How to Setup Synthetic Tests

This article describes how to setup synthetic testing. All tests are configured from the Settings -> Tests page. Clicking on "Add Test" shows the following screen.

Name
Give the test a name.

Target
Select the target for this test. This can be a single probe or a group of probes (in which case the test will be a Probe to Probe test) or a Network Object (in which case the test will be a Probe/Endpoint to Network Object) test. Network Objects can be any routable IP or domain, a new Network Object can be defined by clicking on "New Network Object...".

Client
Select the device (or devices) that will run this test. This can be a single Probe or a group of Probes or all Probes OR this can be a single Endpoint Agent or all Endpoint Agents.

Test Type
This will be set to either "Probe to Probe" or "Probe to Network Object" or "Endpoint Agent to Network Object" depending on the target and client that was selected above.

Network Test Options
There are additional options for the network (layer 3) component of this test.

Protocol
Tests can be run using either ICMP or TCP. This setting applies to both end-to-end and network path monitoring tests. TCP based tests use SYN packets and are recommended when testing user-facing cloud/SaaS applications, or when targets do not respond to ICMP packets. Currently, Endpoint Agents can only perform ICMP tests, Probes can perform ICMP or TCP tests.

Port
When using TCP, you can specify the port number to use. Choose 443 when testing to HTTPS/secure web apps or 80 when targeting HTTP apps. Port 53 can also be used when testing DNS servers.

Measure end-to-end availability latency, jitter and loss
This option is mandatory for all tests. It will measure network statistics between the Client and the Target once per second (for ICMP tests) or once per 10 seconds (for TCP and Endpoint
Agent tests) and report results in 1 minute samples.

Measure per-hop network paths
Network path monitoring is available for all "Probe to Network Object" and all "Endpoint Agent to Network Object" tests. One path trace is completed per minute and results are reported in 5 minute samples.

Web Test Options
There are options specifically related to the web (layer 7)component of this test.

Enable HTTP/HTTPS Testing
When enabled, a layer 7 web test will be performed once every 5 minutes, in addition to the end-to-end and (optional) per-hop network path test.

Ignore SSL Warnings and Errors
When enabled, any SSL errors will be ignored. Otherwise, SSL errors are treated as an error and would cause a test to fail (and impact the availability metric).

Protocol
Web tests can either use HTTPS (port 443) or HTTP (port 80).

Path
An optional path can be specified in order to test a specific URL resource.

Target URL
The target URL will dynamically update depending on the selected options. This shows exactly what URL(s) will be tested.