Configuring URLs for Monitoring

By default, the AzureWebAcsTest will be configured with the URL of the home page of the target Azure cloud being monitored. To configure additional URLs, do the following:

1. Click on the encircled ‘+’ button alongside the URL text box in the test configuration page.

2. The CONFIGURATION OF URL PATTERNS page will then appear. To add another URL, click the Add More button in this page.

3. Another URL specification section will appear. Specify the following in that section:

   • Specify a unique name by which the URL you will be specifying shortly will be referred to across the eG user interface in the Name text box. This is the name that will appear as the descriptor of this test.

   • Enter the URL of the web page that this test should access.

   • The Username and Password parameters are to be set only if a specific user name / password has to be specified to login to the web page (i.e., URL ) that you have configured for monitoring. In this case, provide valid login credentials using the Username and Password text boxes. If the URL configured for monitoring supports ‘Anonymous user access’, then these parameters will take either of the following values:

     • A valid Username and Password for the configured URL

     • none in both the Username and Password text boxes of the configured URL, if no user authorization is required

     • Some web servers however, support NTLM (Integrated Windows) authentication, where valid login credentials are mandatory. In other words, a none specification will not be supported by such web servers. Therefore, in this case, against each configured URL, you will have to provide a valid Username in the format: domainname\username, followed by a valid Password.

     • Please be sure to check if your web site requires HTTP authentication while configuring this parameter. HTTP authentication typically involves a separate pop-up window when you try to access the page. Many sites use HTTP POST for obtaining the user name and password and validating the user login. In such cases, the username and password have to be provided as part of the POST information.

   • The Content parameter has to be configured with an instruction:value pair that will be used to validate the content being returned by the test. If the Content value is None, no validation is performed. On the other hand, if you pick the Include option from the Content list, it indicates to the test that for the content returned by the web server to be valid, the content must include the specified value (a simple string search is done in this case). This value should be specified in the adjacent text box. Similarly, if the Exclude option is chosen from the Content drop-down, it indicates to the test that the server's output is valid if it does not contain the value specified in the adjacent text box. The Include or Exclude value you specify in the text box can include wildcard characters. For example, an Include instruction can be *Home page*.

   • Sometimes the eG agent has to parse the URL content with specific encoding other than the default (ISO-8859-1) encoding. In such a case, specify the type of encoding using which the eG agent can parse the URL content in the Encoding text box. By default, this value is none.

   • SSL-enabled web sites are typically secured by a private key, public key, or a public-private key pair. If the web page configured for this test is SSL-enabled - i.e., if an HTTPS URL is specified against URL - and the contents of this web page can only be accessed using a private key, then the full path to the private key file will have to be provided against Private key file path and the Password of the private key file should be specified against Password. If no such private key protects the contents of the configured URL, then set the Private key file path and its Password to none.

   • Using this parameter, you can indicate how you want the eG agent to execute this test. If you want the eG agent to always run this test using the Java executable alone, then pick the Only Java option from the Method drop-down. Likewise, if you want the eG agent to always run this test using the cURL utility alone, then choose the Only cURL option from the Method drop-down. On the other hand, if you want the eG agent to automatically detect what methodology was successful in reporting metrics for this test during the last measure period, and employ the same methodology to run the test during the current measure period, then you need to go with the default selection - i.e., Auto-detect. This default setting is useful in environments where neither methodology (Java or cURL) can be relied upon to continuously report metrics for this test. In other words. the default setting is ideal for environments where the Java executable may have been successful in collecting metrics a few times, and the cURL utility may have been successful at other times.

   • Some web pages (URLs) configured for monitoring may have been designed to allow access for only those requests that have certain specific properties enabled. For instance, web pages of an SSL-enabled web site may have been designed to support TLS v1.3 requests alone. In such a case, you will have to instruct the test to send connection requests to the configured URL over the TLS v1.3 protocol alone; if not, the test will fail. For this, you can use the Property and Value text boxes in the System Properties section. Specify the request property that the test needs to look up, in the Property text box. In the Value text box, enter the value this property should be set to, so that the eG agent is allowed access to the configured web page. In the case of the above example, you will have to specify - Dhttps.protocol in the Property text box and TLSv1.3 in the Value text box. You can even provide a comma-separated list of values in the Value text box. For example, if the web page supports multiple versions of the TLS protocol, then the Value specification will be: TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2,TLSv1.3. You can even configure more than one Property:Value pair, if the configured URL supports multiple properties. To add another pair, click on the encircled ‘+’ button adjacent to the Value text box.

4. Similarly, you can add multiple URL specifications. To remove a URL specification, click on the encircled ‘-’ button corresponding to it. To clear all URL specifications, click the Clear button in the CONFIGURATION OF URL PATTERNS page. To update all the changes you made, click the Update button.

5. Once Update is clicked, you will return to the test configuration page. The URL text box in the test configuration page will display just the Names - i.e., the unique display names - that you may have configured for the multiple URLs, as a comma-separated list. To view the complete URL specification, click the encircled ‘+’ button alongside the URL text box, once again.