Create a synthetic monitoring task to test website speed - Application Real-Time Monitoring Service - Alibaba Cloud - Application Real-Time Monitoring Service

ARMS Synthetic Monitoring measures the network conditions, performance, and user experience of your online services. A Website Speed task monitors the web application at a target address from the monitoring points and on the frequency that you configure. This topic describes how to create a Website Speed task in the ARMS console.

Important

Starting from June 1, 2024, ARMS Synthetic Monitoring no longer supports activating pay-as-you-go billing or purchasing subscription resources. For more information, see Product Change: Discontinuation of Synthetic Monitoring Activation.

Prerequisites

Resource group — If you want to assign the Website Speed task to a resource group, create the resource group before you start. You select the resource group in the STEP3 section of the task wizard.
Custom monitoring point group — If you want to select monitoring points from Custom Monitoring Point Group, save your frequently used monitoring points to a custom monitoring point group before you start. You select the group in the STEP2 section of the task wizard.

Procedure

Each step in the following procedure corresponds to one section of the Website Speed task wizard in the ARMS console.

Log on to the ARMS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Synthetic Monitoring > Scheduled Tests. On the Synthetic Tasks page, click New Task.
On the Create Synthetic Task page, click Website Speed.

In the STEP1 section, configure the basic parameters of the task.

Parameter	Description
Task name	A custom name for the synthetic monitoring task.
Target address	The address of the web application to monitor. The address can start with `http` or `https`, or use the `ip:port` format.
Frequency	Select how often the task runs.
Custom Period	Turn on the Custom Period switch and select the time range in which the task runs each day.

Select detection points in the STEP2 section.

Parameter	Description
Monitoring point type	Valid values: PC End and Mobile End.
Monitoring Point Group	Recommended Monitoring Point Group: The group contains the common detection points recommend by the system. All Monitoring Point Group: The group contains all detection points supported by Synthetic Monitoring. Custom Monitoring Point Group: The group contains the frequently used detection points. Note You cannot monitor IPv6 web applications in data centers.
Select Monitoring Point	Add the carriers that you want to monitor to the Selected Monitoring Point section on the right. Note You can save the carriers added in the Selected Monitoring Point section to a custom detection point group. This way, you can quickly select detection points when you create a synthetic monitoring task.

In the STEP3 section, configure the advanced settings of the task. For parameter descriptions, see .
Click Create Task.

After the task is created, you are redirected to the task list page. The following figure shows the task list page.

Advanced settings in STEP3

The STEP3 section of the Website Speed task wizard groups the advanced settings of the task by function. The following sections describe the parameters in each group.

Runtime behavior

The following parameters determine how the browser at each monitoring point executes a test run of the Website Speed task.

Parameter	Description
IP protocol	The IP protocol used to access the server. Valid values: Auto (randomly tests the performance of IPv4 or IPv6 servers), IPv4 (tests the performance of IPv4 servers), and IPv6 (tests the performance of IPv6 servers).
Monitoring options	Select the monitoring options for the task: Disable cache: Clears the browser cache before each test run, including browsing history, temporary files, cookies, saved passwords, and web form information. Cached resources are not loaded when the page loads. Redirect: The task follows HTTP redirects to the final destination page. If you clear this option, the task does not follow redirects and reports the `651 page has been redirected` error when a redirect occurs. Disable compression: Prevents the task from accepting compressed files. Auto scroll: Simulates scrolling down the monitored page until the scrollbar reaches the bottom. Ignore certificate errors: Ignores certificate errors that occur during the SSL handshake and continues the test run. Clear this option to monitor SSL certificate errors.
Monitoring timeout	The maximum execution time of a test run. If a test run exceeds this duration, the task reports a timeout error. Default value: 40,000 ms.
Maximum wait time	The maximum time that the browser waits for the page to finish loading. This value applies to page loading only, whereas Monitoring timeout applies to the entire test run. Default value: 40,000 ms.
Slow element threshold	An element is considered slow when its total download time exceeds this threshold. Default value: 5,000 ms.

Request customization

The following parameters modify the requests that the Website Speed task sends and the way that the target domain is resolved.

Parameter

Description

Custom header

Turn on this switch to add or modify fields in the request header:

Modify all packets: Modifies the header of all requests.
Modify the first packet: Modifies the header of only the first request in the browsing session.

Custom host

Select a custom host mode, round-robin or random, and then enter the custom host in the text box. Format: You can enter multiple IP addresses and separate them with commas (,). Example: 192.168.1.11,192.168.1.12:www.a.domain.

Note

The domain after the colon (:) is resolved to one of the IP addresses specified before the colon.

Hijacking and content verification

The following parameters detect DNS hijacking, page tampering, and traffic hijacking, and verify the content that the monitored page returns.

Parameter	Description
DNS hijack whitelist	When a domain name such as www.aliyun.com is resolved, the resolution is flagged as a hijack if the resolved IP address or CNAME is not on the DNS hijack whitelist. If the resolved IP address or CNAME is on the DNS hijack whitelist, the resolution is considered valid. Format: `domain:match_rule`. The part before the colon (:) is the domain to check, and the part after the colon is the matching rule. Matching rules support exact IP addresses, IP wildcards, subnet masks, and CNAMEs. You can specify multiple matching rules and separate them with vertical bars (\|). For example, `www.aliyun.com:203.0.113.55\\|203.0.113.67` indicates that for the www.aliyun.com domain, any resolved result other than 203.0.113.55 and 203.0.113.67 is considered hijacked.
Page tampering	If an element that is not on the whitelist configured for this parameter appears on the page, the element is considered page tampering. Common signs include pop-up ads, floating ads, and redirects. Format: `domain:element`. The part before the colon (:) is the domain to check, and the part after the colon is the element name to match. Elements support wildcards. You can specify multiple elements and separate them with vertical bars (\|). For example, `www.aliyun.com:\\|/cc/bb/a.gif\\|/vv/bb/cc.jpg` indicates that for the www.aliyun.com domain, any element other than the base document, `/cc/bb/a.gif`, and `/vv/bb/cc.jpg` is considered page tampering.
Traffic hijacking	Classifies and aggregates statistics for the 302 redirects that occur while the page is browsed. Configure the following items: - Identify elements: Set the total number of elements on the page. - Hijack identification: Set the key information to match. Enter the keyword or key element used to determine hijacking. Asterisks () are allowed. Important* This setting monitors 302 redirects for individual elements on a page, not just the base document.
Verification string blacklist	A verification string is any string in the page source code. If the source code returned by the client contains any string in the blacklist, the task reports the `650 Verification string failed` error. Separate multiple strings with vertical bars (\|).
Verification string whitelist	A verification string is any string in the page source code. The source code returned by the client must contain all strings in the whitelist. Otherwise, the task reports the `650 Verification string failed` error. Separate multiple strings with vertical bars (\|).
Element blacklist	The task does not request or load any element on this blacklist. Important Do not add the base document to the element blacklist.

Availability and resource group

The following parameters determine when a test run of the Website Speed task is considered available and which resource group the task belongs to.

Parameter	Description
Availability assertion	Defines the conditions that a response must meet for a test run to be considered available.
Resource group	Select the resource group to which the task belongs. For information about how to create a resource group, see Create a resource group.