Dashboard ......................................................................................................................................................... 2

Services ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

Reports ............................................................................................................................................................ 14

Ecosystem ....................................................................................................................................................... 17

Common Tasks ........................................................................................................................................................ 19

Resetting your password ................................................................................................................................. 19

Renaming your service .................................................................................................................................... 19

Creating new monitoring services .................................................................................................................... 19

Generating graphs ........................................................................................................................................... 20

Generating reports ........................................................................................................................................... 20

Adding new reports .......................................................................................................................................... 20

Customizing alerts and notifications ................................................................................................................ 20

Adding an alternate contact to your account.................................................................................................... 20

Adding multiple alternate contacts to your account ......................................................................................... 21

Adding alerting contacts for a single service.................................................................................................... 21

Adding alerting contacts for more than one service ......................................................................................... 23

Adding SMS/Voice contacts ............................................................................................................................ 23

Webmetrics Products ............................................................................................................................................... 25

List of Figures

Figure 1 Webmetrics Web Console Dashboard ......................................................................................................... 2

Figure 2 Services tab (Manage Multiple Services) ..................................................................................................... 3

Figure 3 Services tab (single service) ........................................................................................................................ 4

Figure 4 Services tab: Global Alert Contacts sub-tab ................................................................................................. 6

Figure 5 Services tab: Settings sub-tab ...................................................................................................................... 8

Figure 6 Services tab: Edit Descriptions sub-tab ........................................................................................................ 9

Figure 7 Services tab: Logs sub-tab ......................................................................................................................... 10

Figure 8 Services tab: Diagnose sub-tab .................................................................................................................. 11

Figure 9 Services tab: Scripts sub-tab ...................................................................................................................... 12

Figure 10 Services tab: Widget sub-tab .................................................................................................................... 13

Figure 11 Reports tab: Report Archive sub-tab ........................................................................................................ 15

Figure 12 Reports tab: Layout sub-tab ..................................................................................................................... 16

Figure 13 Reports tab: Settings sub-tab ................................................................................................................... 17

Figure 14 Ecosystem tab .......................................................................................................................................... 18

Figure 15 Alert Contacts ........................................................................................................................................... 22

Figure 16 SMS/Voice Contacts................................................................................................................................. 24


1

For more information, please visit www.webmetrics.com

Introduction Welcome to Webmetrics! This guide contains the information you need to

monitor your vital websites and applications

receive detailed availability and performance monitoring analysis

generate graphs and reports

Contacting Webmetrics

Support

Phone

Toll Free: +1-888-367-4820

International: +1-650-228-2390

Email

[email protected]

Support Request Form

http://www.webmetrics.com/support/index.cfm

Sales

Phone

Toll Free: +1-877-524-8299

Email

[email protected]

Downloads and Product Information

http://www.webmetrics.com/resources/index.html

Documentation Conventions

Narrative text.

Hyperlink (to a section in the document, e-mail link, or Web site link).

Screen element (indicates an object you can click, select, or clear). For

example:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then open the View tab.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.webmetrics.com/support/index.cfm


http://www.webmetrics.com/resources/index.html

2


Web Console The Webmetrics Web Console displays all of your Webmetrics monitoring services. You will

use it to run reports, display graphs, and configure settings, contacts, and alerts.

Webmetrics also offers an API. Please visit http://help.webmetrics.com/ (or click Help in the Web Console) and click API Documentation for more information.

URL

You will log on to your Webmetrics account from here:

http://www.webmetrics.com/login.html

Dashboard

The Web Console opens to the Dashboard tab, which provides:

list of services, service status, load time, uptime, and the last 20 samples (click

column headings to expand/contract columns)

recent errors

a quickbar with buttons to start, stop, and snooze existing services and create new

services

Figure 1 Webmetrics Web Console Dashboard

http://help.webmetrics.com/

http://www.webmetrics.com/login.html


3


Services

The Services tab contains most of your services’ configuration settings. The Services tab

options and views depend on whether you have selected one service or multiple services If

you do not specify a service, the Services tab opens to the Global Graphing sub-tab for

multiple services.

Click a service name’s link in the Dashboard tab or the Services list to open the service-specific Services tab.

