This is an ActiveGate extension which can connect to a remote host and provide insights into the availability and performance of SFTP connections.

The data is then reported to Dynatrace as third party Synthetic tests which means you can analyze outages and performance over time.

Use cases:

• Connection availability & response time
• Directory reading performance
• File upload (up to 100KB) performance

1. Deploy to ActiveGates

This extension has been developed with Dynatrace Extension Framework 1.0. This means that the .zip archive you have been provided with must be uploaded and extracted to the plugin_deployment folder of all ActiveGates that should run it.

By default this is found:

• On Windows: %PROGRAMFILES%\dynatrace\remotepluginmodule\plugin_deployment
• On Linux: /opt/dynatrace/remotepluginmodule/plugin_deployment

2. Upload to Dynatrace

The same .zip archive must also be uploaded to Dynatrace. In the Dynatrace UI, go to Settings > Monitored technologies > Custom extensions and click the Upload extension button.

The extension will appear in the list below:

Once this is visible, you can click on the extension name and begin configuration.

Once the extension has been deployed, endpoints can be configured for carrying out the SFTP checks.

Configuration parameters

• Endpoint name - Free text. Used for display in Dynatrace UI.
• IP or hostname of SFTP server
• Port
• Username - the user to impersonate when logging in
• Password - not needed when using key-based authentication
• Location of key file - needed for key-based authentication. The location on the ActiveGate where the private key can be found.
• Test read - checks whether a directory can be read over SFTP
• Test put - checks whether a file can be uploaded over SFTP
• Local file - Needed when Test put is enabled. A small file (under 100KB) local to the ActiveGate which can be used for testing upload via SFTP
• Remote directory - Needed when Test put is enabled. The directory where to upload the given file.
• URL of the Dynatrace API - The URL to the Dynatrace environment where data should be sent
• API Token - Dynatrace API Token with permission Create and read synthetic monitors, locations, and nodes (API v1)
• Polling frequency - the execution frequency, in minutes.

If the remote host is only reachable throu a proxy, this can be added using:

• HTTP Proxy Host:Port - the proxy, in host:port format
• HTTP Proxy User - for proxy authentication
• HTTP Proxy Password - for proxy authentication

Once the extension is successfully running, you can explore tests from the Synthetic menu. These are automatically created using the hostname and port of the endpoint.

Outages are automatically signalled by Dynatrace, and in depth metrics are available same as for other synthetic tests. These can be found easily by typing "synthetic.external" in the Metrics menu.