ALT Script Monitor

You use the Astra LoadTest (ALT) Script Monitor to automatically run Astra LoadTest Web transaction test scripts and monitor the results in SiteScope. Astra LoadTest scripts simulate a wide range of real user actions available in the Web browser. You can use this to monitor Web transactions from the user experience perspective, using all the features of the Web browser. Since the ALT Script Monitor is based on a Astra LoadTest recorded script, you can perform the most complex actions, on the most complex sites, with no need for additional programming. Astra LoadTest supports all the browser technologies, including JavaScript, SSL, XML and XSL, NTLM authentication, cookies, behaviors, CSS and so forth.

Usage Guidelines

Astra LoadTest Script Monitor provides you with an alternative means of end-to-end Web transaction verification.

There are no limitations regarding running concurrent ALT script monitors. Of course you have to make sure your SiteScope is not overloading the CPU and memory of the server where it is running.

Note: If your site contains Java Applets that the user interacts with, and that are essential for the business process, use the QTP (QuickTest Pro) Script Monitor. Astra LoadTest doesn't support Java Applets.

The following are several key requirements for using the ALT Script Monitor:

The ALT Script Monitor is only available on SiteScope for Windows NT/2000 but can be used to monitor websites and transactions that run other operating systems.
Astra LoadTest (version 5.4.3 or later) must be installed on the same machine as the SiteScope you want to run the ALT Script Monitors.
Create the test scripts using the ALT Recorder according to the test cases you want to monitor. Note that you can add checkpoints to the tests (to verify content), parameterize the values entered (to monitor different flows) and much more. Refer ALT help and tutorial for additional information.
Add transactions to the test script using the Astra LoadTest recorder. These transactions will be used as counters in the SiteScope ALT Script Monitor, enabling you to put thresholds on their values. Note that if ALT is already being used in the QA department of your company, you can reuse the tests created there to run them in your environment.
If you are running SiteScope service as a LocalSystem Account, add the user credentials in the Recorder preference page.

Completing the ALT Script Monitor Form

To display the ALT Script Monitor Form, either click the Edit link for an existing ALT Script Monitor in a monitor table, or click the Add a new Monitor to this Group link on a group's detail page and click the Add ALT Script Monitor link. Complete the items on the ALT Script Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the Add Monitor button.

Test Path: Select the test from the drop-down list of available tests or choose "Other" and enter the full path of the file under the required test directory. The test script can be stored anywhere on the server, or on the LAN, as long as you can access it from the SiteScope machine, using the same path. The drop-down list presents the available tests under a certain directory. By default the tests directory is the "Tests" directory under ALT installation directory. You can change the root directory of the tests in the Recorder preference page.
Counters: Click the Counters link to select the transactions (which have to be defined in the ALT test itself) that you want to use as counters. These transactions will be available in the thresholds list once you have added the monitor.
Update every: Select how often the monitor should check the Database server. The default interval is to run or update the monitor once every 10 minutes. Use the drop-down list to the right of the text box to specify another update interval in increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. The update interval must be 15 seconds or longer.
Title: Enter a title text for this monitor. This text is displayed in the group detail page, in report titles, and other places in the SiteScope interface. If you do not enter a title text, SiteScope will create a title based on the host, server, or URL being monitored.

Advanced Options

The Advanced Options section presents a number of ways to customize monitor behavior and display. Use this section to customize error and warning thresholds, disable the monitor, set monitor-to-monitor dependencies, customize display options, and enter other monitor specific settings required for special infrastructure environments. The options for this monitor type are described below. Complete the entries as needed and click the Add or Update button to save the settings.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Timeout

Enter the total time, in seconds, to wait for a successful test run. The time, in seconds, to wait for a success test run. After the defined timeout the monitor will stop running with an error timeout, and the browser and all the other processes created by running the monitor will be killed.

Detailed errors logging

Check this box if you want SiteScope to include detailed errors in the state string and in the log file in case of failure. In any case of failure, SiteScope will keep the log file of all the script execution, and a link to this log file will be available from the state string of the monitor and from the reports for future reference.

Process HTTP failure as error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to process every HTTP error (such as server not found) as an error in the monitor run. Note that choosing this option will fail the monitor and the transaction in which it appeared, even if a single .gif file is missing. By default HTTP errors counts as warning.

Process Checkpoint failure as warning

Check this box if you want SiteScope to process checkpoint failure as an error. Checkpoints are verification points that can be added using the ALT Recorder, and enable you to verify the content of a page. By default checkpoint failures are counted as errors.

Ignore warnings

Check this box if you want SiteScope to ignore all warnings appeared during the script execution. Note that choosing this option will cause all the Warnings thresholds to be ignored. By default SiteScope doesn't ignore warnings.

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: In order to change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note: The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning: Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Update Every (on error)

You use this options to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling will also affect the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Schedule

By default, SiteScope monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Click the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For more information about working with monitor schedules, see the section on Schedule Preferences for Monitoring.

Monitor Description

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <br> <hr>, and <b>tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description

Enter an optional description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what the monitor does. For example, network traffic or main server response time. This description will be displayed on with each bar chart and graph in Management Reports and appended to the tool-tip displayed when you pass the mouse cursor over the status icon for this monitor on the monitor detail page.

Depends On

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, select the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Setting Monitor Status Thresholds

SiteScope Application Monitors allow you to set multiple threshold conditions to determine the status reported by each monitor. The individual conditions are combined as logical OR relationships so that when one or more of the conditions (for example any of the conditions for Error if) are met the monitor status is set to the applicable condition. If multiple conditions are met for more than one status condition (such as conditions for both error and for warning), the status for the monitor is set to the highest valued condition. Thus a match of an error condition and a warning condition would be reported as an error status, error being the highest value, warning the next highest and good the lowest value.

Error if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more error conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change error threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. After choosing a counter or parameter, use the comparison operator drop-down list to specify an error threshold such as: >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than) and enter a comparison value in the box provided. Comparison values should be entered as whole numbers.
Warning if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more warning conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change warning threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. Set these values relative to those you set for the error threshold in the Error if item.
Good if: You can set this monitor to return a good status for certain conditions. You may define those conditions here. Complete this item as you would for the Error if and Warning if items.