You can configure an aggregate test the same way you configure a non-aggregate test. The steps are as follows:

1. Follow the Agents -> Tests -> Configure -> Default menu sequence.
2. The AGENTS - TEST - DEFAULT CONFIGURATION page will then appear. Pick the component type and test type from the respective Component type and the Test type lists. To configure a particular test of the chosen component type, select the test name from the Test name list.
3. Unlike non-aggregate tests, where the parameters of one test may differ from the other, all aggregate tests, regardless of component type, support the same set of parameters. The test parameters that are to be configured will now appear as follows:
   • TEST PERIOD - This indicates how frequently the test is to be executed. Whenever a test is aggregated, the eG Enterprise system automatically computes the frequency of the aggregated test on the basis of the frequencies set for the corresponding ‘non-aggregate’ test in each (non-aggregate) component that is associated that is included in the aggregate component. The aggregate test frequency that eG Enterprise recommends (and automatically sets) will typically be higher than (or equal to) the maximum frequency of the underlying ‘non-aggregate test’ across all the associated components. For instance, say that a Generic Aggregate component named, genagg, is associated with a gen-a and a gen-b server, and the Processes test for these two components is aggregated as a Processes Aggregate test. Say that the frequency of Processes test for gen-a has been set as 3 minutes and for gen-b as 5 minutes. In this case therefore, the eG Enterprise system will recommend that the Processes Aggregate test be run at a frequency higher than (or equal to) 5 minutes. You are advised not to disturb the default TEST PERIOD setting.
   • EXCLUDEDESCRIPTOR - This parameter applies only to ‘descriptor-based’ aggregate tests. By default, this parameter is set to none. You can, if required, provide here, a comma-separated list of descriptors that need to be excluded from aggregation. For example, while configuring a Processes Aggregate test, you may not want to aggregate the metrics for the acrobat.exe and winword.exe processes. In this case, your EXCLUDEDESCRIPTOR specification will be: acrobat.exe,winword.exe.

     Instead of manually specifying the descriptors to be excluded, you can click on the Click here link at the top of the test configuration parameters, to quickly exclude the unwanted descriptors. Click here to know more about how to quickly exclude the descriptors.

   • NEED DESCRIPTOR AGGREGATION - This flag applies only to ‘descriptor-based’ aggregate tests. By default, this flag is set to Yes, implying that the metrics reported for each of the descriptors of the test are aggregated by default. In this case therefore, the aggregated metrics will be displayed per descriptor in the eG monitoring console. If your EXCLUDEDESCRIPTORS specification has been configured with a comma-separated list of descriptors, then aggregated metrics for such descriptors will not be displayed in the eG monitoring console.

     Set this flag to No if you want metrics to be aggregated across descriptors, and not per-descriptor. In this case therefore, only one set of aggregated metrics will be displayed for a test in the eG monitoring console. Here again, if your EXCLUDEDESCRIPTORS specification has been configured with a comma-separated list of descriptors, then the metrics reported for such descriptors will be excluded from the aggregated results. For instance, assume that for the Processes Aggregate test, the EXCLUDEDESCRIPTORS parameter has been configured with the acrobat.exe and winword.exe processes. In this case, if the NEED DESCRIPTOR AGGREGATION flag is set to No, then the value reported by the Processes running measure for instance, will not include the count of acrobat and winword instances that are running on all the components that are part of the aggregate component.

   • Finally, click the Update button to register the changes.