Make synthetic monitoring a critical part of your IT monitoring strategy: Why and How?

© eG Innovations, Inc. | www.eginnovations.com | Confidential
Synthetic Monitoring – Beyond Logon
Enhancements and New Capabilities in eG Enterprise 7.1
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Rachel Berry
Technical Product Marketing
The Team Today
Thyagarajan UdayaKumar
Lead Technical Consultant
rachel.berry@eginnovations.com
@rhbbse

Agenda
• What is synthetic monitoring and what are the 4 key types of
synthetic monitoring
• Protocol monitoring (HTML, FTP, SQL, POP3, SMTP….)
• Logon Simulation
• The new eG Enterprise Web Application simulator
• How to synthetically test thick apps (SAP) and full client
sessions
• Recent product updates and changes

What is Synthetic Monitoring?
• Synthetic monitoring uses software robots to actively simulate
user transactions to IT applications and measure their
availability and responsiveness.
• Continuous simulation helps detect application availability and
response time problems proactively and allows administrators
to correct them before users notice.
• Logon Simulation alone doesn’t tell you is Excel or Word is
available, let alone if and why it’s slow.

The Four Key Use Cases
• eG Enterprise includes a wide range of synthetic monitoring
capabilities that cater to a number of use cases:
• Protocol simulation: This is ideal for simple simulation of protocol requests
(HTTP, SMTP, ICA, SQL etc.) to target systems and applications, and observing their
responses.
• Purpose-built logon simulators: eG Enterprise embeds purpose-built simulators
for digital workspace environments (Citrix, VMware Horizon, AWS WorkSpaces,
Microsoft AVD etc.) that simulate user logons without the need for a separate
recording step.
• Web app simulation: To support multiple step transactions that include form
fills, mouse clicks, etc., eG Enterprise includes a web app transaction recording and
replay tool.
• Full, client session simulation: Ideal for simulating multi-step transactions to any
type of application - thin client or thick client, this uses a simulation engine that
works based on optical character recognition technology. Used for VDI and thick
apps (e.g. SAP).

What is Protocol Simulation?
• This approach uses different protocols to perform simulation:
– HTTP protocol’s GET method is used to test whether a website is available and
how fast it responds to a user request
– ICMP echo (aka ping) is used to assess whether a server was reachable or not
– SMTP and POP3 protocols can be used to determine the performance of email
applications
– FTP, SQL, IMAP, ICA, and other protocols and applications that support them can
be monitored with this approach
Protocol simulation works for single-step transactions only.
Can be used for end-to-end monitoring and for individual tiers of an infrastructure.

Demo 1 – Protocol Simulation
• A problem it solves: Is your company website available and
fast?
• Proactive alerting
• Built in UI dashboards
• Out-of-the-box reports to assess SLAs, give management
reports

Synthetic Monitoring of Web Performance: New UI in 7.1
Monitor web page availability and
response time using the HTTP
Access simulation capability
Click on the Detailed
Diagnosis icon to see the
response time break-up on
an intuitive visualization
Provides a breakdown of
response time to identify
where the bottleneck lies.

New Reports Available for Protocol Simulation
New reports available for
protocol simulation
Monitor simulates transaction
availability over time and plot trends to
understand simulation trends

Logon Simulator
• Supported for digital workspaces including:
– Citrix
– VMware
– Amazon WorkSpaces
– Microsoft AVD
• Standalone FREE Logon simulator available for VMware and
Citrix from www.eginnovations.com

Update: Logon Simulation Supported on More Gateways
1
In addition to Citrix StoreFront and
Gateway, now OKTA, Azure AD,
AD FS, Web Interface or F5 Load
Balancer are also supported

Demo 2 – Logon Simulation
• The problems it solves: Can users logon to their digital
WorkSpaces Citrix/Vmware/Microsoft AVD/Amazon
WorkSpaces? Are logon times acceptable or degrading? If
logon fails or is slow – why?
• Detailed insights and logon time breakdowns to allow you to
identify the cause of slow logon times.
• Identify issues before real users encounter them.
• Best used in conjunction with Real User Monitoring (RUM)

New Synthetic Monitoring Capabilities in eG Enterprise 7.1
• New: Web App Simulator
• New UI for Client Session Simulation (Thick
Client) via AppsMon/Itexis
• Screenshot Capture Capability for Citrix and
VMware Horizon Logon Simulator
• Enhancements to Protocol Simulation

What Tools Exist in eG Enterprise for Synthetic Monitoring?
• For App/Desktop Virtualization:
– Logon simulator for Citrix and
VMware Horizon
– Client session simulator (using
Itexis/AppsMon)
• For Web Applications:
– Client session simulator
(using Itexis/AppsMon)
• We have developed a new in-house tool called
Web Application Simulator that will be used in
place of Itexis/AppsMon
─ Itexis/AppsMon is a general-purpose tool and
not HTML-aware
─ Requires a level of scripting
─ Requires additional license
• Web App Simulator overcomes these challenges
and is purpose-built for web apps
• We will continue to use Itexis/AppsMon for
synthetic monitoring in VDI and thick client
environments
• For Web Applications:
– Client session simulator
(using Itexis/AppsMon)
• For Thick Client Apps (SAP, etc.):
– Client session simulator (using
Itexis/AppsMon)

