If your web application going down costs big money, this in-depth guide is for you. I‘ll explain everything you need to enable round-the-clock synthetic monitoring with New Relic – the popular performance management platform.
You‘ll discover how to configure different monitor types to start proactively detecting issues before customers complain. Plus expert tips to maximize the value after setup.
Let‘s get started!
What is Synthetic Monitoring and Why It Matters
Synthetic monitoring provides continuous simulation of user traffic hitting your web applications. As Forrester says in their report:
"Ongoing synthetic monitoring is a must-have insurance policy for success in the digital economy."
By automatically mimicking user journeys from global locations, synthetic monitoring helps you:
- Prevent outages – Be alerted of availability issues before customers notice them. Fix problems fast.
- Improve performance – Identify slow loading elements on pages degrading user experience.
- Maintain revenues – Catch checkout payment failures on ecommerce early to prevent lost sales.
According to research, the average cost of website downtime exceeds $100,000 per hour across industries like retail, banking, airlines etc.
Can you afford that? With synthetic monitoring, you need not worry about sudden traffic spikes crashing your website.
Key Capabilities of New Relic‘s Synthetic Monitoring
Founded in 2008, over 50,000 customers including IBM, Walmart, Starbucks etc. rely on New Relic for full-stack observability. Their synthetic monitoring solution offers:
- Testing from 300+ data center locations globally for accurate worldwide user experience.
- Public and private synthetic monitoring capabilities.
- Simulating different browsers, devices and network conditions.
- Support for availability ping testing, simple browser, scripted browser, and API monitoring.
- Advanced scripting for sophisticated workflows like web transactions, UI interactions etc.
- Powerful alert notifications, reporting and integrations with collaboration tools.
- Intuitive dashboards to visualize key application and performance metrics.
Let‘s look at how you can leverage these capabilities through step-by-step configuration.
Prerequisites for Synthetic Monitoring with New Relic
Before we start, you need:
- A New Relic account – Sign up here to get started.
- URLs of critical applications and journeys to monitor.
They offer a free Lite tier for unlimited data. Paid Pro and Enterprise plans unlock advanced functions like custom apps, SLA reporting etc.
Now let‘s configure our first monitor!
Configuring an Availability Monitor
Availability or "ping" testing provides the simplest signal – is my website up or down?
Latency and uptime metrics from different geographic regions help benchmark performance and ensure reliability.
To create an availability monitor:
Step 1) Navigate to Synthetics > Monitor setup in New Relic. Name your test descriptively.
Step 2) Select Availability monitor type. Enter the target URL you want to monitor.
Step 3) Set frequency – how often should tests run? 5 mins is good to start.
Step 4) Enable at least 4 public cloud test locations covering America, Asia, Europe.
It takes just minutes to start collecting vital availability data on your production websites! Failure notifications also alert you whenever uptime drops below configured threshold.
Availability Monitoring Use Cases
- Ecommerce sites losing $10,000s per hour of downtime.
- Publishing sites struggling with traffic spikes after a celebrity news break.
- API backends critical to mobile apps demanding ultra high availability.
Basically any externally facing business services where outages directly impact revenue and customer experience.
Now let‘s look at monitoring actual page load performance…
Configuring a Simple Browser Monitor
While availability monitors only check if a site loads, browser monitoring measures the actual page load speed experienced by end users.
Factors like geography, connection type and device impact load times. So New Relic synthetic browser testing helps you optimize site speed from different locations on various networks.
To set up simple browser monitoring:
Step 1) Create a new Synthetic test as before. Choose Simple Browser type.
Step 2) Enter your key web page and set frequency.
Step 3) Pick test regions – I recommend at least 6 locations spanning 3 continents.
You‘ll now get page load waterfall charts showing DNS lookup, connection, SSL handshakes and content load times segmenting where latency comes from.
Set sensible thresholds and be alerted when page load times exceed expected targets before customers leave your site!
Browser Monitoring Use Cases
- Ecommerce sites optimizing landing page speed to boost conversions
- Brands ensuring consistent experience across regions and devices with global users
- Marketplaces tracking third-party seller site performance in one unified view
Essentially any customer facing web business where site speed impacts revenue and loyalty.
Let‘s move on to more advanced synthetic monitoring…
Configuring Scripted Browser Monitors
While simple browser checks exercise one web page, scripted browsers emulate complex multi-step workflows across an entire site:
- User signup flows
- Shopping cart checkout processes
- Content publishing workflows
- Web application data updates
Scripted browsers crawl links to test full user journeys. Customizable data, logic, assertions and loops help simulate real-world usage.
