I have an inside host (server) that needs to connect to a service on the Internet. How can I monitor the connection, from the server/host to the website? (Not monitor the website, from SolarWinds).
NetPath in NPM 12 allows you to enter the URL and Port and show the latency of the network to the URL from the Solarwinds Server or where ever you deploy the probe.
NPM Quality of Experience allows you to monitor the Application vs network response time based on the traffic. You can use a protocol or any web url to check for response time latency.
Web Performance Monitor can monitor the website to see if the pages load within a specified time period and lets you know if the page fails to load, or if any resources on the page are taking longer. This also allows for agents to be deployed anywhere within your infrastructure to see which area is slower than others.
Hi Sean, thanks for answering.
We don't have web performance monitor. Would it be able to monitor/alert on a loss of connectivity from a server/host to an outside website? I don't want to now if the SolarWinds server can't hit the website, I want to know if the host can't hit it.
Can NPM QoE alert if there's a loss of connectivity? Can Netpath? So, I'd install netpath on the server/host, and NPM would monitor it - and could alert for loss of connectivity?
Hi pseudocyber!
Your request is possible right out of the box with just a few minor tweaks to the existing "Path to Google" alert which we will use as a template in this example.
First you would need to create a new probe/service on the desired inside host that you would like the NetPath to be initiated from. You can install the probe/service on any host, so long as it meets the requirements below:
NetPath requirements - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support
The following articles describe the process of creating a probe/service in detail:
Create a probe - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support
Create a service - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support
From there, you can either create an alert with the following logic from scratch, or by copying the existing "Path to Google" alert and then change it to suit your needs. The screenshots below show the Alert Manager and the alert logic itself which you would simply adjust to match the criteria for your newly created probe/service.
If you find it appropriate to do so, one adjustment I like to make is to change the logic to "LastStatus is not equal to Good" if you'd like to reach a trigger condition for other undesirable statuses beyond "Host Unreachable"
Once this is done, just make sure to adjust the trigger actions to behave as desired and simply rename the alert to its new descriptive title.
I answered your first question in the reply to the original post, but to answer your question regarding monitoring loss of connectivity via QoE sensors:
Similar functionality exists with QoE sensors, but wouldn't be appropriate for your particular request for a couple of reasons:
Basically, QoE is a technology only suited for alerting on performance metrics above and beyond simple connectivity testing. QoE is quite powerful and useful- but you would want to save the time/compute resources for a more specific application. The following article is a great general overview of QoE for your future reference.
How Quality of Experience works
