In AlertSite, API monitors test SOAP and REST web services to make sure they are working correctly. API monitors are powered by ReadyAPI or SoapUI tests, and have a number of settings that control the monitoring behavior.
Notes:
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You must be an Admin, Co-Admin, or Power User to change the monitor settings.
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It may take a few minutes for the changes to take effect.
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You can set the default settings for new monitors in > Settings > Preferences > Monitor Defaults in AlertSite UXM, or in Account > Manage Account in AlertSite 1.0.
Main
Basic
Name (or Site Name in AlertSite 1.0)
The monitor name that appears in dashboards and reports. For example, Customer Login.
Monitor ID (in AlertSite UXM)
Read-only. The monitor ID that can be used in AlertSite APIs.
Enable Monitoring (or Monitoring Is in AlertSite 1.0)
AlertSite UXM
On the Main tab, select or clear the Enable Monitoring check box to enable or disable monitoring.
AlertSite 1.0
Set Monitoring Is to Enabled to enable the monitor or Disabled to disable it.
Monitor ID (in AlertSite UXM)
Read-only. The monitor ID that can be used in AlertSite APIs.
Name (or Site Name in AlertSite 1.0)
The monitor name that appears in dashboards and reports. For example, Customer Login.
Enable alerting
AlertSite UXM
Enable availability or performance alerts on the Alerts tab.
AlertSite 1.0
Set Notify on Error to Yes to enable availability alerts for this monitor or No to disable availability alerts. Performance alerts are configured separately by clicking the Performance Alerts button in the top row.
Measurement Plan (or Site Plan in AlertSite 1.0)
The monitoring plan used for this monitor.
Run Interval (Minutes) (or Check Every in AlertSite 1.0)
How often the monitor checks your website. Possible values depend on the Measurement Plan selected for this monitor.
Monitor Note (or Device Note in AlertSite 1.0)
Leave a note for yourself or other users. Note text can be up to 1000 characters long. This note will appear on the AlertSite Dashboard when you hover over the icon. The note can also be included in alerts.
Monitoring
Monitoring Mode (or Monitoring Type in AlertSite 1.0)
The monitoring mode controls if locations check your API simultaneously or sequentially, and when they send alerts. See Monitoring Modes for possible values and details.
Rotate Locations
For each monitor, you define a location pool. Rotation means the monitor uses a subset of this location pool (say, 2 out of 10 locations) on every run, cycling through the locations. If rotation is not used, the monitor checks from all of its locations every time.
Notes:
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Rotated locations are not available for monitors that use private locations.
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Usage-Based Monitoring plan allows rotated locations for the following monitoring modes: Round Robin, SLA (MultiPOP), Global Notify, and Global Verify.
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Legacy plans (Performance Pro, SLA) support rotating through locations only for the Round Robin and SLA (MultiPOP) modes.
Locations Per Run (or Locations per Interval in AlertSite 1.0)
If Rotate Locations is selected, you need to specify the number (subset) of locations to use for each monitor run. This value ranges from 1 to the total number of locations you selected for the monitor.
When using the Round Robin or SLA (MultiPOP) monitoring mode, you need at least 2 locations per interval.
Enable Local Retry (or Disable Local Retry in AlertSite 1.0)
Applies only to monitors using the Usage-Based Monitoring plan. If local retry is enabled, then whenever the monitor finds an error, it will repeat the test from the same location to see if the problem is temporary. If the retry succeeds, no alert is triggered. For more information, see Local Retry and Global Verification.
| Note: | The retry consumes extra measurement credits. |
Enable AlertSite QA Testing (or Disable AlertSite QA Testing in AlertSite 1.0)
Before releasing AlertSite updates, SmartBear runs regression tests to make sure that both existing and new functionality work correctly. Select (or clear in AlertSite 1.0) this check box to include your monitor in SmartBear regression testing, so we can make sure your monitors will work correctly after AlertSite updates. Participation is voluntary.
Capture
Capture Level
AlertSite can keep SoapUI logs from test runs for later analysis. The logs include complete requests and responses (URL, headers, body, HTTP status code) and the details of any errors occurred. This can help troubleshoot failed tests.
Select the level of logs to store:
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Disabled – Do not store SoapUI test logs.
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Errors Only – (Default) Store SoapUI logs for just failed test steps.
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All Steps on Error – Store SoapUI logs for all test steps, but only if the test failed.
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All Steps – Always store SoapUI logs, even for successful runs.
The last 2 values are available for Usage-Based Monitoring accounts only, and consume 0.5 measurement credits per capture.
You can view SoapUI logs:
- in the test step details on the Monitor Runs dashboard
- in the Detail report by clicking the
camera icon.
You can also have the SoapUI log attached to email alerts if you configure alert recipients with the Attach server response to e-mail alerts option. This does not depend on the monitor’s Capture Level.
Custom Properties
Custom Properties
This section shows custom properties defined for your monitor. You can select a value for each property from the predefined list.
Advanced
Monitoring
Playback Engine
The engine used to run your ReadyAPI or SoapUI test at AlertSite’s global monitoring locations. The engine version defines the functionality that your API test can use. We recommend that you create API tests using the same version of ReadyAPI as the playback engine you will use.
Possible values:
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Default – the default engine is TestEngine 1.7
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ReadyAPI 1.1
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ReadyAPI 1.9
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TestEngine – same as TestEngine 1.7
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TestEngine 1.7 – functionally corresponds to ReadyAPI 2.8
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TestEngine 1.23 – functionally corresponds to ReadyAPI 3.8
Notes:
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If TestEngine 1.23 is selected but is not available at a location, TestEngine 1.7 is used instead.
