Default Parameters for AWSHttpTest

This test emulates a user accessing a web page on the cloud via HTTP(S), and reports whether that page is accessible or not. In the process, the test indicates the availability of the cloud over the web, and the time it took for the agent to access the cloud over the web. This way, issues in web-based access to the cloud come to light.

This page depicts the default parameters that need to be configured for the AWSHttpTest:

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• The web page(s) that is being accessed has to be provided in the URL text box. While multiple URLs (separated by commas) can be provided, each URL should be of the format URL name:URL value. URL name is a unique name assigned to the URL, and the URL value is the value of the URL. By default, the URL parameter is set to HomePage:http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/, where HomePage is the URL name, and http://aws.amazon.com/ec2 is the URL value. You can modify this default setting to configure any URL of your choice - e.g., the URL of the login page to your cloud-based infrastructure.

• Certain cookies that need to be returned by the web server on subsequent requests have to be saved locally. This has to be specified in the COOKIEFILE text box.

• The host on which a web proxy server is running (in case a proxy server is to be used) has to be mentioned in the PROXYHOST text box.

• The port number on which the web proxy server is listening has to be provided in the PROXYPORT text box.

• The user name and the password of the proxy server have to be specified in the PROXYUSERNAME and PROXYPASSWORD text boxes respectively.

• Confirm the password by retyping it in the CONFIRM PASSWORD text box.

• In the CONTENT text box, specify a set of instruction:value pairs. These instruction:value pairs are used to validate the content being returned by the test. If the CONTENT value is none:none, no validation is performed. The number of pairs specified in this text box, must be equal to the number of URLs being monitored. The instruction should be one of Inc or Exc. Inc tells the test that for the content returned by the web server to be valid, the content must include the specified value (a simple string search is done in this case). An instruction of Exc instructs the test that the server's output is valid if it does not contain the specified value. In both cases, the content specification can include wild card patterns. For example, an Inc instruction can be Inc:*Home page*.An Inc and an Exc instruction can be provided in quick succession in the following format: Inc:*Home Page*,Exc:*home.

• The HttpTest supports HTTP authentication. The CREDENTIALS parameter is to be set if a specific user name / password has to be specified to login to a page. If the web server on which HttpTest executes supports ‘Anonymous user access’, then this parameter will take either of the following values:

  • a comma-separated list of user name:password pairs, one pair for each URL being monitored
  • the value none:none, if no user authorization is required

  Where NTLM (Integrated Windows) authentication is supported, valid CREDENTIALS are mandatory. In other words, a none specification will not be supported in such cases. Therefore, in this case, against each configured URLname, you will have to provide a valid Username in the format: domainname\username, followed by a valid Password.

  Please be sure to check if your web site requires HTTP authentication while configuring this parameter. HTTP authentication typically involves a separate pop-up window when you try to access the page. Many sites use HTTP POST for obtaining the user name and password and validating the user login. In such cases, the username and password have to be provided as part of the POST information and NOT as part of the CREDENTIALS specification for this test.

• In some environments, all communication with the AWS EC2 cloud and its regions could be routed through a proxy server. In such environments, you should make sure that the eG agent connects to the cloud via the proxy server and collects metrics. To enable metrics collection via a proxy, specify the IP address of the proxy server and the port at which the server listens against the PROXY HOST and PROXY PORT parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the eG agent is not configured to communicate via a proxy, by default.

• If the proxy server requires authentication, then, specify a valid proxy user name and password in the PROXY USER NAME and PROXY PASSWORD parameters, respectively. By default, these parameters are set to none, indicating that the proxy sever does not require authentication by default.

• If a Windows NTLM proxy is to be configured for use, then additionally, you will have to configure the Windows domain name and the Windows workstation name required for the same against the PROXY DOMAIN and PROXY WORKSTATION parameters. If the environment does not support a Windows NTLM proxy, set these parameters to none.

• In the TIMEOUT text box, specify the maximum duration (in seconds) for which the test will wait for a response from the server. The default timeout period is 30 seconds.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the Update button will register the changes made.

When changing default configurations of tests, the values with “$” indicate variables that will be replaced by the eG system according to the specific server being managed - for instance, $hostName is the host/nickname of the target host, $port is the port number of the server being monitored. E.g., for a server xyz:80, $hostName will be changed automatically by the eG manager to “xyz” and $port will be changed to “80” when configuring a test.