Figure 2 Services tab (Manage Multiple Services)

4


Figure 3 Services tab (single service)


5


The Services tab has up to six sub-tabs, depending on the service type and the number of

selected services:

Graphing and Global Graphing (page 5)

Global Alert Contacts (page 5)

Settings and Global Settings (page 6)

Edit Descriptions (page 9)

Logs (page 9)

Diagnose (page 10)

Scripts (page 11)

Widget (page 13)

Click a sub-tab’s name to return to the sub-tab’s original menu.

Graphing and Global Graphing

The Graphing sub-tab (for a single service) and the Global Graphing tab (for multiple

services) guide you through the steps to generate a graph. See Generating graphs on page

20 for procedures.

You can save a graph as a template for future use with a daily, weekly, or monthly report. See Report Settings on page 16 for more information.

Global Alert Contacts

The Global Alert Contacts sub-tab (Figure 4) allows you to set alert contacts for one or

more services and create/edit contact groups. See Adding alerting contacts for a single

service on page 21 for more information.

The single service equivalent is Alert Contacts in the Settings sub-tab.

6


Figure 4 Services tab: Global Alert Contacts sub-tab

Settings and Global Settings

The Global Settings sub-tab (for multiple services) allows you to configure Monitoring

Agents and Maintenance Windows for one or more of you services.

The Settings sub-tab for a single service (Figure 5) includes the following options:

Monitoring settings—controls the service monitoring interval, timeout thresholds, and

the number of strikes to determine when your service is down

Alert Contacts—controls the people or groups who receive alerts when your service is

down (see Adding Alerting Contacts on page 21 for procedures)

Alert and Notification Settings—controls the types of errors that trigger an alert

Monitoring Agents—controls which agents monitor your service

Maintenance Windows—controls the suspension of monitoring for planned service

downtime

SLA/Objectives—sets performance service-level agreement (SLA) objectives for your

service

Advanced Errors—offers finer control over what constitutes a service monitoring error

Rename and Edit Description—controls the service name and description

Timezone—sets the time zone used to record monitoring events


7


Reset Service—clears all monitoring data and custom settings

You do not need to spend time setting and customizing your service unless you have a specific need: the default settings will perform well in most cases.

8


Figure 5 Services tab: Settings sub-tab


9


Edit Descriptions

The Edit Descriptions sub-tab (Figure 6) allows you to update one or more service

descriptions.

To rename a service, use the Rename and Edit Description in the specific service’s Settings

sub-tab.

Figure 6 Services tab: Edit Descriptions sub-tab

Logs

The Logs sub-tab (Figure 7) provides access to a service’s monitoring agents’ raw data.

The top display Log Snapshot includes the last three log entries for the service. Click

to open a full-page graph in a new tab or click to export a sample’s raw

data to an Excel file.

To obtain data for a date range, use Select Time Period and Select an Action and then

click Go.

10


Figure 7 Services tab: Logs sub-tab

Diagnose

The Diagnose sub-tab (Figure 8) offers four service diagnostic tools:

Traceroute—performs a trace from any of the Webmetrics agents to a specified site

Test Alert—sends a test alert to your alert contacts

Instacheck—runs an ad-hoc site check on the status of your site or application

Fullpage Breakdown—provides a graph of your site or with download time (you can

optionally compare your site to another site)

https://www2.webmetrics.com/mod3/cpcgi/cp.cgi?diagnosetype=trace&account=155164&subtab=3

https://www2.webmetrics.com/mod3/cpcgi/cp.cgi?diagnosetype=instacheck&account=155164&view=JaneDoe&subtab=3

https://www2.webmetrics.com/mod3/cpcgi/cp.cgi?diagnosetype=fullpage&account=155164&subtab=3;


11


Figure 8 Services tab: Diagnose sub-tab

Scripts (available for Application/Transaction Services)

The Scripts sub-tab organizes your application and transaction service scripts.

If you have any questions about scripting, please contact Webmetrics Support. We can manage and script your application transactions at no additional cost.

You can write a script and submit it for approval by providing a name and clicking Save As,

or modify a current script and click Save.

