Synthetics monitoring is an automated tool that helps you monitor your website’s availability, performance, and functionality. It simulates user behavior and traffic to alert you when something goes wrong. New Relic is a platform that offers synthetics monitoring and other features like application monitoring and log management. In this article, we’ll show you how to get Synthetics Monitoring to work in New Relic in 2023, including enabling it, creating and configuring monitors, analyzing data, and troubleshooting issues.

What is New Relic?

New Relic is a software that helps businesses monitor and improve their applications, websites, and IT systems. It gives real-time information about how well digital systems are performing, so organizations can fix problems quickly and improve things for users. New Relic works with many different applications and is used by people who work in DevOps, development, and IT operations. It’s important to remember that New Relic changes over time, so it’s best to check their website for the most up-to-date information.

What is Synthetic Monitoring? And Why do we Need it?

Synthetic monitoring is a way to check how well applications, websites, or other digital services are working. It involves making fake transactions or actions that act like a real user, such as clicking buttons and visiting web pages. These actions are done at different times and from different places to get a good idea of how the system is working. Synthetic monitoring helps people see how well their digital systems are performing. 

Synthetic monitoring is important because it helps to:

• Diagnose and fix failures by monitoring systems and alerting operation teams of any issues
• Baseline and benchmark performance to identify areas for improvement and compete with competitors
• Navigate to new markets by simulating traffic to new areas and testing the performance of newly launched apps
• Manage business transactions by monitoring the performance of processes and comparing performance stats
• Measure service level agreements to manage availability and performance limitations
• Manage third-party vendors by holding them accountable for performance and availability incidents
• Check end-user perception by measuring the true end-user experience with real browsers and devices

What are the Benefits of Synthetics Monitoring in New Relic

To get Synthetics Monitoring to work in New Relic can help you achieve the following benefits:

• Proactively catch and resolve issues before they affect your customers: Synthetics monitoring can alert you when your website or application is down, slow, or broken, so you can fix it before your customers notice or complain. You can also set up custom alerts based on various criteria, such as response time, error rate, content validation, etc.
• Test and improve your user experience across different scenarios: Synthetics monitoring can help you test and optimize your user experience across different browsers, devices, locations, networks, and user journeys. You can also create synthetic scripts that mimic complex user interactions and workflows, such as logging in, filling out forms, adding items to the cart, checking out, etc.
• Gain insights into your performance and reliability: Synthetics monitoring can help you measure and analyze your performance and reliability metrics, such as availability, uptime, load time, throughput, latency, etc. You can also compare your metrics across monitors, locations, devices, etc., and identify trends and patterns over time.
• Integrate with other New Relic features and tools: Synthetics monitoring can integrate seamlessly with other New Relic features and tools, such as application monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, log management, browser monitoring, mobile monitoring, dashboards, alerts, etc. You can also use New Relic APIs, SDKs, CLI, or plugins to connect with other external tools and services.

How to Get Synthetics Monitoring to Work in New Relic?

Here are the steps on how to get Synthetics Monitoring to work in New Relic:

• Sign in to your New Relic account.

• Navigate to the Synthetics tab.
• Create a new monitor.

• Choose a monitor type.
• Configure the monitor with details like the URL, monitoring frequency, and alert conditions.

• Save and enable the monitor.

• Monitor the results and view performance metrics.

• Set up notifications to receive alerts when issues are detected.

• Fine-tune and optimize based on the data provided by New Relic.

Note: The procedures and choices mentioned may differ slightly based on the version of New Relic and the features that are part of your subscription. Moreover, New Relic offers comprehensive documentation and support resources to aid you in effectively configuring and using Synthetics Monitoring.

How to View and Analyze Synthetics Data in New Relic?

After creating and running your synthetics monitors in New Relic, you can view and analyze the synthetics data they generate in various ways. You can:

View the summary and details of each monitor: You can see the summary and details of each monitor on the Monitor Overview page. You can access this page by clicking on the monitor’s name from the list of monitors. On this page, you can see the following information:

• Summary chart: A chart that shows your monitor’s availability, response time, and throughput over time.
• Monitor settings: The settings that you configured for your monitor, such as frequency, locations, validation, script, etc.
• Results table: A table that shows the results of each test run by your monitor, including the status, location, response time, response code, etc. You can also see the screenshots and logs of each test run by clicking on the View link.
• SLA report: A report that shows the service level agreement (SLA) metrics of your monitor, such as availability percentage, apdex score, failure rate, etc. You can also see the SLA metrics for each location by clicking on the Location breakdown tab.

