Create a private Synthetic location

With Dynatrace Synthetic Monitoring, you can run your monitors from a private Synthetic location, which is a location in your private network infrastructure where you install a Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate.

With monitors executed from a private location, you can bring the testing capabilities available in public locations right into your own environment. With private locations you can:

Measure internal web page performance and availability.
Measure complex internal applications with browser clickpath monitors.
Measure external resources with synthetic monitors run from internal locations.
Monitor APIs, both internal and external.

Private Synthetic locations support all types of Dynatrace synthetic monitors.

System and hardware requirements for private locations

Make sure the machine you'll use for running private synthetic monitors complies with system and hardware requirements for private Synthetic locations. Note that Synthetic-enabled ActiveGates have more demanding hardware and system requirements than a regular Environment or Cluster ActiveGates.

Before you begin

You cannot execute synthetic monitors using an ActiveGate that's configured for multi-environment support.
You can create a private location using a clean-installed Synthetic-enabled Environment ActiveGate version 1.169+ or Cluster ActiveGate with Dynatrace Managed version 1.176+. If you want to use an existing ActiveGate host, uninstall ActiveGate first.
The Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate is used exclusively to run synthetic monitors. A clean ActiveGate installation set to Synthetic monitoring disables all other ActiveGate features, including communication with OneAgents.
You need to make sure the ActiveGate can connect to other Dynatrace components as well as the resource you want to test. See Setting up a proxy for private synthetic monitoring.
Only IPv4 and DNS UDP are supported for network configuration.
In Dynatrace Managed offline deployments, you will not be able to save screenshots.

Install a Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate

A Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate is used exclusively to run synthetic monitors. A clean ActiveGate installation set to Synthetic monitoring will disable all other ActiveGate features, including communication with OneAgents. Make sure the host on which you install the ActiveGate has access to the internet.

Manual installation

If the web UI-guided installation fails or you prefer to prepare the host for the Synthetic engine yourself, you can manually install Chromium and other dependencies.

For Environment ActiveGate, from the navigation menu, select Deploy Dynatrace > Install ActiveGate. For Cluster ActiveGate, go to the Dynatrace Cluster Management Console, select the Browse button (...) and select Add new Cluster ActiveGate.
Select the operating system and follow the on-screen instructions.
For What's the purpose of this ActiveGate?, select Run synthetic monitors from a private location.
Download the installer.
- Linux only Select a Linux distribution. When you run the installer, it automatically downloads Chromium and the dependencies required by the Synthetic engine. On RedHat and CentOS, you'll need to enable repositories from which the installer downloads the dependencies. The web UI provides you with all the required commands. For example:
Install ActiveGate. Make sure you use the exact command displayed in the Dynatrace web UI.

Add a private location

Environment ActiveGateCluster ActiveGate

In the Dynatrace web UI, go to Settings > Web & mobile monitoring > Private synthetic locations.
Select Create location.
Give your location a custom Name, for example Boston office, 3rd floor.
Map it from an existing geographic location or add a new one. This is defined by Region, City, and Geographic coordinates.
Add the Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate you've just installed to the location.
Select Add.
Select Save.

Dynatrace Managed only

Use the Cluster API v2 to create a location and assign a Cluster ActiveGate to it.

Use the GET all nodes endpoint to list all the Synthetic-enabled Cluster ActiveGates in your environment. Among other parameters, you'll receive the host IP address and the entityId in the response. For example:

{
"nodes": [
  {
    "entityId": "3086117876",
    "hostname": "gdn.dyna.trace",
    "ips": [
      "238.245.160.14"
    ],
    "version": "1.175.0.20181210-173639",
    "browserMonitorsEnabled": true
  }
]
}

Use the POST a location endpoint to create a new location and assign a Synthetic-enabled Cluster ActiveGate to it. Use the entityId you received in the previous step as one of the values for nodes and set type to CLUSTER. See an example of a request body for the POST call:
```
{
  "type": "CLUSTER",
  "name": "Dynatrace Gdansk Lab",
  "countryCode": "PL",
  "regionCode": "PL82",
  "city": "Gdansk",
  "latitude": 54.3990,
  "longitude": 18.5766,
  "nodes": [
    "3086117876"
  ]
}
```
If your call is successful, you'll receive a 200 OK response.