If you have an approved script, you can click Instacheck, which randomly selects one of the

monitoring agents to verify your script. If you want to verify your script using multiple agents,

use the Instacheck utility available in the Diagnose sub-tab of the Settings tab.

12


You can also download the GlobalWatch Script Recorder application, which allows you to

record and playback your navigation through a series of steps on any website or application

to generate a simple, human-readable, Watir-compatible script:

http://www.webmetrics.com/products/script_recorder.html.

Figure 9 Services tab: Scripts sub-tab

http://www.webmetrics.com/products/script_recorder.html


13


Widget

The Widget sub-tab allows you to add a Webmetrics Widget to any HTML page on your site

to show users performance information. Widgets update every five minutes, showing the

recent availability and performance of a monitored service (website, web application, or web

service).

Windows Vista users can also add the Widget as a gadget to the Windows Sidebar.

Figure 10 Services tab: Widget sub-tab

14


Reports

The Reports tab provides performance and availability reports for your services. You can

customize your reports and create new reports.

The Reports tab has three sub-tabs:

Reports Archive (page 14)

Layout (page 15)

Settings (page 16)

To add a new report, click Add New Report in the Reports navigation menu.

Reports Archive

By default, the Reports tab opens to the Reports Archive sub-tab. You can select a date or

date range and click Generate Report to generate a new report, or you can expand one of

the ranges in the Archive section to access a previous report.


15


Figure 11 Reports tab: Report Archive sub-tab

Click one of the following icons:

to view a report

to save a report as an HTML file to disk

to save a report as a PDF

to email a report

to delete report

Layout

The Layout sub-tab allows you to choose the services you want to include in your report

and the order in which they appear. For each service, you can also use custom graphing

templates that you defined in the Services tab’s Graphing or Global Graphing sub tab (page

5).

16


Figure 12 Reports tab: Layout sub-tab

Settings

The Settings sub-tab allows you to select the frequency with which you receive reports and

the report format.

You can change the default report name (My Report) and default description.

You can define one additional contact by clicking My Account at the top right of the Web

Console and completing the Alternate Contact section of the Contact Info sub-tab. Use

the Ecosystem Report Sharing sub-tab to add more contacts.


17


Figure 13 Reports tab: Settings sub-tab

Ecosystem

The Ecosystem tab accesses Webmetrics' Ecosystem Management functionality, which is

an enhancement on top of Webmetrics' Monitoring Platform to share monitoring and

analytical information with your key business partners and vendors.

Click Activate Now to initiate the Ecosystem Management functionality or contact

Webmetrics Sales for more information. Click Get Started after you receive the activation

notice to begin using your Ecosystem.

18


Figure 14 Ecosystem tab

The Ecosystem tab has three sub-tabs:

Service Sharing

Service sharing allows your specified partners read or read/write access to one or more of

your services, including:

graphs, reports, and templates

detailed logs

utilities to diagnose problems

Only Webmetrics account holders can share services, but you can enter an email address to

initiate a share. If the e-mail recipient accepts the share, you will see their new Webmetrics

username in the Sharing Partners list.

Report Sharing

If you share a service, you share reports as well as logs, diagnostic utilities, etc. If you only

want to share reports, open the Report Sharing sub-tab and enter additional email

addresses.

Visualize

The Visualize sub-tab allows you to view relationships and statuses of services you own

and services that your partners have shared with you.


19


Common Tasks Resetting your password page 19 Adding an alternate contact to your account page 20

Renaming your service page 19 Adding multiple alternate contacts to your account page 20

Creating new monitoring services page 19 Adding alerting contacts page 21

Generating graphs page 20 Creating an alerting group page 23

Generating reports page 20 Verifying alerting contacts page 23

Adding new reports page 20 Adding SMS/Voice contacts page 23

Customizing alerts and notifications page 20

Resetting your password

1. Click My Account in the upper right of the Web Console.

2. Open the Password sub-tab.

3. Change your password and click Change Password.

Renaming your service

1. Click the service name link in the Dashboard or in the Services list. The Services tab

opens.

2. Open the Settings sub-tab.

3. Click Rename and Edit Description.

Creating new monitoring services

You can create a new service two ways in the Web Console: from the Dashboard tab or the

Services tab.

