Website that requires authentication

FormerMember

I am trying to use an HTTP monitor to confirm if a few websites are up. I can monitor regular sites for text strings with no problems. However I have some other sites that seem to be trickier. One site is a SharePoint site that automatically authenticates the user that is logged on when the site is visited. I created the monitor for the site and set the credentials but I still get an authentication failure. If I logon with the crendentials I supply and access the site it works fine. I must be setting up the monitor wrong. Can someone offer a suggestion on how to resolve this.

 

Also I have some other sites that the user has to manually logon. The website presents a username box and password box. I want to monitor if this page is up which is working because all users get this page. Next I want to have a monitor logon to the site to verify that the application is working by looking for particular text on the returned page. Is there an out of the box way to have SolarWinds APM do this or will I need to write custom scripts to logon to the web page?

RogerWong

There's a built-in HTTP Form Login component monitor in APM 2.5 that does this. In 2.0 it was a script called HttpLogin.vbs that you had to cut and paste into a Windows Script component monitor, but we made it a full-fledged component now.

Here's the documentation for the HTTP Form Login Monitor for APM 2.5:

 

HTTP Form Login Monitor

This component monitor tests the ability of a web server to serve web pages secured behind a forms-based login page. The test is performed by using the credential as the user name and password for the login form, retrieving the page behind the login form, and then searching the retrieved page for keywords that indicate either a successful or a failed login attempt.

Statistic

This component monitor does not compute a statistic.

Troubleshooting

For most form-based login pages, this component monitor will function without any customizations. But, some form-based login pages use unconventional HTMLform tag names or form input tag names, and you need to assist the component monitor in identifying the names of these tags before the component monitor can function correctly.

If the component monitor cannot match the tag names in the login page against the list of expected keywords, you must add the actual tag name to the keywords list. Orion APM assists you with this by displaying an error status message if the component monitor is in a fail state: the error message lists all the form and form input names found in the HTML page, allowing you to identify the correct name so that you can type it in the appropriate Keywords field.

For example, consider the following HTML snippet with tags defining a form and some form inputs:

<form name="login_form" method="post" action="Login.aspx">
<p>Status (optional): <input name="status" type="text" /></p>
<p>Username: <input name="nick" type="text" /></p>
<p>Password: <input name ="pswd" type="password" /></p>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

In the example code, the actual login input tag name is "nick", but testing the component monitor results in an error similar to the following:

Response page matches login error keywords
Page contains 1 form(s). Form 'login_form' inputs: ( 'cust_id' 'nick' 'pswd' ); 

Assumed form with name = login_form as login form

Assumed login input: name = status, password input: name = pswd

The error status message informs you that the component monitor incorrectly assumed the input tag with the name "status" was the login input. Recognizing this error, you correct it by adding the correct tag name "nick" to the list of keywords in the Login Control Keywords field:

(login)|(name)|(email)|(nick)

Field Descriptions

Credential for Monitoring

Select a credential that can log on to the web site. If the credential you need is not already present in the credentials list, use theQuick Credentials section to add a new credential.

URL

Allows you to specify the URL you want to monitor. The Orion APMvariable ${IP}contained in the default value for this field attempts to monitor a web site at the IP address of the assigned node.

Login Form Keywords

This field lists the expected keywords that identify an HTML login form. The keywords are matched against the name attribute of the <form> tags found in the HTML of the login page. Each keyword in this list must be enclosed in parentheses '( )', and then separated from other keywords by a vertical bar '|'. The default keywords are: (login)|(auth)|(email).

Login Control Keywords

This field lists the expected keywords that identify the form's user name input element. The keywords are matched against the name attribute of the <input> tags found in the HTML of the login page. Each keyword in this list must be enclosed in parentheses '( )', and then separated from other keywords by a vertical bar '|'. The default keywords are (login)|(name)|(email).

Password Control Keywords

This field lists the expected keywords that identify the form's password input element. The keywords are matched against the name attribute of the <input> tags found in the HTML of the login page. Each keyword in this list must be enclosed in parentheses '( )', and then separated from other keywords by a vertical bar '|'. The default keywords are (password)|(pwd)|(passwd)|(psswd)|(pswd).

Login Failed Keywords

This field contains the text string indicating an unsuccessful login. This text may appear anywhere in the HTML source of the page.

Login Success Keywords

This field contains the text string indicating a successful login. This text may appear anywhere in the HTML source of the page.

Response Time Threshold

These fields allow you to set warning and critical threshold conditions based on the response time. The response time is the time in milliseconds it takes Orion APM to determine that a component is not Down and to retrieve any statistical data.