HTTPS External Web Site URL Monitoring with SAM

Hello I'm new to using Solarwinds and know only how to create monitors and alerts within SAM for systems that have an IP or DNS entry and are added as Nodes. I have done HTTP Component Alerts on these Monitors as well as doing Components Alerts on TCP and OS Service monitoring.

I need to do something similar for two Cloud Based Pages (URLs) that do not have a DNS or IP address. I have created a HTTP Monitor for it but they are really not an HTTP URL they are HTTP(S) login pages (URLs). I don't need any authentication since there is no need to get into the Login we just need to do Up Down monitoring for the Login pages themselves.

I have attempted to add the URL's as an external node but get the message that the sites are not resolving. When I put them in my browser they do resolve, so I'm not clear on why they are not resolving within Solarwinds especially since I'm attempting to add them as "External nodes". Does anyone know what would cause this?

Is there another way to add the URLs as nodes to Solarwinds, so that when I build the Alert in SAM I can test it against the added node (URL).

If I cannot add the URLs as nodes in Solarwinds, should they be built with an HTTPS Monitor Template or an HTTP Monitor template? If there is no need for authentication does it matter?

I have built the SAM monitors using a HTTP Monitor Template. I have the URL in there along with Port 80, for one of them and then a custom Port for the other, but I wonder if I should have any Port since its a HTTPS Page for one the one URL that does not have a Port related to it. Should I take the Port 80 out since it is a HTTPS URL?

Here is an example of what I'm talking about for the URLs.

https://ourdomain.xx.cloudbasedapp.com:4443/

https://ourdomain.xx.cloudbasedapp.com/

Neither of these sites resolve when I attempt to add them in Solarwinds as a "External node"

My main concern is related to Alerting and Triggering. Normally I put in the name of the monitor and say I am using a component as my criteria basically the component is the Monitor, but since these are URLs and they are not put into SolarWinds (NPM) as nodes will that work?

Normally, you can pick variables about the nodes your monitoring, but since I can't add these as nodes I have no way to put variables in the Alert and I'm not clear on which variable to pick besides time. If I knew that NPM or SolarWinds could see the URL I could put the variable as the monitoring component.

At any rate if anybody has any ideas on how to handle this I would appreciate it greatly. Its hard to imagine that Solarwinds cannot monitor and alert on URLS that are Cloud Based or that don't have IPs or DNS entries for them. Thank you!

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Accepted answers

All comments

chad.every

When you add an external node it will do a check against the hostname/IP. Make sure that you are only putting the domain name of the website and not the full URL when adding the node.

2016-04-15 08_25_17-Add Node.png

Once that is added, then you can assign the SAM template to it.

If it still fails can you browse to it from IE on the Solarwinds server?

rak

Thank you Chad, that did the trick!!

Can the Alert see variables based on only a URL? For the Trigger I have been using the monitor itself as a component will that still work with URL based nodes?

rak

Thanks for the help, I am now able to add the node, but the problem is since its an external node I cannot test it. This is the message I get:

Inherit Windows credential from node is not valid for node of ICMP type

there are no credentials for the site, its strictly a login page that they wish to monitor if its up or down. Also, I cannot ping it from the main poller or any poller for that matter. Solarwinds is seeing it correctly for what it is:

ec2-52-9-19-9.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com

and it shows it at an address that is not inside our address range that is for sure which I cannot ping. How do I test or monitor it? I have used the HTTP Monitor Template to create a monitor and I have created an alert too, but like I say I can't really test it because SolarWinds can not reach it in its current state. I can however browse to it without a problem from anywhere in our network. Thanks ahead of time

vinay.by

On your HTTP Monitor Template - on the component set 'Credential for Monitoring : <None>' and then test it

rak

I figured out what my problem was. I needed to use an HTTPS template rather than a HTTP template which to copy from, and I needed to have it follow redirects. Following redirects was the biggest problem I had, but thanks for you help anyway.

BWB8771

Have you discovered a way to give the external node a friendly name?

krishnamishra0786

Hi All,

I added the node as external and added a http sam template (put the URL details), but when i am testing the same SAM template showing error and showing down,

@Can you please suggest me a way to monitoring the external URL which is hosted in cloud (we are using the pass service from Azue),

thanks

chad.every

Can you provide some screenshots of the error? What URL are you trying?

krishnamishra0786

Hi Chad,

Thanks for reverting.

below snapshot, i used for configuration -

And i am getting the below error -

Unable to connect to the remote server

Thanks in advance for your quick response.

Thanks

chad.every

If you take that URL, and try and open it in a browser on the Solarwinds server, what happens? (screenshots please)