What is the procedure for enabling synthetic monitoring in New Relic? New Relic is widely recognized as a widely-used web-based software solution that offers monitoring and performance management functionalities for websites and applications. Synthetics monitoring, an essential capability provided by New Relic, enables you to mimic user actions and observe the efficiency of your web pages.
Through the utilization of New Relic’s synthetics monitoring, you can obtain valuable information regarding the functionality and accessibility of your web pages across various locations and devices. This assists in the proactive identification of issues, enhancement of user experience, and assurance of seamless operation for your web pages.
What is New Relic?
New Relic APM, an APM solution hosted in the cloud, assists in overseeing the performance of your applications, monitoring their well-being, and prioritizing necessary modifications. It detects irregularities in your app’s condition. Synthetics is an internal customer service we offer. By analyzing these occurrences, New Relic APM evaluates the app’s health, considering the frequency and severity of these incidents.
How to enable Synthetics Monitoring functionality in New Relic?
Follow the steps outlined below to initiate the implementation of synthetic monitoring in New Relic:
Choose a Synthetic Monitor:
There are several monitors available for selection, depending on the specific area you wish to monitor. We suggest utilizing the Nerd Graph API as it offers the most standardized form of monitoring, encompassing synthetic monitor deletion, updates, and creation through API calls provided by the API.
After selecting the monitor, proceed to one.newrelic.com, choose the monitor type, and fill in the required fields. You can include periods and tags, as well as select a runtime option. Advanced settings are available, including SSL verification (for ping and basic browser monitoring), Bypass HEAD request and Redirect is Failure (for ping monitoring). Ensure that you select a minimum of three locations to execute the monitor (we recommend selecting at least three locations). Once finished, click on Save monitor.
Summary Page:
To view the status of your synthetic monitor, click on its name in the upper-right corner of the summary page. If an active incident triggers an alert, click on the “critical alert” corresponding to the chosen monitor to open it in a new tab. Alert policies can also be accessed by selecting the “manage policies for all monitors” option.
Monitor Generated Results:
To gain insights into the performance of your web applications, examine the results page. You can sort the displayed information to pinpoint problematic areas or identify unusual results. Try filtering the results by location to compare the performance of the monitor across different locations. (The “Network timings” graph below offers a snapshot of webpage performance during a specific timeframe.) Follow these steps to do so:
- Navigate to the New Relic platform and access Synthetics.
- Go to the Monitors tab and select the desired monitor.
- Proceed to click on Monitor and then Results.
Understanding Load-time for Resources
The results obtained from the synthetic resources page provide a comprehensive report on how each component of the website impacts the overall load. This includes images, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more.
You can delve into detailed metrics gathered during runtime, analyze performance data for third-party resources, and identify HTTP response codes for each resource. Follow these steps to perform these actions:
- Navigate to the New Relic platform and access Synthetics.
- From the Monitors dropdown menu, choose the desired monitor.
- Click on Monitor, then select Resources.
Benefits of Synthetic Monitoring:
Performance Evaluation:
Through synthetic monitoring, you can assess and monitor various performance indicators, including response times, page loading durations, transaction durations, and resource utilization. As a result, simulating user interactions establishes performance expectations and detects performance bottlenecks.
Availability Tracking:
Synthetic monitoring verifies the accessibility of applications or websites by executing pre-established scripts at regular intervals. Consequently, if the monitored system is offline or encountering issues, the synthetic monitor detects the situation and notifies the relevant teams for investigation and resolution.
Geographic Scope:
Synthetic monitoring permits the emulation of user interactions from diverse geographical locations or networks. Thus, this functionality aids in recognizing regional discrepancies in performance, network latency problems, or content delivery complications.
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics:
By offering comprehensive data and metrics about monitored transactions, synthetic monitoring assists in troubleshooting and diagnosing performance problems. It effectively identifies areas of concern, such as sluggish database queries, server errors, or troublesome third-party integrations.
Proactive Monitoring:
Synthetic monitoring facilitates proactive monitoring by conducting tests and checks based on predefined schedules. Consequently, it detects and addresses issues before they impact actual users, ensuring a seamless user experience.
Benchmarking and SLA Compliance:
Synthetic monitoring can be utilized to gauge the performance of distinct applications or websites. It aids in tracking compliance with service level agreements (SLAs) by comparing actual performance against predetermined thresholds or targets.