1. Open the Dashboard tab.

2. In the Quickbar—located at the bottom of the dashboard—click one of the following

(see Webmetrics Products on page 25 for information on each service):

3. Follow the directions to configure the new monitoring service, or contact sales for more

information.

Or

1. Open the Services tab.

2. Click Add New Service in the Services list on the upper

left of the Web Console.

20


Generating graphs

You can generate graphs for multiple services or detailed graphs for specific services.

Graphs for multiple services

1. To generate graphs for all your services (including shared services), open the Services

tab, which opens the Global Graphing sub-tab by default.

2. Adjust the graphing parameters as required and click Graph Now.

You can also click Graph Multiple Services from a specific service’s Graphing sub-tab.

Graphs for a specific service


opens to the Graphing sub-tab.

2. Adjust the graphing parameters as required and click Graph Now.

Generating reports

1. Open the Reports tab.

2. Adjust the reporting parameters as required and click Generate Report.

a. Open the Settings sub-tab to rename the report or add contacts.

b. Open the Layout sub-tab to add templates and configure the data included in

your report.

Adding new reports

1. Open the Reports tab.

2. Click Add New Report in the Reports list on the upper left of the Web Console.

Customizing alerts and notifications

You do not need to configure your alerts unless you have a specific need: the default settings perform well in most cases.

1. Select your service in either the Dashboard or the Services tab.

2. Open the Settings tab.

3. Click Alert and Notification Settings.

4. Click to the right of the service type you wish to customize.

5. Customize your services and click Save Settings.

6. See Adding Alerting Contacts for a single service on page 21 or Adding Alerting

Contacts for more than one service on page 23 to add contacts (by default, the account

owner receives all alerts).

Adding an alternate contact to your account


2. Open the Contact Info tab.

3. Enter the information in the Alternate Contact section and click Save Contact

Information.


21


In addition to providing an alternate point of contact for an account, you can send reports to the alternate contact (see Report Sharing on page18).

Adding multiple alternate contacts to your account

1. Open the Ecosystem tab.

2. Click Initiate New Share.

3. Enter a comma-separated list of email addresses or Webmetrics Account names.

Adding alerting contacts for a single service

1. Select your service in either the Dashboard or the Services tab.

2. Open the Settings tab.

3. Click Alert Contacts. The Alert Contacts dialog opens (Figure 15).

22


Figure 15 Alert Contacts

4. Decide the alerting level for which you wish to add contacts (you must add at least one

contact to Diagnostic Contacts).

a. Alert Escalation Level 1 immediately receive alerts when alert event detected

b. Alert Escalation Level 2 receive alerts if event that caused the first level alert

persists for x minutes (by default, 5 minutes). You can change the time interval

from 5–360 minutes.

c. Alert Escalation Level 3—receive alerts if event that caused the first level alert

persists for x minutes (by default, 5 minutes). You can change the time interval

from 5–360 minutes.

d. Diagnostic Contacts receive detailed messages for diagnostic purposes.

Because of the typical message size, you cannot add SMS/Voice contacts.


23


5. Enter a single email address and click Add Email, select an SMS/Voice contact and

click Add SMS/Voice, or select a group and click Add Group.

a. Click Add/Edit to create either an SMS/Voice contact or a group.

6. Click Save Contact Information.

Adding alerting contacts for more than one service

1. Open the Services tab (to Manage Multiple Services).

2. Open the Global Alert Contacts sub-tab.

3. Select one or more service check boxes (or select the check box in the blue bar to

select all services as shown in Figure 4 on page 6).

4. Click Edit Alert Contacts. The Add Contacts and Remove Contacts sections appear.

5. Select the alerting level for which you wish to add contacts in the Add to Level list

(refer to step 4 of the Adding Alerting Contacts for a single service procedure for

alerting level descriptions).

6. Enter a single email address and click Add Email, select an SMS/Voice contact and

click Add SMS/Voice, or select a group and click Add Group.

