"external" http monitor

I'm hopefully just looking for validation here, and I think I've done my homework, looking through documentation and posts here on the forum. What I'm trying to do is monitor a website, but I don't necessarily want to add the webserver as a node.

What I'm gathering is there doesn't seem to be a way around that. It seems like the best option for doing this, is to assign the node as ICMP only, and then assign the http monitor template?

What is throwing me is from the APM admin guide:

As a general rule, any server that you monitor with Orion APM must already be
monitored by Orion NPM.

The exceptions to this rule are component monitors such as the HTTP monitors
and the file monitors that allow you to specify arbitrary IP addresses or network
paths to monitor.

I'm not finding any other method for setting up an http monitor, other than assigning the template to a node being monitored by NPM. Just curious. The ICMP only node isn't a bad route.

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Accepted answers

RogerWong

Yes, you should be able to do that. I did it just now. Added www.google.com as an external node, then assigned some monitors to it. Test is successful.

All comments

Yann

Hi,

Since NPM 9.5, a new type of device has been added. It would be better to choose this one in your scenario.

From the NPM Admin Guide when you add a device through the web console:

...

If you want to add an External node to monitor a hosted application with Orion Application Performance Monitor, check External.

Note:Orion NPM does not collect or monitor any network performance data from nodes designated as External. The External status is reserved for nodes hosting application that you want to monitor with Orion Application Performance Monitor.

...

HTH,

Yann

rphfusr

I was looking in the completely wrong place then, the APM guide. Thank you! I'm new to the suite.

RogerWong

I'm not finding any other method for setting up an http monitor, other than assigning the template to a node being monitored by NPM. Just curious. The ICMP only node isn't a bad route.

What that section was trying to say is that you can assign a template to an NPM node even if the template contains components that monitors resources somewhere else.

That entire section is being re-written now that Orion NPM 9.5 lets you add unmanaged nodes, as Yann pointed out.

But, yes, if you were using Orion NPM 9.0 and you wanted APM to monitor http://www.google.com, you could create an HTTP template that monitored google.com, and then assign it to any NPM node even if that node was not www.google.com.

berto

I just wanted to make sure I understand this correctly.

Should I be able to add www.google.com as an external node and then add a HTTP monitor that monitors port 80 on google.com?

Or does the node need to be active? I seem to be having a problem doing this whereas I didn't have any trouble when the node was not set to external.

RogerWong

Yes, you should be able to do that. I did it just now. Added www.google.com as an external node, then assigned some monitors to it. Test is successful.

tknutson

I am also having issues when using "external" nodes to monitor web content. We want to create a node and label it by each client name, and then assign a template to it that is specific to that client. We are able to assign the template to the "external" node, but it dosent actualy show up when viewing the node, or under APM. Images below for example.