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Private Node Server locations ignore this option and use the locally available engine.
SSL Options
These options apply only if your SoapUI monitor tests an API accessed over HTTPS.
SSL Version
If the API server requires a specific SSL or TLS version for client connections, select it from the list. Otherwise, select Auto-Detect, and both the monitor and the server will select the protocol automatically.
SSL Certificate
If your SoapUI test uses a keystore or a client SSL certificate, upload this certificate or keystore to AlertSite, and then select it from this list. The certificate will be automatically installed to the AlertSite global locations selected for this monitor. For details, see Using SSL Certificates and Java Keystores.
| Note: | Private locations (Private Node Server and InSite) support client-side SSL certificates starting from v. 2.1.2. To install client-side certificates on earlier versions of Private Node Server, please contact Support. |
Monitor Sharing
Project Information (or SoapUI Monitor Configuration in AlertSite 1.0)
This section shows various information about the SoapUI test the monitor runs, including:
- The project name
- The test suite name
- The test case name
- The names of the steps in the test case
This information is read-only. To select another test case to run, upload the project and select a new test case.
Transaction Trace
Enable Transaction Trace (or Transaction Trace in AlertSite 1.0)
This option enables or disables AppDynamics transaction tracing for the monitor (see AppDynamics Integration). If it is selected, AppDynamics captures server-side transaction snapshots for all API calls made by the monitor. The snapshots contain code-level details like the slowest methods and SQL queries, and can help troubleshoot performance issues. You can access these snapshots from the Monitor Runs dashboard.
| Note: | AppDynamics transaction tracing is supported in AlertSite Enterprise only. |
Locations
Select one or more locations to monitor you website from. For details, see Selecting Locations for Monitoring.
Blackouts
On this tab, you can view and edit monitor blackouts. Blackouts are time periods when the monitor either does not run or does not send alerts on errors. To learn how to create blackouts, see Scheduling Monitor Blackouts.
Existing blackouts are displayed in a table with the following columns:
| Column | Description |
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Status |
The blackout status: Scheduled or Past. The column is shown if the Hide Past Blackouts check box is cleared. |
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Schedule |
The blackout date and time. |
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Type |
What is disabled during the blackout – the Monitor itself, or just Alerts from this monitor. |
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Note |
Optional blackout notes. For one-time blackouts only. |
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Created By |
The user who created this blackout. For one-time blackouts only. |
Click the image to enlarge it.
To filter out the blackouts, click the Filter by dropdown and select how to filter the blackouts:
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By scheduling frequency: recurring or one-time blackouts.
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By the blackout type: monitor or alert.
To remove expired blackouts from the blackouts table, select the Hide Past Blackouts check box.
Alerts
Here you can configure availability and performance alerts for the monitor or individual steps. To receive alerts, you need to have alert recipients configured. By default, the monitor sends alerts to all configured recipients, but you can target alerts to specific recipients by selecting recipient groups for this monitor.
Monitor Alerts and Step Level Alerts (in AlertSite UXM)
If the monitor has multiple steps, you can configure alerts for the whole monitor or individual steps. Use these tabs to switch between monitor-level and step-level configuration.
Recipient Groups (or Notifier Groups in AlertSite)
Select the recipient groups that will receive alerts from this monitor. The recipient groups must have been previously created in Alerts > Alert Recipients (or Notifiers > Notifier Groups in AlertSite 1.0).
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If the monitor is not assigned to any recipient group, it sends alerts to all the recipients configured in your AlertSite account. |
| Note: | Adding a monitor to the recipient group overrides any step-level associations for that recipient group. So if you want to add individual steps to a group, remove the monitor from that group first. |
Availability Alerts (or Notify on Error? in AlertSite 1.0)
Select this check box to send alerts when the monitor detects errors like HTTP errors, timeouts, or incorrect website content. The monitor status turns red in these cases.
Alert Notes
Monitor-specific notes that can be included in email and JSON alerts (availability alerts only), up to 1000 characters long. To add these notes to alerts, you need to configure alert templates to include the $ALERT_NOTE variable. For details, see Adding Monitor-Specific Notes to Alerts.
Performance Alerts
Enable performance alerts if you wish to be notified when the monitor response time exceeds the specified value. See Performance Alerts for a description of available settings and to learn how to set up these alerts.
Notes:
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In AlertSite 1.0, click the Performance Alerts button in the top left corner of the monitor configuration screen to view or change the performance alert settings.
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For multi-step monitors, the response time thresholds should include the total response time for all test steps.
Manage the SoapUI Project
Update or Replace the Project
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Download the project to your computer.
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Change it in ReadyAPI or SoapUI.
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Upload the updated project in the monitor settings in AlertSite.
Download SoapUI Project
Click Download Project to download the zipped SoapUI project used by the monitor to your computer. You can open the downloaded project in ReadyAPI or SoapUI by using the File > Import Packed Project menu item.
Upload New Project
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In ReadyAPI or SoapUI, export the project as a .zip file. To do this, right-click the project in the Navigator and select Export Project from the context menu.
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In AlertSite, open your SoapUI monitor settings.
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(AlertSite 1.0 only) Click Manage API Project.
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Click Upload Project, browse for the exported project and proceed from there.