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Web URL monitoring error

I have had some basic Web URL monitoring set up for quite some time and it has been working with no issues. Earlier this week It showed the url was down, however I can get to it with a web browser. The error it shows in APM is

Unexpected error occurred. The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.

I am able to go to the URL with a browser on all the workstations I have tried and with a browser from the Orion server. Any thoughts on resolving this?

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macnugetz

Which specific monitors are you using?

shanepj

I am using a basic http monitor.

bradpit250810

The SiteScope URL Content Monitor is a specialized variation of the URL Monitor that can match up to ten different values from the content of a specified URL. The matched values are displayed with the status of the monitor in the monitor group table and written to the monitor log.

The content values are matched using regular expressions.

Each time the URL Content Monitor runs, it returns a a status and several match values and writes them in the monitoring log file. It also writes the total time it takes to receive the designated document in the log file.
Usage Guidelines

Why should I use this monitor?

You should use the URL Content Monitor if you need to verify multiple values (up to 10 variables) from the content of a single URL. Otherwise, the standard URL Monitor is normally used. One use of this monitor is to integrate SiteScope with other applications that export numeric data through a web page. The monitor includes the matched values as part of the monitor status which are written to the log. If the matched values are numeric data, the results can be plotted in a management report.

What should I monitor?

The URL Content Monitor is primarily used to monitor web pages that are generated dynamically and display statistics about custom applications. By monitoring these pages, these statistics can be retrieved and integrated into the rest of your SiteScope system.

How should I schedule my monitors?

The frequency will depend on the statistics being monitored. For more statistics, every several minutes is often enough.
Status

The reading is the current value of the monitor. Possible values are:

OK
unknown host name
unable to reach server
unable to connect to server
timed out reading
content match error
document moved
unauthorized
forbidden
not found
proxy authentication required
server error
not implemented
server busy

The status is returned as good, warning, or error dependent on the results of the retrieval, content match, and the error or warning status criteria that you select.

Completing the URL Content Monitor Form

To display the URL Monitor Form, either click the Edit link for an existing URL Content Monitor in a monitor table, or click the add a Monitor link on a group's detail page and choose the "Add URL Content Monitor" link.

Complete the items on the URL Content Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the "Add Monitor" button.

URL

Enter the URL that you want to monitor (for example, http://demo.thiscompany.com). If you are monitoring a secure URL, be sure the URL reflects the correct transfer protocol (for example https://demo.thiscompany.com).

Match Content

Enter an expression describing the values to match in the returned page. If the expression is not contained in the page, the monitor will display "no match on content". A regular expression is used to define the values to match. For example, the expression /Copyright (\d*)-(\d*)/ would match two values, 1996 and 1998, from a page that contained the string Copyright 1996-1998

Update every

Enter how frequently the monitor should check this URL. The drop-down list to the right of the text box lets you specify time increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. You must specify a time increment of at least 15 seconds.

Title (Optional)

Enter a name for this monitor. This name appears in the Name text box on the monitor table when you open the group's detail page. If you don't enter a name, a default name will be created.

Advanced Options

The advanced options give you the ability to customize error and warning thresholds, or complete optional settings.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Timeout
The number of seconds that the URL monitor should wait for a page to begin downloading before timing-out. Once this time period passes, the URL monitor will log an error and report an error status.

HTTP Proxy

Optionally, a proxy server can be used to access the URL. Enter the domain name and port of an HTTP Proxy Server.

Retrieve Images

Check this box if you want the status and response time statistics to include the retrieval times for all of the embedded images in the page. Embedded images include those referenced by "IMG" and "INPUT TYPE=IMAGE" HTML tags.

Retrieve Frames

Check this box if you want SiteScope to retrieve the frames in a frameset and count their retrieval time in the total time to download this page.

Error If Match

Enter a string of text to check for in the returned page. If the text is contained in the page, the monitor will display "no match on content". The search is case sensitive. Remember that HTML tags are part of a text document, so include the HTML tags if they are part of the text you are searching for (for example, "< B> Error < /B> Message"). You may also perform a Perl regular expression match by enclosing the string in forward slashes, with an "i" after the trailing slash indicating case-insensitive matching. (for example, "/href=Doc\d+\.html/" or "/href=doc\d+\.html/i").

