How to Get Synthetics Monitoring to Work in New Relic

Synthetics monitoring is a type of monitoring that uses automated scripts to test your website or application from different locations and browsers. This helps you to identify and fix performance problems before your users even notice them.

New Relic Synthetics is a powerful tool that makes it easy to set up and manage synthetic monitoring. In this article, we will walk you through the steps on how to get synthetics monitoring to work in New Relic.

Prerequisites

Before you can get started with synthetics monitoring, you will need to:

• Have a New Relic account.
• Install the New Relic Synthetics agent on your web server or application server.
• Create a New Relic Synthetics monitor.

Installing the New Relic Synthetics agent

The New Relic Synthetics agent is a lightweight Java agent that collects performance data from your website or application. To install the agent, follow these steps:

1. Download the New Relic Synthetics agent from the New Relic website.
2. Unzip the agent archive and copy the agent JAR file to your web server or application server.
3. Add the following line to your web server’s or application server’s startup script:

java -jar newrelic-synthetics-agent.jar

Creating a New Relic Synthetics monitor

To create a New Relic Synthetics monitor, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your New Relic account.
2. Click on the Synthetics tab.
3. Click on the Create monitor button.
4. Select the type of monitor you want to create. For this example, we will create a simple browser monitor.
5. Enter a name for your monitor and select the location from which you want to run the monitor.
6. Click on the Create monitor button.

Configuring your New Relic Synthetics monitor

Once you have created your monitor, you need to configure it. To do this, click on the name of your monitor in the Synthetics tab.

The following settings are available for configuring your New Relic Synthetics monitor:

• Frequency: How often you want the monitor to run.
• Thresholds: The minimum and maximum performance metrics that you want the monitor to meet.
• Notifications: How you want to be notified if the monitor fails.

Running your New Relic Synthetics monitor

Once you have configured your New Relic Synthetics monitor, it will start running automatically. You can view the results of your monitor in the Synthetics tab.

The following metrics are available for each monitor:

• Availability: Whether or not the monitor was able to access your website or application.
• Page load time: The time it took for the monitor to load your website or application.
• Response time: The time it took for the monitor to receive a response from your website or application.
• Errors: The number of errors that occurred during the monitor run.

Troubleshooting

If you are having problems with your New Relic Synthetics monitor, you can troubleshoot the problem by following these steps:

1. Check the logs for your New Relic Synthetics agent.
2. Check the configuration of your New Relic Synthetics monitor.
3. Try running the monitor from a different location.
4. Contact New Relic support for assistance.

Additional tips

Here are some additional tips for getting the most out of New Relic Synthetics monitoring:

• Create multiple monitors to test different aspects of your website or application.
• Use thresholds to identify and fix performance problems before your users even notice them.
• Set up notifications so that you are alerted to performance problems as soon as they occur.
• Use New Relic Synthetics to monitor your website or application from different locations around the world.

Conclusion

New Relic Synthetics is a powerful tool that can help you to improve the performance of your website or application. By following the steps in this article, you can get synthetics monitoring up and running in no time.