Editing an application's synthetic settings

To run synthetic functionality on an application, you need to turn Synthetic on for the application and then configure the application accordingly.  To turn Synthetic on for an application, on the Edit Application page, set the Synthetic field for the application to ON.

To run synthetic functionality, you also must make sure the current status is set to Active.

Synthetic configuration includes the following:

• Global SLA—Service Level Agreement that applies to all Execution Plans defined for this application
• Execution Plans—Plans for running predefined scripts to simulate use of the application

An Execution Plan provides the interface for a script and its execution. Through an Execution Plan, you specify configuration values for the script, indicate on which locations the script runs, and define the run schedule.

BMC Synthetic Transaction Execution Adapter (TEA) Agents can process up to 120 Execution Plans each.

This topic contains the following procedures:

To define a Global SLA for your application

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select  Configuration > Applications .
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
    
   
4. Click the  icon to open the Global SLA settings.
5. For each metric, set the following options:
   
   • Minor Level and Critical Level —Levels indicating when an event is triggered
     Default values are 10% for Minor and 20% for Critical. 
   • Send Notification —Level of event that triggers a notification
     Default is to send notification for Minor or Critical breach. 
   • Latency Threshold —(Performance only) Threshold beyond which the latency triggers an event
     Default is 2000 milliseconds. 
   
   For more details about the specific metrics see Monitoring synthetic transactions in the Locations view and Monitoring synthetic transactions in the Executions view.
6. Click Save. 

To create or edit an Execution Plan

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select Configuration > Applications.
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
   The Execution Plans that are defined for the application are listed. 
4. Perform one of the following actions:
   
   • To define a new Execution Plan, on the Execution Plans action menu, click Add Execution Plan.
   • To edit a previously defined Execution Plan, from the action menu of the specific Execution Plan, select Edit Execution Plan Settings.
5. In General Settings, configure the following settings:

   • Enter a unique Name for the Execution Plan and, optionally, a Description for the Execution Plan.
     The description appears in a tooltip when you place the cursor over the Execution Plan name on the list of Execution Plans.

     Note

     Execution Plan names must be unique within the same application configuration. You can use the same Execution Plan name in different application configurations.

   • To change the the Execution Plan Status, select Active or Inactive.
     The status of the Execution Plan determines whether the script runs. The Execution Plan is also affected by the status of the application. The status of the application takes precedence.
   • For a new Execution Plan: Select the script file that this Execution Plan runs.
     You cannot change the script association when you edit an Execution Plan.

6. In Script Attributes, set values for the script attributes that require user input, such as URLs, host names, and passwords.

   Note

   • App Visibility does not validate script attribute values. For information about provided scripts, see Using scripts to simulate end-user transactions.
   • Script attributes of scripts provided by BMC do not support non-English characters.
   • If you define the Execution Plan to run a Silk Performer script on more than one location, ensure that each TEA Agent in each location has a local administrator account that uses the same user name and password.
     

7. In Locations, you can add or remove locations where the Execution Plan runs. 

   • To add locations, click the  icon and select locations to to add.
   • To remove locations from an Execution Plan, clear the check boxes for the relevant locations.

   Click OK.

8. In Execution Plan Schedule, you see a summary of the current schedule settings for the Execution Plan.
   
   To edit the schedule, click Edit Schedule.
   

   In the Execution Plan Schedule dialog box, set the following options: 

    

   Repetition
   Repeat Every	Set how often the Execution Plan runs. This must be a whole number of minutes or hours. Minimum is 2 minutes. Maximum is 24 hours. Default is 5 minutes.
   Timeout Period	Set the amount of time the Execution Plan is allowed to run before it stops automatically.
   Advanced Settings
   Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)	Select this to schedule the Execution Plan according to UTC time.
   Location Local Time	Select this to schedule the Execution Plan according to the local time of the TEA Agent where the Execution Plan runs.
   Random Start-Time Delay (Maximum in minutes)	Set this to the maximum range of delay before the Execution Plan starts. A different delay value is randomly set for each location where the Execution Plan runs. In each location, the Execution Plan runs at start time + the random delay set for the Execution Plan in that location. Minimum is 1 minute. Maximum is 60 minutes. Default is 5 minutes. See examples at the end of this procedure.
   Effective Immediately / Effective From	Select Effective Immediately to start running the Execution Plan immediately. Select Effective From to start running the Execution Plan from a specific date and time.
   Never Expire / Expire On	Select Never Expire to indicate the Execution Plan should continue running and will never expire.
   	Select Expire On to set an expiration date and time for the Execution Plan. The Execution Plan will not run anymore after the expiration date/time passes.

