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.

Client
Select the device (or devices) that will run this test. This can be a single probe or a group of probes.

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 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...".

Test Type
This will be set to either "Probe to Probe" or "Probe to Network Object" depending on the destination that's selected.

Test Options
Under "Advanced Options" there are additional options for each test.

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 tests) and report results in 1 minute samples.

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

Protocol
Tests can be run using either ICMP or TCP. This 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.

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.