The All New
Web App Simulator

Simulating and Recording a Web App Transaction
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Make payment
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What is the Web App Simulator?
• Proactively monitoring user experience of web apps is essential in today’s age
of digital transformation and cloud-native deployments
– Slowness or downtime of web apps will lead to degraded user experience and affect
business productivity, revenues and even the company brand
– Especially in competitive businesses such as eCommerce, when faced with a slow
experience, a user would immediately switch to a different site
• Web App Simulator is purpose-built tool for synthetic simulation of web apps
• Easy-to-use record and playback tool, which can be used from any remote
location to simulate web application access

Records simulated transactions for
the web app and generates a script
(Part of eG Agent)
How the Web App Simulator Works
eG Enterprise
Web Console
eG Manager
Script is exported
Script can be imported back for any
changes and can be reuploaded
eG Agent with Playback Engine is downloaded and installed on the target system
Script is downloaded
on to the target
system for playback
eG Agent pushes all
metrics collected from
simulation playback
Real-time and historical data accessed
Monitoring
Alerting
Reporting
Transaction
Recorder
Simulation Playback Stations
Location 1
Location 3
Location 2

4 Key Components of the Web App Simulator
1. Web App Simulation Transaction Recorder
2. Web App Simulation Playback Engine
3. Web App Simulation Monitoring Dashboard
4. Web App Simulation Report

Demo 3 – The Web App Simulator
• The problem it solves: Is your company eCommerce site
available and are full transactions being completed?
• The problem it solves: Are key third-party web-based SaaS
apps really working for employees?

How is Web App Simulator Licensed?
• Web App Simulator is licensed based on the number of playback stations
from where simulations are executed
– One eG External Agent is needed for each playback station
• Licensing is not restricted to the number of web applications or number of
transactions being simulated.
– Multiple web apps can be simulated
– Multiple simulations (scripts) of the same web app can be executed
• Multiple simulations from one playback station are possible, but they will
have to happen sequentially and not in parallel

New UI for
Client Session Simulation
(for Thick Clients) via
AppsMon/Itexis

New UI for Transaction Flow Visualization
• The same transaction flow visualization screen used
for Web App Simulation is being incorporated for
Client Session Simulation.
• Reporting has also been enhanced. Now, Client
Session Simulation reports follow the same report
pattern as Web App Simulation.
Client Session Simulation is used to simulate a full
desktop session including application access.
Primarily used for VDI and thick client simulation.

Transaction Flow Visualization: A Successful Simulation
Visualize the step-by-step flow of transactions
performed by a user inside a virtual desktop
and the status and response time

Transaction Flow Visualization: A Failed Simulation
View the captured
screenshot of a failed
transaction to analyze further

Web App Simulation
Synthetic user experience monitoring during
web application access
Logon Simulation
Simulate and monitor logon performance for
digital workspaces and SaaS applications
eG Enterprise: The Only Solution That Offers 4 Approaches to
Synthetic Monitoring
Protocol Simulation
Test availability of applications with single-step
transaction (HTTP access, network access, etc.)
Client Session Simulation
Synthetic simulation of application access in a
thick client (physical/virtual desktop)

+1 (866) 526 6700 www.eginnovations.com
info@eginnovations.com
Thank You

#1 Web App Simulation Transaction Recorder
o This is a standalone desktop tool that is packaged with the
eG Agent and is installed on the computer/VM from where
the simulation will happen
o This is used to simulate the required web transactions and
record the entire simulation to be played back at custom
intervals later on for synthetic monitoring

Note: Web app simulation is
only supported on Chrome
as of now.
How the Transaction Recorder Works
Enter the URL
(with http/s) to
be simulated
Press the Record button
to start recording the
simulation
The simulation will begin by
opening the web app URL in
a Chrome browser
Each URL hit on the web app is
captured as a Transaction. And
every action (mouse-click, keystroke,
etc.) is captured as an Activity
A recorded transaction
Activities comprising the
recorded transaction

How to Modify Recorded Transactions
Right-click on an Activity
to edit/modify its
properties
Right-click on a
Transaction to edit/modify
its properties

Configuring The Simulation Playback
• Once the simulation is recorded, a
script gets generated and saved locally
in the system where the Recorder is
running
• The script can easily be exported to
the eG Manager from the Recorder
itself
• The exported script can even be
imported back to any remote system
where the Recorder is running for any
changes and be exported back to the
eG Manager
Enter a name for the script and
the eG Manager credentials to
export the script
On the Test Config Page on the eG Manager’s
Admin console, you can view the exported
script, where playback frequency can be
configured

#2 Web App Simulation Playback Engine
• The playback engine is an executable that is bundled as part of the eG Agent
and is installed on remote locations (playback stations) from where the
simulation playback happens
• The playback engine runs the script and executes the simulation playback
based on the frequency configured in the eG Manager
• Only Chrome browser is supported for simulation playback
– Uses a Selenium driver for record and playback operation
• The playback station needs to be a dedicated PC/VM which should not be
locked while the simulation happens
– Windows desktop OS and server OS are supported for playback

Pre-requisite Checker
A pre-requisite checker executable is bundled with the eG Agent and
the playback engine. This needs to be run first on the playback station
to ensure the necessary pre-requisites are met for the Agent to
function and simulation playback to happen.