   Click Save.

9. In Blackouts, If you have blackout periods set for this Execution Plan, you see a table listing the blackout periods.
   
   The following details are shown in the table (see the description of editing a blackout field below for more details):

   Column	Description
   Time Zone	The clock used to calculate the blackout period: UTC - Coordinated Universal Time Local - Local time of the TEA Agent running the Execution Plan
   Period	Time period when the blackout period is in effect
   Recurrence	When, and how often the blackout period recurs
   Description	Optional description

   • To add a blackout period for this Execution Plan, click Add Blackout.

   • To edit a blackout period for this Execution Plan, click Edit on the blackout period's action menu.
     
     In the Blackout Settings dialog box, set the following options:
     
     

     Description (optional)	Enter a logical name or description for the blackout period.
     Time Period
     Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) / Location Local Time	Select Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to schedule the blackout according to UTC time.
     	Select Location Local Time to schedule the blackout according to the local time of the TEA Agent where the Execution Plan runs.
     Effective Immediately / Effective From	Effective Immediately - Start using the blackout period immediately.  Effective From - Select a time and date from which the blackout period is in effect.
     Never Expire / Expire On	Never Expire - The blackout period continues running and never expires. Expire On - Expiration date and time for the blackout period. The blackout period does not run anymore after the expiration date/time passes. Note  The blackout period includes the entire minute indicated in the Expire On field. For example, if you select 8:00 as your expiration time, the blackout continues until 8:00:59.
     Recurrence
     All Day	Select this to set the blackout period to cover the entire day for the selected days.
     Start Time, End Time	Select the start and end times of the blackout period for the selected days of the week. The same Start Time and End Time apply to all selected days.
     Days of the week	Select the days of the week when the blackout period takes effect. At least one day must be selected.

     Click Save.

   • To delete a blackout period, click Delete on the action menu for the blackout period.
     

10. Click Save to save the Execution Plan settings.

To edit the Custom SLA for an Execution Plan

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select  Configuration > Applications .
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
   The Execution Plans that are defined for the application are listed. 
4. From the action menu of the specific Execution Plan, select Custom SLA.
5. For each metric that you want to set differently from the Global SLA, set Value Type for the metric you want to customize to Custom, and then set the following options:
   
   • Minor Level  and  Critical Level—Levels indicating when an event is triggered
   • Send Notification —Level of event that triggers an automatic notification
   • Latency Threshold—(Performance only) Threshold beyond which the latency triggers an event.
   
   For more details about the specific metrics, see Monitoring synthetic transactions in the Locations view and Monitoring synthetic transactions in the Executions view.
6. Click Save.

To reset the SLA for an Execution Plan to the Global SLA

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select  Configuration > Applications .
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
   The Execution Plans that are defined for the application are listed. 
4. From the action menu of the specific Execution Plan, select Reset to Global SLA.
   A confirmation message appears asking if you want to reset the SLA for this Execution Plan. 
5. Click Yes.

To deactivate an Execution Plan

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select  Configuration > Applications .
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
   The Execution Plans that are defined for the application are listed. 
4. From the action menu of the specific Execution Plan, select Deactivate.

To activate an Execution Plan

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select  Configuration > Applications .
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
   The Execution Plans that are defined for the application are listed. 
4. Place the mouse cursor over the Inactive status of the Execution Plan to see why the Execution Plan is inactive. 
   
   
5. If the deactivation is at the Execution Plan level, from the action menu of the Execution Plan, select Activate.

To delete a defined Execution Plan

1. On the TrueSight console, from the navigation page, select  Configuration > Applications .
2. Click the action menu of the relevant application and select Edit.
3. Click the Synthetic tab. 
   The Execution Plans that are defined for the application are listed. 
4. From the action menu of the specific Execution Plan, select Delete.
5. Click Save.

Related topics

Using scripts to simulate end-user transactions

Application and Execution Plan status

Daylight saving time and blackout periods

Preparing Silk Test script execution for synthetic transaction monitoring