Synthetic monitoring is a powerful tool that allows you to proactively monitor the performance and availability of your web applications. With New Relic’s synthetic monitoring, you can simulate user interactions, identify issues before they impact your customers, and ensure a seamless user experience. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to get synthetic monitoring up and running in New Relic.

Step 1: Sign in to Your New Relic Account

To get started, sign in to your New Relic account. If you don’t have an account yet, you can easily create one for free. Once you’re signed in, navigate to the Synthetic Monitoring section by clicking on “Synthetic monitoring” in the left-hand menu.

Step 2: Create a New Monitor

In the Synthetic Monitoring section, click on the “Create a monitor” button to start setting up your new monitor. New Relic offers several types of synthetic monitors, including:

  • Page load performance: Checks the availability and performance of a single page, including a full page load.
  • User step execution: Mimics simple user workflows by building codeless step monitors that navigate through different pages, test page elements, and interact with forms.
  • User flow/functionality: Creates scripted browser monitors to test complex website behavior and define custom conditions and timeouts.

Choose the monitor type that best suits your needs.

Step 3: Configure Your Monitor

Once you’ve selected the monitor type, you’ll need to configure it with the necessary details:

  • Enter the URL of the page you want to monitor.
  • Select the locations from which you want your monitor to run. It’s recommended to choose at least three locations to avoid false positives.
  • Adjust the frequency of checks using the “Period” dropdown.
  • Add tags to help organize and filter your monitors.

Step 4: Define Steps or Write Scripts

Depending on the monitor type you chose, you’ll need to define the steps or write scripts to simulate user interactions:

  • For codeless step monitors (User step execution), mix and match from a selection of prebuilt steps.
  • For scripted browser monitors (User flow/functionality), use JavaScript to define custom actions and conditions.

Make sure to validate your steps or scripts before saving the monitor to ensure they run successfully.

Step 5: Save and View Results

Once you’ve configured your monitor and validated the steps or scripts, click the “Save monitor” button. Your new synthetic monitor will start running and collecting data. You can view the results in the Synthetic Monitoring summary page, which provides an overview of your monitor’s performance, response times, availability, and any errors encountered.

Best Practices for Effective Synthetic Monitoring

To get the most out of synthetic monitoring in New Relic, consider the following best practices:

  • Monitor your most critical user journeys and transactions.
  • Deploy monitors from multiple locations worldwide to ensure optimal performance for users in different regions.
  • Set appropriate thresholds for performance metrics to avoid false alarms while still detecting genuine issues.
  • Integrate synthetic monitoring with alerting to receive notifications when issues are detected.
  • Regularly analyze the data collected by your monitors to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.

By following these steps and best practices, you can effectively leverage New Relic’s synthetic monitoring to proactively monitor your web applications, identify performance bottlenecks, and deliver an exceptional user experience.

Understanding Synthetic Monitoring

Synthetic monitoring involves creating automated scripts that simulate user interactions with your web application. These scripts are executed at regular intervals from various locations worldwide, providing valuable insights into the performance and availability of your application from different geographical regions.

Key Benefits of Synthetic Monitoring

  1. Proactive Issue Detection: Synthetic monitoring allows you to identify performance issues, such as slow page load times or broken functionality, before your users encounter them.
  2. Improved User Experience: By ensuring that your application is performing optimally, you can deliver a superior user experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
  3. Reduced Downtime: With synthetic monitoring, you can quickly detect and resolve issues, minimizing downtime and its impact on your business.
  4. Performance Benchmarking: Synthetic monitoring provides a consistent and reliable way to measure the performance of your application over time, allowing you to track improvements and identify trends.

Conclusion

Synthetic monitoring is a vital tool for ensuring the performance and availability of your web applications. By proactively detecting issues, improving user experience, and reducing downtime, synthetic monitoring helps you deliver a superior digital experience to your customers.

By following the steps outlined in this guide and implementing best practices, you can effectively leverage synthetic monitoring to monitor your critical user journeys, identify performance bottlenecks, and continuously optimize your application. Remember to complement synthetic monitoring with real user monitoring to gain a holistic view of your application’s performance. With the right monitoring strategy in place, you can confidently deliver high-quality web applications that meet the expectations of your users.

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