HTTP default checks and policies

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of HTTP Default Checks and Policies

    The Agent Client Collector in ServiceNow provides policies for HTTP health monitoring, essential for ensuring your web endpoints are functioning optimally. These policies include checks that monitor redirection and response times, allowing customers to maintain service reliability and performance.

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    Key Features

    • HTTP Entry Point Events Policy:
      • util.check-http-follow-redirect: Verifies redirection links can be successfully followed. It includes options for basic authentication and AWS configuration.
      • util.check-http-response: Monitors URL response times, generating CRITICAL or WARNING events if thresholds are exceeded, helping you manage performance issues proactively.
    • HTTP Entry Point Metrics Policy:
      • util.metrics-http-curl: Collects metrics on HTTP endpoints using curl, requiring a proxy agent for detailed insights into performance metrics.

    Key Outcomes

    By implementing these checks and policies, ServiceNow customers can expect:

    • Improved visibility into the health and performance of web services.
    • Proactive management of potential issues through timely alerts on performance thresholds.
    • Enhanced ability to gather detailed metrics for informed decision-making.

    Agent Client Collector provides the following policies for HTTP health monitoring. Policies come with the checks specified in the tables below.

    Table 1. HTTP entry point events policy
    Type Check Description Usage and Usage Example Output
    Event util.check-http-follow-redirect Verifies that redirection links can be followed in a set number of requests.
    Usage check-head-redirect.rb (options):
    • -A, --auth-first-only: Use basic auth on first request only.
    • -aws-access-key-id: AWS Access Key. Either set ENV["AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"] or provide it as an option on agent.
    • -r -aws-region: AWS Region (defaults to us-east-1).
    • --aws-secret-access-key: AWS Secret Access Key. Either set ENV["AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"] or provide it as an option on agent.
    • -R --redirect: Follow first <N> redirects
    • -g --get-redirects: Follow first <N> redirects with GET requests.
    • -s, --s3-config-bucket: S3 config bucket to get configuration.
    • -k, --s3-config-key: S3 config key to get configuration.
    • -u, --url: URL needs to be updated in Monitoring HTTP Entrypoint/cmdb_ci_endpoint_http_list.do for the CI.
    The Aws-region, aws-secret-key, aws-access-key ,s3-config, s3-config-key parameters are useful if you do not want to configure connection information in other check parameters. If a bucket and key have access to the environment in which the Sensu check executes in, provide an AWS key and token and the checks pull the specified JSON file from S3 and merge the JSON config into the current check configuration.

    Usage example: command: check-head-redirect.rb -R 10 -u 'https://servicenow.com'

    		 Check Head Redirect OK
    Event util.check-http-response Verifies URL response time and raises a CRITICAL/WARNING event if elapsed time exceeds provided CRITICAL/WARNING thresholds. Otherwise, it raises an OK event.

    Usage: check-head-redirect.rb (options)

    • -R, --redirect: Follow first <N> redirects.
    • -w --timeout_warning: Set the timeout threshold for warning in milliseconds.
    • -c --timeout_critical: Set the timeout threshold for critical in milliseconds.
    • -u, --url URL needs to be updated in Monitoring HTTP Entrypoint/cmdb_ci_endpoint_http_list.do for the CI.

    Usage example: command: check-head-redirect.rb -R 10 -u 'https://servicenow.com' -w 3000 -c 5000

    		 Check Head Redirect OK
    Table 2. HTTP entry point metrics policy
    Type Check Description Usage and Usage Example Output
    Metric util.metrics-http-curl Retrieves metrics on HTTP endpoints using curl.

    This check requires a proxy agent.
    Usage:
    • -a, --curl_args "CURL ARGS": Additional arguments to pass to curl.
    • s, --scheme SCHEME: Metric naming scheme, text to append to metric (Default: hostname).
    • -u, --url: URL needs to be updated in Monitoring HTTP Entrypoint/cmdb_ci_endpoint_http_list.do for the CI.

    Usage example: metrics-curl.rb -u myURL.com -a -Lk

    		 Check run successfully. Output:

    ws10.curl_timings.time_total 0.219622 1642749209

    ws10.curl_timings.time_namelookup 0.145494 1642749209

    ws10.curl_timings.time_connect 0.151103 1642749209

    ws10.curl_timings.time_pretransfer 0.168569 1642749209

    ws10.curl_timings.time_redirect 0.095899 1642749209

    ws10.curl_timings.time_starttransfer 0.219351 1642749209

    ws10.curl_timings.http_code 200 1642749209