Create a private monitor

Now, when you create your HTTP or browser monitor, select the location you've just created from the list of all available locations. For more information, see Create an HTTP monitor, Create a single-URL browser monitor, or Record a browser clickpath.

Install Chromium and dependencies manually (Linux only)

If the web UI-guided installation fails or you prefer to prepare the host for the Synthetic engine yourself, you can install Chromium and other dependencies using the procedure below.

Ubuntu Server

Install Synthetic engine dependencies:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install xvfb x11-xkb-utils xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-scalable

Install Chromium dependencies:

sudo apt-get -y install libasound2 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libatk1.0-0 libc6:amd64 libcairo2 libcups2 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libnss3 libxss1 xdg-utils

Download and install Chromium.

Download the deb packages archive. This is a safe and verified archive hosted by Dynatrace.

ActiveGate 1.213

Ubuntu 20.04

curl --output chromium.tgz https://synthetic-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/Chromium/snap/chromium-88.0.4324.150-1479.tgz

ActiveGate 1.209 to 1.211

Ubuntu 16.04

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-87.0.4280.66-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

Ubuntu 18.04

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-87.0.4280.66-0ubuntu0.18.04.1.tgz

Ubuntu 20.04

curl --output https://synthetic-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/Chromium/snap/chromium-87.0.4280.88-1424.tgz

ActiveGate 1.205 to 1.207

Ubuntu 16.04

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-86.0.4240.198-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

Ubuntu 18.04

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-86.0.4240.198-0ubuntu0.18.04.1.tgz

ActiveGate 1.201 to 1.203

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-84.0.4147.105-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

ActiveGate 1.197 to 1.199

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-81.0.4044.138-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

ActiveGate 1.195

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-80.0.3987.163-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

ActiveGate 1.189 to 1.193

curl --output chromium.tgz https://synthetic-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/Chromium/deb/chromium-79.0.3945.130-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

ActiveGate 1.183 to 1.187

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/deb/chromium-78.0.3904.108-0ubuntu0.16.04.1.tgz

You can verify the authenticity of the packages using the signature files stored together with the package archives.

Extract the installation packages. Go to the directory where you saved the archive and run the following command:
```
mkdir /tmp/chromium ; tar xzf chromium.tgz -C /tmp/chromium
```
This will create a /tmp/chromium directory and extract the packages into it.
Install extracted packages.
```
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/chromium/*.deb
```
This will install all the packages extracted to the /tmp/chromium/ directory. You can delete the /tmp/chromium/ directory and the downloaded chromium.tgz archive after successful Chromium installation.

Disable automatic update of Chromium packages:

 echo "chromium-browser hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections  
 echo "chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

optional Install non-Latin TrueType fonts:

sudo apt-get install xfonts-cyrillic fonts-arphic-uming ttf-wqy-zenhei fonts-wqy-microhei ttf-wqy-microhei ttf-wqy-zenhei xfonts-wqy fonts-hosny-amiri

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS

Set up repositories.

Red Hat 7Red Hat 8CentOS

sudo subscription-manager register --auto-attach

Enable the Red Hat Extras and Optional repositories as well as EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux ).

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms  
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms  
sudo rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

sudo subscription-manager register --auto-attach

Enable the Red Hat Extras and Optional repositories as well as EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux ).

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms  
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms
sudo rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Enable EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux ).
```
sudo yum install epel-release  
```

Install Synthetic engine dependencies.

sudo yum install -y xorg-x11-server-Xvfb xorg-x11-xkb-utils xorg-x11-server-utils xorg-x11-fonts-100dpi xorg-x11-fonts-75dpi xorg-x11-fonts-Type1 curl

Download and install Chromium

Download the rpm packages archive. This is a safe and verified archive hosted by Dynatrace.

