Defining Watchpoints

Defining a Watchpoint typically involves:

• Creating a page Watchpoint or an object Watchpoint, and giving it a meaningful name
• Configuring filters to define the segment of traffic that you want to monitor
• Turning on the new Watchpoint
• Configuring Performance Compliance Levels (PCLs) for the Watchpoint (optional)

Choose the type of a Watchpoint depending on your need, for example:

• Page Watchpoint – To add a Watchpoint for monitoring the performance and availability for all traffic to your web application (example.com), create a page Watchpoint with a filter to detect only traffic to example.com.

• Object Watchpoint – To monitor the performance and availability of static objects served to your end users from your application, create an object Watchpoint with a filter specifically to detect objects with the following extensions: .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .css, .js, and .png.

To define a page Watchpoint

1. On the Administration page of a
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   , click Available Watchpoints.
   
   
2. Create the Watchpoint:
   1. On the Action menu, click Add a new Watchpoint.
   2. In the Name box, type a descriptive name for the Watchpoint, for example Watchpoint Application – example.com.
   3. In the Type list, select Page.
   4. In the Description text box, type Traffic to example.com.
   5. To automatically create incident detection rules for the Watchpoint, select the Monitor performance incidents, Monitor volume incidents, and Monitor availability incidents check boxes.
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      For more information, read Incident-detection rules.

   6. Click Save and proceed to configuring filters.
      
      
3. To monitor only traffic to your web application (example.com), refine the scope of the Watchpoint by adding a filter to the Watchpoint:
   1. In the Traffic filters section for the new Watchpoint, on the Add filter menu, click Add new filter.
   2. In the Name box, type Application – example.com.
   3. Click Build filter expression.
      The Expression builder opens.
      
      Composing a filter to identify traffic to your web application
      
      
      
   4. In the Field list, click URI Host.
   5. In the Comparison list, click contains.
   6. In the Comparison box, type example.com.
   7. Click Add.
   8. Click Save.
   9. In the Filter description box, type Objects in the list of static file types.
   10. Click Save.
4. To make the system begin collecting and aggregating traffic for the new Watchpoint, click ON.
   
   Successfully configured Watchpoint
   

To define an object Watchpoint

1. On the Administration page of a Real User Analyzer, click Available Watchpoints.
2. Create the Watchpoint:
   1. On the Action menu, click Add a new Watchpoint.
   2. In the Name box, type Watchpoint Performance – Static objects.
   3. In the Type list, click Object.
   4. In the Description box, type Any object with a static file type.
   5. Click Save and proceed to configuring filters.
      
      
3. Refine the scope of the Watchpoint to monitor only static file types (.gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .css, .js, .png.) by adding a filter to the Watchpoint:
   1. In the Traffic filters section for the new Watchpoint, on the Add filter menu, click Add new filter.
   2. In the Name box, type Static object types.
   3. Click Build filter expression.
      The Expression builder opens.
   4. In the Field list, click URI File Extension.
   5. In the Comparison list, click ends with.
   6. In the Comparison box, type gif and click Add.
   7. In the Comparison box, type jpg and click Add with OR.
   8. Repeat step 3g for the rest of the static file extensions.
   9. Click Save.
   10. In the Filter description box type Objects in the list of static file types.
   11. Click Save.
       New filters are turned on by default.
       
       Composing a filter to identify static object types
       
       
       
4. To make the system begin collecting and aggregating traffic for the new Watchpoint on, click ON.
   
   Successfully configured Watchpoint
   
   
   The system begins collecting and aggregating data for the new Watchpoint.

Where to go from here

You can also automatically create incident detection rules to monitor the Watchpoint for performance, availability, and volume incidents.

Related topics

Managing Watchpoints
Using the Watchpoint summary
Incident-detection rules