What is Synthetics Monitoring?
Synthetics monitoring is a proactive approach to monitoring the performance and availability of your website or API. It uses scripted browsers or API clients to simulate user interactions and generate detailed data about how your application is performing.
Synthetics monitoring can be used to test a wide range of scenarios, including:
- Page load times: How long does it take for your pages to load for users in different locations and on different devices?
- Error rates: Are your pages returning errors? If so, how often and what types of errors are occurring?
- Functional testing: Are your pages and API endpoints working as expected?
- Performance under load: How does your application perform under heavy traffic?
Synthetics monitoring can help you to identify and resolve performance issues before they impact your users. It can also help you to ensure that your application is meeting your performance and availability goals.
How Synthetics Monitoring Works
Synthetics monitoring typically works by sending scripted browsers or API clients to your application from a variety of locations around the world. The scripts or clients simulate user interactions, such as clicking on buttons, filling out forms, and submitting requests.
The data generated from the simulated transactions is then collected and analyzed. This data can be used to generate reports on page load times, error rates, functional testing results, and performance under load.
How to Get Synthetics Monitoring to Work in New Relic
To get synthetics monitoring to work in New Relic, you will need to create a New Relic account and install the New Relic Synthetics agent on your scripted browsers or API clients.
Once the agent is installed, you can create synthetic monitors using the New Relic Synthetics UI. Synthetic monitors define the steps that you want to test and the locations from which you want to test them.
Once you have created a synthetic monitor, you can schedule it to run on a regular basis. New Relic will then send your scripted browsers or API clients to your application to simulate user interactions.
The data generated from the simulated transactions will be collected and analyzed by New Relic. You can then view the results of your synthetic monitors in the New Relic Synthetics UI.
Benefits of Using Synthetics Monitoring
There are a number of benefits to using synthetics monitoring, including:
- Proactive monitoring: Synthetics monitoring can help you to identify and resolve performance issues before they impact your users.
- Detailed data: Synthetics monitoring provides detailed data on page load times, error rates, functional testing results, and performance under load.
- Global coverage: Synthetics monitoring can be used to test your application from a variety of locations around the world.
- Easy to use: New Relic Synthetics is easy to use and configure. You can create and manage your synthetic monitors using the New Relic Synthetics UI.
How to Use Synthetics Monitoring in New Relic
Once you have created some synthetic monitors, you can use the New Relic Synthetics UI to view the results of your tests. The Synthetics UI provides a variety of reports on page load times, error rates, functional testing results, and performance under load.
You can also use the Synthetics UI to create alerts for when your synthetic monitors detect performance problems. This can help you to be notified of issues as soon as they occur, so that you can take corrective action quickly.
Here are some specific examples of how you can use synthetics monitoring in New Relic:
- Test the performance of your website on different devices and browsers: You can create a synthetic monitor that simulates users browsing your website on different devices and browsers. This will help you to identify any performance issues that may be specific to certain devices or browsers.
- Test the performance of your API under load: You can create a synthetic monitor that simulates multiple users accessing your API at the same time. This will help you to identify any performance bottlenecks that may occur under heavy traffic.
- Test the functionality of your website or API: You can create a synthetic monitor that simulates users performing specific tasks on your website or API. This will help you to identify any functional problems that may be occurring.
Conclusion
Synthetics monitoring is a valuable tool for proactively monitoring the performance and availability of your website or API. It can help you to identify and resolve performance issues before they impact your users.
New Relic Synthetics is a popular synthetics monitoring solution that provides a variety of features, including easy configuration, global coverage, and detailed data reporting.
If you are looking for a way to improve the performance and availability of your website or API, I recommend that you consider using synthetics monitoring.
