Neustar Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide Version 1.2 Neustar, Inc. January 6, 2011 Webmetrics www.webmetrics.com +1-877-524-8299 sales@webmetrics.com
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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
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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 Email Toll Free: +1-888-367-4820 International: +1-650-228-2390 support@webmetrics.com Support Request Form Sales Phone Email http://www.webmetrics.com/support/index.cfm Toll Free: +1-877-524-8299 sales@webmetrics.com 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. 1
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 2
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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) 3
Figure 3 Services tab (single service) 4
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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. 5
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 6
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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. 7
Figure 5 Services tab: Settings sub-tab 8
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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 data to an Excel file. to export a sample s raw To obtain data for a date range, use Select Time Period and Select an Action and then click Go. 9
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) 10
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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. 11
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 12
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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 13
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. 14
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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). 15
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. 16
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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. 17
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. 18
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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. 19
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 1. Click the service name link in the Dashboard or in the Services list. The Services tab 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 1. Click My Account in the upper right of the Web Console. 2. Open the Contact Info tab. 3. Enter the information in the Alternate Contact section and click Save Contact Information. 20
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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). 21
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. 22
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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 1. Click the service name link in the Dashboard or in the Services list. The Services tab opens. 2. Open the Diagnose sub-tab. 3. Click Test Alert to send an alert from monitor@webmetrics.com to all of your contacts. Adding SMS/Voice contacts Contact Sales to enable SMS/Voice contact capability to your account. 1. Click My Account in the upper right of the Web Console. 2. Open the SMS/Voice Contacts tab (Figure 16 on page 24). 3. Enter a SMS number (for example, 2065557643@exampletel.com) or a voice number (for example 2065557644). 4. Select PHONE or SMS in the Type list. 5. Click Create New Contact. 23
Figure 16 SMS/Voice Contacts 24
Webmetrics Web Monitoring Getting Started Guide 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 rebuffer events). Learn more about Stream Monitoring. 25
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. 26