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.

  1. For Environment ActiveGate, from the Dynatrace menu, go to Deploy Dynatrace > Install ActiveGate. For Cluster ActiveGate, go to the Dynatrace Cluster Management Console, select the Browse button (…) and select Add new Cluster ActiveGate.

  2. Select the operating system and follow the on-screen instructions.

  3. For What's the purpose of this ActiveGate?, select Run synthetic monitors from a private location.

  4. 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:

      Red Hat repositories

  5. Install ActiveGate. Make sure you use the exact command displayed in the Dynatrace web UI.

Add a private location

  1. From the Dynatrace menu, go to Settings > Web & mobile monitoring > Private synthetic locations.
  2. Select Create location.
  3. Give your location a custom Name, for example Boston office, 3rd floor.
  4. Map it from an existing geographic location or add a custom geographic location defined by Country, Region, City, and Geographic coordinates.
  5. Add the Synthetic-enabled ActiveGate you've just installed to the location. Note that an ActiveGate can only be assigned to a single location.
  6. Select Add.
  7. Select Save.

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

  1. Install Synthetic engine dependencies:

    Synthetic engine dependencies:

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

    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

  2. Download and install Chromium.

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

      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.

  3. Disable automatic update of Chromium packages:

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

  4. 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

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

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS

  1. Set up repositories.

    • Register the Red Hat instance.
      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

  2. 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

  3. Download and install Chromium.

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

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

    2. 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.

    3. Install extracted packages.

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

      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.

  4. Disable automatic update of Chromium packages:

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

  5. 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

  6. After you satisfy the dependencies, run the ActiveGate 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

Troubleshooting