ActiveGate 1.213

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-88.0.4324.150-1.el7.tgz

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 8

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-88.0.4324.150-1.el8.tgz

ActiveGate 1.209 to 1.211

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7

curl --output chromium.tgz https://synthetic-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/Chromium/rpm/chromium-87.0.4280.88-1.el7.tgz

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 8

curl --output chromium.tgz https://synthetic-packages.s3.amazonaws.com/Chromium/rpm/chromium-87.0.4280.88-1.el8.tgz

ActiveGate 1.205 to 1.207

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-85.0.4183.121-1.el7.tgz

Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 8

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-85.0.4183.83-1.el8.tgz

ActiveGate 1.201 to 1.203

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-84.0.4147.89-1.el7.tgz

ActiveGate 1.197 to 1.199

curl --output chromium.tgz https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-81.0.4044.138-1.el7.tgz

ActiveGate 1.189 to 1.195

sudo yum install -y /tmp/chromium/*.rpm

This installs all the packages extracted to the /tmp/chromium/ directory. You can delete the /tmp/chromium/ directory and the downloaded chromium.tgz archive after successful Chromium installation.

Disable automatic update of Chromium packages:

sudo yum -y install yum-plugin-versionlock  
sudo yum versionlock chromium  
sudo yum versionlock chromium-common

ActiveGate 1.197 and earlier

sudo yum -y install yum-plugin-versionlock  
sudo yum versionlock chromium  
sudo yum versionlock chromium-common  
sudo yum versionlock chromium-libs  
sudo yum versionlock chromium-libs-media

optional Install non-Latin TrueType fonts:

sudo yum install xfonts-cyrillic fonts-arphic-uming ttf-wqy-zenhei fonts-wqy-microhei ttf-wqy-microhei ttf-wqy-zenhei xfonts-wqy fonts-hosny-amiri

After you satisfy the dependencies, run the installer with root rights with the --enable-synthetic parameter set to manual. For example:

/bin/sh ./Dynatrace-ActiveGate-Linux.sh --enable-synthetic=manual

Frequently asked questions

How can I verify the authenticity of downloaded Chromium packages?

Each tgz package archive is stored in the S3 Bucket together with the *.tgz.sig signature file. To verify if the packages on your drive are authentic Dynatrace-provided archives, perform the following steps:

Download the signature file. The filename is identical to the package archive plus the sig filename extension. For example, for Chromium 78, it'll be:
```
curl --output chromium.tgz.sig https://s3.amazonaws.com/synthetic-packages/Chromium/rpm/chromium-78.0.3904.97-1.el7.tgz.sig
```

Verify the package:

wget https://ca.dynatrace.com/dt-root.cert.pem ; openssl cms
-verify
-in chromium.tgz.sig
-inform PEM
-content chromium.tgz
-binary
-CAfile dt-root.cert.pem > /dev/null

Verify the signature timestamp.

You can also get the exact timestamp of a signature. Download the *.tgz.sig.tsr file from the same location as installation packages and signature and run the following command:
```
openssl ts -reply -in chromium.tgz.sig.tsr -text
```

Can I use a proxy with the Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate?

With ActiveGate version 1.175+, an ActiveGate executing private synthetic monitors can connect through the proxy to both the Dynatrace Cluster and tested resource. For more information, see Setting up proxy for private synthetic monitoring.

Can I update an earlier ActiveGate to version 1.169+ and configure it to use with private synthetic monitors?

No, you need to run a clean installation in the Synthetic monitoring mode to enable your ActiveGate to execute monitors from private locations.

Can I turn on Synthetic on an existing ActiveGate installation?

Private Synthetic locations require a clean installation of ActiveGate in the Synthetic monitoring mode.

Manually editing the custom.properties file is not enough to enable the ActiveGate to execute synthetic monitors.

Can I add browser monitoring to a Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate already running HTTP monitors?

To add browser monitoring on Synthetic-enabled ActiveGates already running HTTP monitors, you need to reinstall the ActiveGate.

Manually editing the custom.properties file is not enough to enable browser monitoring in this case.

Troubleshooting

ActiveGate installation failed because of missing dependencies

In such cases

Uninstall ActiveGate.

See Uninstall ActiveGate for details.
Satisfy the dependencies.
Run the installation again.

I can't see screenshots from browser monitors

We store the screenshots in Amazon S3. If you cannot see your reference or error screenshots, it means that either your ActiveGate or the browser from which you access Dynatrace cannot access the Amazon S3 service. Change your firewall configuration to allow connections to *.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com on port 443. You can also set up your proxy to connect to the Amazon S3 service. Since version 1.175, you can use proxy communication to S3 for screenshots. Add proxy connection details to the [synthetic] section of the ActiveGate custom.properties file. For more information, see Set up a proxy for private synthetic monitoring.