7. Click Update.

Creating an alerting group

1. Open the Services tab (to Manage Multiple Services).

2. Open the Global Alert Contacts sub-tab (Figure 4 on page 6).

3. Enter a name in the New Group Name field and click Create Contact Group.

4. Enter a single email address and an optional name and click Add New Contact.

Repeat this step for each contact.

5. Continue to add email address additional contacts to the group.

Verifying alerting contacts


opens.

2. Open the Diagnose sub-tab.

3. Click Test Alert to send an alert from [email protected] to all of your contacts.

Adding SMS/Voice contacts

Contact Sales to enable SMS/Voice contact capability to your account.


2. Open the SMS/Voice Contacts tab (Figure 16 on page 24).

3. Enter a SMS number (for example, [email protected]) or a voice

number (for example 2065557644).

4. Select PHONE or SMS in the Type list.

5. Click Create New Contact.



24


Figure 16 SMS/Voice Contacts


25


Webmetrics Products Website Monitoring

Application Monitoring

Visual Monitoring

Stream Monitoring

Web Services Monitoring

Network Services Monitoring

Load Testing

Website Monitoring

Ensures your site is up 24/7, with monitoring up to every minute from

locations across the globe. Get detailed breakdown of performance

problems such as DNS time, time-to-first-byte, and transfer time. Browser

based monitoring with IE7 Fidelity using the Webmetrics RIA version.

Learn more about Website Monitoring.

Application Monitoring

Simulates defined web transactions, such as customer logins and

purchase order fulfillment, as frequently as every minute to verify that web

applications are available and performing 24/7. Supports the most

complex web transactions, including Web 2.0, Ajax, and plug-in-based

applications such as Adobe® Flash® and Java.Learn more about

Application Monitoring.

Visual Monitoring

Provides highly granular performance metrics on rich media applications

such as Adobe® Flash® and Microsoft® Silverlight®, including the

breakdown of each of the steps in the user experience while verifying that

specific images are rendering and performing as expected based on

perceived or actual load time. Learn more about Visual Monitoring.

Stream Monitoring

Allows customers to specify the length of time to watch a stream and set

thresholds for connection timeout, buffer timeout, and stream quality (both

in terms of minimum expected throughput and maximum number of re-

buffer events). Learn more about Stream Monitoring.

http://www.webmetrics.com/Monitoring-Services/Enterprise-Monitoring/Services/Website-Monitoring

http://www.webmetrics.com/Monitoring-Services/Enterprise-Monitoring/Services/Application-Monitoring

http://www.webmetrics.com/Monitoring-Services/Enterprise-Monitoring/Services/Visual-Monitoring

http://www.webmetrics.com/Monitoring-Services/Enterprise-Monitoring/Services/Stream-Monitoring

26


Web Services Monitoring

Monitors REST/SOAP web service requests via XML request/response

and content verification. In addition, Webmetrics Web Services monitoring

has transactional capabilities where sequences of web service requests

can be made using values obtained from each step of the web service

request chain. Learn more about Web Services Monitoring.

Network Services Monitoring

Monitors DNS, FTP, Ping, POP, SMTP protocols to ensure availability and

connectivity. In addition, a custom Port level monitoring allows monitoring

of custom protocols. Learn more about Network Services Monitoring.

Load Testing

Flexible Solutions to Meet Your Needs

Depending on the complexity of your testing requirements, and the resources

and expertise you have available on staff, Webmetrics offers different Load

Testing solutions to meet your unique needs.

Our Full-Service Load Testing solution includes a dedicated engineer who is assigned to

you for scripting, running tests and providing analysis and recommendations. We can get

complex testing done for you quickly and offer you the benefit of our over 10 years of

experience in the industry.

Our On-Demand Load Testing solution is sophisticated but also very flexible, allowing you

to run tests at any time, night or day. It’s also easy-to-use and you can get started

immediately with a free test.

We can also customize a solution for you to provide a mix of services that best meets your

needs. Learn more about Load Testing.

http://www.webmetrics.com/Monitoring-Services/Enterprise-Monitoring/Services/Web-Services-Monitoring

http://www.webmetrics.com/Monitoring-Services/Enterprise-Monitoring/Services/Network-Services-Monitoring

http://www.webmetrics.com/Load-Testing-Services

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