Requesting Web Application Monitoring

1. Visit the ServiceNow Service Catalog for Web Application Monitoring.
2. Click the "Request" button which will take you to the service intake request form.
3. Complete the request and click "Next" (or "Submit").

Understanding the Questions

• Web Application Information
  This is where you tell us about your web application and how to test it. To start, we need the name of the application. We also need to know the URL or web address of the web application. When the test is created, we will gather more specifics about the service, such as which TCP ports are used, authentication methods, timeout information and more.

• Where is your application hosted?
  There are three choices:
  
  • "On campus" - means your server is either hosted within your department or building or it is co-located in one the University’s data centers.
  • "Cloud" - meaning you have your server hosted in one of the many cloud vendor sites around the world such as Azure, Amazon Web Services, Rackspace or other location not on campus.
  • "Not sure" - if you are not sure where it is hosted - select this option and we will assist in figuring this out.

• Types of Tests
  The question: "...By default, Availability (up/down) monitoring will be provided for your Web Application on either HTTP (TCP Port 80) or HTTPS (TCP Port 443). Tests are run every 5 minutes. Alerts will be sent to a group email address... Please select any additional monitoring tests desired:"
  • "Login Verification" — ThousandEyes is able to use provided credentials (via Stache) to test if authentication is working and is accepting logins.
  • "Transactional (User experience)" — ThousandEyes uses a well know web scripting language called "Selinum" to perform a series of tasks and look for expected results.  If your web application has a complex login process, or a process to ensure the site is responding properly, then this is the type of test you want to use.
  • "Other..."  —  There are many different types of tests that ThousandEyes can perform to test different aspects of your web application such as DNS testing, FTP server verification, web page load tests and more.

• How will Web Application Monitoring be assisting you and your department?
  We are just looking for more information about your web application, how you will be using the monitoring to help you or your department.  Please be a descriptive as possible, as this well help us better understand your needs.

• Web Application Environment
  
  
  • "Production" — It is currently live and your customers are actively using your application.
  • "Non-Production" — It is currently under development or being tested internally.

• Please select the earliest date your application will require monitoring:
  We are looking to figure out how much time we have to set up your service to help us prioritize the incoming requests.

• "Please provide a group email address where alert email notifications..."
  We need a UTLIST or Exchange hosted group mailing list for which you control membership.  Using this address enables you to control who gets alerts and who does not by managing the list.

Logging in and using the web console
Learn how to navigate around within the ThousandEyes web console.   This KB article gives you a quick overview of the main console window and the navigation bar and what each means.  Additional articles are available on the ThousandEyes "Customer Success Center" that will help you:

• Menus and navigation are standard across the platform. For information on menus and navigation, consult the ThousandEyes Customer Support KB article here: Navigation Bar and Menu

Understanding Tests and Alerts
Customers can not create or manipulate existing tests or alerts and have to be completed by the web application monitoring team.  It is however very useful to review how tests and alerts are setup and all the features and capabilities so your can make test creation requests.

• Creating Tests (on the ThousandEyes Customer Success Center)
• Creating Alerts (on the ThousandEyes Customer Success Center)
• How Alerts Work (on the ThousandEyes Customer Success Center)

Working with Dashboards
The Dashboard page is the starting point when you log in to the ThousandEyes platform. A Dashboard consists of one or more Dashboard widgets. Depending on the type(s) of widgets in a Dashboard configuration, your Dashboard can display a summary of your test results for the last 12 hours, a map of your Enterprise Agents and their status, an Alert Grid or a report created with the Reports feature. Widget configuration allows for filtering out or on specific elements, and other options.

• Working with the Dashboard
• Customizing or Create new Dashboards

Working with Reports and Snapshots

The ThousandEyes platform contains a reporting engine which provides both on-demand reports and scheduling of automatically generated reports. Data from tests can be organized into highly customized layouts, presented numerically or in tables or graphs, and sent via email to users.

A report consists of one or more report widgets. We currently provide ten types: Numbers, Tables, Multi-metric Tables, Pie Chart, Stacked Bar/Column Chart, Grouped Bar/Column Chart, Time Series, Time Series Stacked Bar Chart, Map and Box-and-Whiskers. You create a report by selecting the widgets appropriate for the data you wish to include, and then configuring the parameters of the widgets. Widget parameters allow for operations on the raw test data such as statistical calculations (e.g. means, medians or percentiles), data trends, and tabular views of the data. Widget configuration also permits arrangement of the numbers, tables and time series graphs on the page. Once configured, reports permit the user to select a time frame of interest, and the report page will then be populated with that period's test data according to the report configuration.

With each report you can take report snapshots. Report snapshots are analogous to test view snapshots. The snapshot represents a specific time range of the report’s data. Report snapshot creation can be scheduled at regular intervals. Additionally, the report snapshot can be automatically emailed to a list of recipients.

• Working with Reports
• Embedding report widgets into external web sites

Understanding Maintenance Windows and Availability

ThousandEyes is regularly updated to allow for growth and correct any issues through patches and new releases.  Customer must expect routine maintenance to be scheduled periodically to comply with new standards and updates.

• More information in the KB article