Synthetic monitoring release notes
Summarize
Summary of Synthetic monitoring release notes
The ServiceNow® Synthetic Monitoring application, introduced in the Yokohama release and accessible through the Service Operations Workspace (SOW), enables organizations to proactively track and improve the performance and availability of critical HTTP service endpoints. By simulating user transactions, it helps detect performance issues, ensure uptime, and optimize user experiences without relying on actual user traffic.
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This application is available via the ServiceNow Store and requires installation through the store process.
Key Features
- Create and manage synthetic monitors: Configure tests that replicate end-user interactions with service endpoints.
- Configurable alerts: Receive notifications when tests fail to address issues before they impact users.
- Test capabilities (version 1.2):
- Validate HTTP response codes to ensure endpoints return success statuses.
- Set response time thresholds to meet performance expectations.
- Check for specific response text in the body for accurate end-to-end validation.
- Test execution options: Run tests from multiple geographic locations or directly from your local Glide instance (starting in version 1.2), reducing dependency on external agents.
- Monitoring insights: Use the Overview page to view monitor status, failure and response time charts, historical logs including response details, and related configuration items (CIs) to facilitate troubleshooting.
- User interface improvements (version 1.2): Enhanced filtering for endpoints, bulk editing of monitors, and improved charts focusing on failures.
Activation and Requirements
- Install the Synthetic Monitoring application via the ServiceNow Store.
- If using version 1.0, configure at least one proxy agent through the Agent Client Collector to monitor service health; this is optional starting with version 1.2 when tests can run locally.
- Add relevant configuration items (CIs) to the CMDB for the endpoints you wish to monitor.
- For endpoints requiring authentication, configure credentials in the Credentials [discoverycredentials] table.
Integration with Other ServiceNow Features
- Agent Client Collector: Supports use of proxy agents to monitor service endpoints.
- Service Operations Workspace: Provides a unified environment to access and manage synthetic monitoring alongside other IT Operations Management workflows.
The ServiceNow® synthetic monitoring application in the Service Operations Workspace (SOW) empowers organizations to proactively manage and enhance the performance and availability of critical service endpoints. By simulating user transactions on HTTP endpoints, this solution identifies performance bottlenecks, helps ensure up-time, and optimizes user experiences. Synthetic monitoring is a new application in the Yokohama release.
Synthetic monitoring highlights for the Yokohama release
- View real-world performance data from your services without needing actual users, catching issues before they're released to production.
- Get real-time notifications for performance degradations or outages before they impact users.
- Visualize synthetic test results and share insights with stakeholders.
See Synthetic monitoring for more information.
Synthetic monitoring features
- Create and edit a synthetic monitor
- Create and manage synthetic tests to replicate end-user transactions for critical service endpoints. Configure an alert to activate when a test fails, enabling you to address issues before they impact users.As of version 1.2, you can:
- Test for response code: Confirm that your endpoints are returning success codes and know when they aren’t.
- Test for response time: Confirm that your services are meeting performance expectations by setting thresholds for response times.
- Test for response text: Validate whether specific content exists in the response body, enabling accurate end-to-end checks.
- Run tests from your local Glide instance: Enable closer integration with your instance and reduce the need for external test runners.
- Run tests from multiple locations.
- Identifying system issues with synthetic monitoring
- View the Overview page for a monitor where you can:
- View the status of the monitor.
- View charts that display test failures and response times.
- Visit related configuration items (CIs) that might be the start to investigating failed tests.
- View a historical log of synthetic test runs, including details and the response body text.
- Share results by exporting a list of tests for a monitor.
UI changes
- Overview and detail pages in SOW.
- Create view and manage your synthetic monitors on the overview and detail pages.As of version 1.2, the following UI enhancements are available:
- Improved filtering for finding your endpoints.
- Bulk editing of monitors.
- Charts on the Overview page now display failures instead of successes.
Activation information
Install synthetic monitoring by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.
Additional requirements
- If
you have version 1.0, configure at least one proxy agent on the Agent Client Collector. These agents should be the ones you use to monitor the health and performance of the services to be monitored. For more information about proxy agents, see Using proxy agents in Agent Client Collector.
Starting with version 1.2, you can run tests from your local Glide instance instead of a proxy agent.
- Add CIs in the CMDB for the endpoints that you want to monitor.
- If your endpoints require authentication, configure credentials in the Credentials [discovery_credentials] table.