SYNTHETIC TRANSACTIONS

Synthetic transactions refer to transactions which serve no business value, however with repeating the same connection setup, deliver transaction packets and close the connection you will get proper response time measurement data. Mostly you will get those measurements in milliseconds. I did several troubleshooting sequences in using Synthetic Transactions to determine the root cause of quality lose. A PacketShaper for example uses always 1k transaction data for standardized, artificial traffic, which helps in determine any degradation of expected service quality. Cisco Router are using IPSLA, which does a similar job. Believe it or not, Cisco's IPSLA Command Reference book is 567 Pages  (December 2009) !!! Microsoft Operations Manager is also capable to monitor objects by using Synthetic Transactions.  Sun Management Center can load "Synthetic Transactions Modules" to perform artificial measurements. NetIQ installs Agents to execute basic transactions doing the same thing. They call it AppManager Response Time Modules.

using a combination of Synthetic Transactions and Ping

PacketShaper - some examples can be found on TechieStuff

• The http type will issue a GET request for the file specified by the <path> parameter. (The default port is 80.)
• The https type does an SSL handshake and issues a GET request for the file specified by the <path> parameter. (The default port is 443.)
• The icmp type sends a ping request to the designated server, using the ICMP-ECHO Protocol (RFC 792). This feature is available starting in 8.0.1. Example: synthetic add 17,2 "icmp://www.packeteer.com"
• The smtp and pop3 types also do not send or receive mail; they issue a single command over the channel to elicit a response. (The default port is 25.)
• The ftp type will issue a single retrieve command (RETR) for the file specified in the <path> parameter but doesn’t do any user authentication. (The default port is 21.)
• The echo type sends a string to the designated host and the host echos it back. TCP echo requires that the target host have an echo server process running and listening on port 7. The optional <path> argument has the format <length>[/<fill>] where <length> is the number of bytes to send on each request (the default is 512) and <fill> is a string to fill the request buffer. The <fill> string can be up to 511 bytes

Sun Management Center 3.5

• HTTP – Determines the service availability of web servers and the retrieval time for web pages using the HTTP protocol.
• FTP – Determines the FTP service availability. It also measures the ability to transfer files to and from the FTP servers. FtpGet gets a file that you define from the FTP server. FtpPut puts a file on the server.
• Telnet – Determines the availability of the Telnet service.
• DNS – Determines the availability of the DNS Service and the ability of the DNS daemon to resolve a host name.
• NIS – Determines the NIS service availability. It also determines the ability of the NIS daemon to resolve a name in a NIS domain. The supported name resolution types are user name, host name, group name, and mail alias.
• LDAP – Determines the LDAP service availability and the ability of the LDAP daemon to resolve a name.
• SMTP – Measures the availability of the SMTP mail service and its performance when sending mail. You must create at least one dummy email account on the target server for sending the test email. Remember to periodically delete the test email to ensure that the mailbox does not fill up.
• POP3 – Measures the availability of POP3 mail service and its performance of retrieving mail.
• IMAP4 – Measures the availability of IMAP4 mail service and its performance when retrieving mail.
• Calendar – Measures the availability of the Solaris calendar service and ability to retrieve calendar appointments from it.
   

AppManager Response Time Modules

• Microsoft Active Directory (and DNS) - Provides a set of transactions that monitor the availability and response time of typical Active Directory operations, such as checking Active Directory domain controller connectivity or service availability.
• Microsoft Exchange - Monitors the availability and response time of typical Exchange operations, such as checking an Exchange Address Book entry and reporting on how long this took and any errors generated.
• Microsoft SQL Server - Provides a set of transactions that can be run from client machines to SQL servers. These transactions monitor the availability and response time of typical queries.
• Network based - Uses NetIQ's unique network application emulation technology to monitor a network's ability to move critical application traffic. AppManager Response Time for Networks is installed on at least two computers, typically on different sites, and it monitors network performance between those sites.
• Oracle - Provides a set of transactions that can be run from client machines to Oracle servers, monitoring the availability and response time of typical queries.
• Web - Measures the response time of complex Web-based transactions through record and playback capabilities. With this module, you can also verify the performance and availability of web page URLs and key web services, such as SMTP and FTP.
• Windows - Measures the response time of virtually any Windows application, including Citrix terminal sessions, through scriptable recording and playback of client operations