Gomez GPN: Web Monitoring With a Smile: Page 2 of 3

I took a beta version of the GPN 3.5 for a spin in our Green Bay, Wis., Real-World Labs®. Running two single URL tests was a breeze and required only that I enter the URL and specify if page objects should be loaded. Tests that load all objects are performed once an hour; tests that do not load objects are done every 5 minutes. Additional configuration, such as specifying an expiration date for tests, can be made on a per-URL basis or by groups of URLs.

I logged in, configured and ran the GPN as prescribed. After receiving several daily reports via e-mail, I returned to the GPN Web site to set up alerts. For a single URL, alerts can be based on response time, host failure, page inaccessibility, page object failures and content-match failures. For transactions, alerts can be based on response time and transaction failures. I created a response time alert and a content match alert, modifying the text in the GPN to match against a slightly altered string to force a failure. As expected, I received e-mail alerts every 5 minutes. I moved on to setting up the software that would let the GPN send SNMP alerts to our Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold NMS.

A Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2 machine and a quick install had the GPN Alert Receiver ready to run. Gomez uses a Web-based Xml2Snmp receiver to listen for SNMP alerts wrapped in XML. When an alert is received, it parses out the SNMP alert and then forwards it to one or more configured trap receivers. Configuring the GPNs receiving software is not difficult, but it can be time-consuming. Once the software was installed, I tested the connectivity with clear-text transmissions via Port 80. You'll also undergo this process before tackling the more tedious job of setting up a secure SSL-based connection via Port 443. A simple, local SNMP trap receiver is included with the software for testing the initial setup.

For SSL configuration, Gomez will issue a certificate that needs to be imported into the GPN Receiver. The check box indicating "secured sockets" must be clicked. Unfortunately, because the system I tested was beta and SSL connectivity was not yet available, I could use only the clear text method for receiving alerts, but this was adequate.