#3 Web App Simulation Monitoring Dashboard
• A new component type called ‘Web App Simulation’ is now introduced to
monitor the simulated web app user experience
Open the new Synthetic Monitoring Dashboard Select Web App Simulation
This will have all key
synthetic and external
monitoring dashboards

The New Synthetic Monitoring Dashboard
Click on any of the
components to drill down
and view the simulated
transaction performance
This dashboard shows high-level status, availability and processing time metrics of all the synthetic simulations recorded for web applications
Shows the number of successful transactions. If there is a red X
in Transaction availability column, it means that the simulation
failed after these number of successful transactions.

Visualize the step-by-step flow of
transactions and their status and
response time

Click on the camera icon to view the
screenshot of the last transaction,
which was successful

Click on the activity icon if you prefer to change
the icon to suit the nature of the activity.
A pre-built set of icon options are available.

Click on the graph icon to see the
performance trends for this
simulation

Click on any green tick mark either on
the individual transaction or on the
overall transaction availability to view
the layer model for this simulation

Exploring the Layer Model Dashboard
New component type:
Web App Simulation
Click on this icon to switch
views and open up the
Transaction Flow
Visualization
For each transaction, track the
number of successful and failed
activities and total time taken for
transaction processing.
Layer model view of a
single transaction

Layer model view of the
overall transaction (aggregate
view of all transactions)
Screenshot of transaction success can be
viewed from here. This will be the
screenshot of the last transaction which
was successfully competed, marking the
success of the entire simulation.
Screenshot of a successful transaction will only be visible on the layer model
from the “Total” transaction descriptor. Screenshot is not available on the
transaction flow UI.

Transaction Flow Visualization: A Failed Simulation
Visualize the step-by-step flow of
transactions and the status and response
time of each transaction
The red X denotes a failed transaction
in the simulation. The simulation
could not proceed further.
Click on this camera icon to see
the screenshot of the failed
transaction in the simulation

For each transaction, track the
number of successful and failed
activities and total time taken for
transaction processing
Screenshot of transaction
failure can also be viewed
from here.

#4 Web App Simulation Report
View historical trends of simulated
transactions. Drill down into successful/failed
simulation for further details
SCRIPTS
• New report for Web App Simulation enables monitoring historical user
experience trends based on synthetic monitoring metrics

Historical Analytics and Trends
Availability trend for a
transaction

Historical Analytics and Trends
View the distribution
of transaction by
processing time
View the trend of
transaction processing
time

Screenshot Capture
Capability
for Citrix Logon Simulator

Citrix Logon Simulator: Screenshot of Successful Simulation
Click on the new image icon
to view the screenshot of
simulation success

Citrix Logon Simulator: Screenshot of Failed Simulation
simulation failure

Citrix Logon Simulator: Screenshot of Failed Simulation
Screenshot can also be
viewed from the layer model
for a failed simulation

Logon Simulation Supported on More Gateways
1
In addition to Citrix StoreFront and
Gateway, now OKTA, Azure AD,
AD FS, Web Interface or F5 Load
Balancer are also supported

New Metrics for Citrix Logon Simulator
1
For the simulated session, you
can view HDX channel details
including screen refresh latency,
frames sent/received, etc.
These are obtained using Citrix APIs

Screenshot Capture
Capability
for VMware Horizon
Logon Simulator

Horizon Logon Simulator: Screenshot of Successful Simulation
simulation success

Horizon Logon Simulator: Screenshot of Failed Simulation
simulation failure

Horizon Logon Simulator: Screenshot of Failed Simulation
Screenshot can also be
viewed from the layer model
for a failed simulation

Enhancements to
Protocol Simulation

Synthetic Monitoring of Network Availability: New UI in 7.1
Monitor network availability
using Network Access
simulation capability
Monitor network delay and
packet loss metrics for all
simulations on a single
console

When to Use What Synthetic Monitoring Approach
Requirement What Simulation Approach to Use?
• Check individual tier performance and
availability
• Check single-step transactions
Protocol simulation
• Check user experience for multi-step web
applications
Web app simulation
• Check performance of logons for VDI,
application virtualization, SaaS, cloud desktops
Logon simulation
• Simulate full user sessions for non-web
applications (VDI, thick clients, etc.)
Client session simulation
eG Enterprise: The only complete synthetic monitoring solution in the market, supporting all simulation approaches

+1 (866) 526 6700 www.eginnovations.com
info@eginnovations.com
Thank You
This document is strictly private, confidential and personal to its recipients and should not be
copied, distributed or reproduced in whole or in part, nor passed to any third party.
DISCLAIMER:

Make synthetic monitoring a critical part of your IT monitoring strategy: Why and How?

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