To build a scripted browser monitor:
Step 1) Define scenarios including URLs, data and test flow logic you wish to execute.
Step 2) Script sequences of steps using New Relic‘s browser DSL.
Step 3) Set pass/fail assertions to validate app behavior.
Now execution metrics like transaction times, JS errors and fail rates benchmark end-to-end performance.
These deep workflow insights assure your conversion funnels operate flawlessly before real users attempt them!
Scripted Browser Use Cases
- Onboarding multi-page processes for trial signups
- Booking journeys across airline/hotel/rental sites
- Enterprise SaaS app workflow testing pre-release
Business critical user flows where each step must perform perfectly every time.
Configuring API Monitoring
APIs now power the seamless interconnected digital experiences customers expect. With New Relic you can:
- Confirm API availability and response times
- Track status codes and fail rates
- Set thresholds for unusual traffic spikes indicating attacks
- Validate behavior with custom assertions
Creating an API test follows a similar flow to browser monitoring:
Step 1) Define endpoint URL, expected response format, input test data/headers etc.
Step 2) Script API calls and assertions to execute.
Step 3) Customize pass/fail criteria per your specs.
Now keep your SOAP and REST APIs humming smoothly across regions without surprises!
API Monitoring Use Cases
- Daily billions of API calls critical to mobile and web apps
- APIs enabling partner integration ecosystems
- Code releases with risk of breaking downstream integrations
Any infrastructure where APIs drive business functions should be synthetically monitored 24/7.
Best Practices for Maximizing Value from Synthetic Monitoring
While getting synthetic tests operational is straightforward, architecting them for optimal value takes skill.
Here are 8 expert tips on advanced synthetic monitoring configurations for flawless digital experience delivery:
1. Design Multi-Step Journeys
Don‘t just monitor individual pages. Build sequenced test flows executing across entire websites reflecting real-world customer paths.
2. Parameterize Payloads
Scripts should execute varied test data sets resembling production. Randomize inputs using parameterized data dictionaries for unique permutations uncovering edge cases.
3. Mask Sensitive Information
Never directly embed credentials or API keys in scripts! Refer values indirectly via New Relic‘s secure credential storage instead.
4. Implement Custom Failure Handling
Code your monitors to gracefully handle failures without abruptly stopping test runs. Custom exception handling ensures subsequent steps still execute reporting full results.
5. Visualize Vital Performance Metrics
Beyond out-of-box reporting, build custom New Relic dashboards highlighting key synthetic data metrics for your apps. Focus visibility on aspects needing closest monitoring.
6. Profile Performance Baselines
Run tests from bare minimum necessary locations under ideal conditions reflecting best case performance. This documents baseline efficacy to target for optimizations.
7. Define SLIs and SLOs
Leverage synthetic monitoring data to formally define Service Level Indicators (SLIs) and Objectives (SLOs) per business needs. Ensure engineering teams build to reliably satisfy SLO thresholds.
8. Alert Aggressively on Anomalies
Configure intelligent alerts notified on priority channels when vital metrics deviate from norms. Trigger automated rollback workflows stopping faulty releases reaching customers.
Those are crucial best practices for boosting ROIs on synthetic monitoring!
Comparing New Relic‘s Pricing Plans
Let‘s examine how New Relic‘s different pricing tiers compare for synthetic monitoring capabilities:
| Lite | Pro | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | Free | $149+ | Custom Quotes |
| Availability Tests | 50 | 150 | Unlimited |
| Browser Tests | 2 | 10 | Unlimited |
| API Tests | – | 10 | Unlimited |
| Advanced Reporting | – | ✔️ | Full Suite |
So Pro or Enterprise plans unlock more frequent and sophisticated testing capabilities for growing businesses.
Contact New Relic sales to evaluate your requirements against bundles optimized by industry and company size.
Get Started with New Relic Synthetic Monitoring
Now you should feel empowered to get the most from synthetic monitoring!
Here is a quick recap of next steps:
- Sign up for a free New Relic account
- Start basic testing with availability and browser monitoring
- Graduate to scripted browser and API testing for advanced coverage
- Tune thresholds, locations, variables to mirror production
- Build custom dashboards focused on critical app metrics
- Get alerted early on subtle performance changes indicating issues
- Fix problems preemptively before customers complain!
I hope this guide served as a comprehensive how-to tutorial on configuring synthetic monitoring within New Relic.
Remember, digital businesses seeking continuous uptime and peak performance ignore synthetic testing at their own peril today!
Have questions while getting started? Feel free to email me or leave comments below.