Check for Content Changes

Check this box if you want SiteScope to notify you if the contents of this document are changed. SiteScope records a checksum of the document the first time the monitor runs and then does a checksum each subsequent time it runs. If the checksum changes, you will be notified. The new checksum will be recorded as the default after the initial error has been issued.

Authorization User Name

If the URL specified requires a name and password for access, enter the name in this box.

Authorization Password

If the URL specified requires a name and password for access, enter the password in this box.

NT Challenge Response

Check this box if you want SiteScope to use Window's NT Challenge Response authorization when retrieving this Web page.

Proxy Server User Name
If the proxy server requires a name and password to access the URL, enter the name here. Technical note: your proxy server must support Proxy-Authenticate for these options to function.

Proxy Server Password
If the proxy server requires a name and password to access the URL, enter the password here. Technical note: your proxy server must support Proxy-Authenticate for these options to function.

Error On Redirect

Check this box if you want SiteScope to notify you if a URL is redirected. Normally, SiteScope follows redirects.

POST Data
If the URL is for a POST request, enter the post variables, one per line as name=value pairs. This option is used to verify that a form is working correctly by performing the same request that occurs when a user submits a form. See also the Match Content field for a way to verify that the correct form response was received. If this item is blank, a GET request is performed.
Advanced: This item can also be used to pass cookies with the request. For example, "Set-cookie: cookieName=cookieValue".

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: In order to change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note:
The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning:
Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Update Every (on error)

This options allows you to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling will also affect the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Schedule (Optional)

By default, SiteScope's monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Choose the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For information about creating schedules, read these instructions.

Monitor Description (Optional)

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description (Optional)

Enter a description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what this monitor does. The description will appear on Management Reports and on the info list for a monitor.

Depends Condition (Optional)

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, choose the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor or group on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order (Optional)

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

List Order (Optional)

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Error if

By default, SiteScope generates an error if the returned status is anything other than 200, which indicates a successful retrieval. You may choose to have SiteScope generate an error based on any of the following:

tenth content match
content match
age
second content match
third content match
fourth content match
fifth content match
sixth content match
seventh content match
eighth content match
ninth content match
download time
connect time
response time
size
dns time
round trip time

At present, content match values used for error or warning generation must be numeric.

The URL Content Monitor follows redirect codes (301 and 302) to retrieve the actual page before returning the status of the URL retrieval. SiteScope will show a redirect error only if the redirects are more than 10 levels deep - this prevents infinite redirects from being followed, or if the Error On Redirect check box is selected..

Warning if

By default, SiteScope does not generate warnings for URL Content monitors. You may choose to generate a warning based any of the options listed under Error if. Enter the lowest value that should generate a warning.

Good if

By default, SiteScope returns an OK status if a 200 status is returned, but you may choose to base an ok status on any of the options listed under Error if. Enter the value that SiteScope should consider to be a good response.'

sitescope.tellurian.net/.../URLContentMon.htm

Questionario

thats not solarwinds orion though and does not relate to this problem...

@Shane: did the website change at all?

try putting in the whole complete URL that you is in your browsers URL AFTER the page loaded.

if that doesnt work, try also changing to MSIE 6.0 string to MSIE 8.0 or MSIE 7.0 as some webpages react differently to different browser versions (although usually it doesnt cause errors like this but only a change in content)

jiri.tomek

Hello shane,
is URL always reported as down now or is it only occasionally. Mentioned error can mean that remote web server closed connection too early. Check settings on web server to see if it has reasonable connection timeout set.

shanepj

According to the Owners the website has not changed. And now it always shows as down.

byrona

I noticed that the URL that you are using is the IP/Port number versus the actual URL. Have you tried plugging in the actual IP/Port in your browser address bar to simulate what the check is actually doing to see what you get?

shanepj

Yes I have tried plugging in the actual URL and port into a browser and I can get to the URL fine. I can do this from both my workstation and the server.