Default Parameters for SPOSiteConnectivityTest

For each site that is configured for monitoring, this test, at frequent intervals, emulates an HTTP/S connection to that site and reports on the availability and responsiveness of that site. Besides sending out pre-emptive alerts to administrators regarding the unavailability/slowness of a site, the test also reports the response code returned by the site for the emulated request. In the event that the site is unavailable, the response code will point administrators to the probable reason for the non-availability. Also, a web site can be considered truly ‘available’, only if the page that is hit displays ‘valid’ content - i.e., the content that it is supposed to display during normal operations, and not junk data or error messages. The SPOSiteConnectivityTest test also reports the validity of the content of the target site, and thus paints a ‘true’ picture of availability.

This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the SPOSiteConnectivityTest test.

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• For execution, this test requires the privileges of an O365 user who has been assigned the Service support admin and SharePoint admin roles and is vested with the View-Only Audit Logs permissions. Configure the credentials of such a user against O365 USER NAME and O365 PASSWORD text boxes. Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

  While you can use the credentials of any existing O365 user with the afore-said privileges, it is recommended that you create a special user for monitoring purposes using the Office 365 portal and use the credentials of that user here. To know how to create a new user using the Office 365 portal and assign the required privileges to that user, refer to the Creating a New User in the Office 365 Portal available under Pre-requisites for Monitoring Microsoft SharePoint Online section of the Monitoring SharePoint Online document.

• To have a personalized business email address, team site address, or even an account name, you set up a domain name with Office 365. A domain is a unique name that appears after the @ sign in email addresses, and after www. in web addresses. It typically takes the form of your organization's name and a standard Internet suffix, such as yourbusiness.com or stateuniversity.edu. Office 365 gives you an initial domain name to use. By default, this will be of the format: *.onmicrosoft.com - eg., abc.onmicrosoft.com. To enable this test to pull metrics, you need to configure the test with the name of this initial domain. Therefore, configure the O365 DOMAIN parameter with the name of the initial domain. To know what is your Office 365 initial domain name, do the following:

  • Log on to the Microsoft Office 365 Online Portal using an administrative account.

  • Under Management, click on Domains.

  • The initial domain should be listed with a name ending with .onmicrosoft.com.

• The DOMAIN, DOMAIN USER, DOMAIN PASSWORD and CONFIRM PASSWORD parameters are applicable only if the eG agent needs to communicate with the Office 365 portal via a Proxy server.

  In this case, in the DOMAIN text box, specify the name of the Windows domain to which the eG agent host belongs. In the DOMAIN USER NAME text box, mention the name of a valid domain user with login rights to the eG agent host. Provide the password of that user in the DOMAIN PASSWORD text box and confirm that password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

  On the other hand, if the eG agent is not behind a Proxy server, then you need not disturb the default setting of these parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none.

• The PROXY HOST, PROXY PORT, PROXY USER NAME, PROXY PASSWORD and CONFIRM PASSWORD parameters are applicable only if the eG agent needs to communicate with the Office 365 portal via a Proxy server.

  In this case, provide the IP/host name and port number of the Proxy server that the eG agent should use in the PROXY HOST and PROXY PORT parameters, respectively.

  If the Proxy server requires authentication, then specify the credentials of a valid Proxy user against the PROXY USER NAME and PROXY PASSWORD text boxes. Confirm that password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box. If the Proxy server does not require authentication, then specify none against the PROXY USER NAME, PROXY PASSWORD, and CONFIRM PASSWORD text boxes.

  On the other hand, if the eG agent is not behind a Proxy server, then you need not disturb the default setting of any of the Proxy-related parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none.

• Provide a comma-separated list of sites to be monitored in the SITE URLS text box. The format of your specification should be as follows: <DisplayName>:<Site_URL>. For example, your specification can be: abc:http://www.abc.com/Homepage.aspx,zanax:https://www.zanax.com/Homepage.aspx

  Note that the <DisplayName> specifications will be the descriptors of this test.

• For each Site URL configured, specify a validity string against the VALIDITY STRING parameter. This means that if a comma-separated list of Site URLs has been configured, then you will also have to configure a comma-separated list of validity strings.

  Note:

  • The number of validity strings configured should be the same as the number of Site URLs configured for monitoring;

  • The validity strings should be specified in the same order as that of the Site URLs. In other words, in a comma-separated list of validity strings, the first validity string will correspond to the first site URL, the second validity string will correspond to the second site URL, and so on.

  • If you do not wish to configure a validity string for any site URL, then make sure that you set the validity string for that site URL as none.

  Typically, this test checks whether the contents of a Site URL contains the validity string that corresponds to that URL. If the searched string is found in a URL's contents, then the test reports that the contents are valid.

• Once the above values are provided, click on the UPDATE button to register the changes made.

When changing default configurations of tests, the values with “$” indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to “xyz*” and $port will be changed to “80” when configuring a test.