View the performance and usage of all your monitors: You can see the performance and usage of all your monitors on the Synthetics Summary page. You can access this page by clicking on the Synthetics Summary link from the list of monitors. On this page, you can see the following information:

• Usage report: A report that shows the usage metrics of your synthetics monitoring account, such as total checks, total locations, total monitors, total secure credentials, etc. You can also see the usage metrics for each location by clicking on the Location breakdown tab.
• View the dashboards and charts of your synthetics data: You can see the dashboards and charts of your synthetics data on the Dashboards page. You can access this page by clicking on Dashboards from any page in New Relic. On this page, you can see the following information:
• Default dashboards: A set of pre-built dashboards that show various aspects of your synthetics data, such as availability, performance, errors, failures, etc. You can customize these dashboards by adding, removing, editing, or rearranging widgets.
• Custom dashboards: A set of dashboards that you create yourself using NRQL queries or widgets. You can also share these dashboards with others or embed them in external websites or applications.
• Charts library: A library of charts that show various metrics and dimensions of your synthetics data. You can also create custom charts using NRQL queries or widgets.

How to Troubleshoot and Optimize Synthetics Monitors in New Relic?

After viewing and analyzing your synthetics data in New Relic, you may want to troubleshoot and optimize your synthetics monitors to improve their performance and reliability. You can do this:

1. Identify and diagnose issues: You can identify and diagnose issues with your synthetics monitors by using various features and tools in New Relic, such as:
2. Alerts: You can set up alerts to notify you when your monitors fail or violate certain conditions, such as response time, error rate, content validation, etc. You can also configure the alert policies, conditions, thresholds, notifications, and incidents to suit your needs.
3. Logs: You can view the logs of each test run by your monitors to see the details of the HTTP requests and responses, the script execution, the errors, and exceptions, etc. You can also use log management to aggregate, query, analyze, and visualize your logs from various sources.
4. Screenshots: You can view the screenshots of each test run by your monitors to see the visual output of the web page or application that you are monitoring. You can also compare the screenshots across different locations, devices, browsers, etc.
5. Traces: You can view the traces of each test run by your monitors to see the breakdown of the response time and the performance of each component or step of your monitor. You can also use distributed tracing to see the end-to-end performance of your monitor across multiple services or applications.
6. Fix and improve issues: You can fix and improve issues with your synthetics monitors by using various features and tools in New Relic, such as:
7. Script editor: You can edit the script of your scripted browser or API test monitor to modify or add logic, actions, validations, assertions, etc. You can also use the script editor to record and edit your script using a graphical user interface (GUI).
8. Secure credentials: You can use secure credentials to store and manage sensitive information that your monitor needs to access or use, such as usernames, passwords, API keys, etc. You can also use secure credentials to encrypt and decrypt your data in transit and at rest.
9. Synthetics API: You can use the synthetics API to programmatically create, update, delete, or manage your monitors and secure credentials. You can also use the synthetics API to integrate with other tools or services for automation, orchestration, testing, etc.
10. Synthetics SDKs: You can use the synthetics SDKs to write custom code or modules that extend or enhance the functionality of your monitors. You can also use the synthetics SDKs to access various libraries or frameworks you need for your monitors.

How Synthetics Monitoring Can Help Web Design?

Synthetics monitoring can help improve web design by providing valuable feedback on website performance. Synthetics monitoring involves using software to simulate user interactions with a website, such as clicking links, filling out forms, and loading pages. This allows website owners to identify performance issues and optimize their website design to improve user experience. For example, if synthetics monitoring detects that a website is slow to load or certain features are not working properly, web designers can use this information to make improvements to the website design and improve overall user satisfaction. In this way, synthetics monitoring can play a valuable role in web design by providing data-driven insights that can be used to optimize website performance and improve user experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, synthetics monitoring is a valuable tool that allows businesses to monitor their website’s availability, performance, and functionality. New Relic offers synthetics monitoring and other features like application monitoring and log management. By following the steps outlined in this article, businesses can easily set up and get Synthetics Monitoring to work in New Relic and gain valuable insights into their performance and reliability. With the ability to proactively catch and resolve issues, test and improve user experience, and integrate with other New Relic features and tools, synthetics monitoring in New Relic is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes.