Monitoring Internet and WAN Links Using Synthetic Probes

This article offers an overview of the Synthetic Monitoring feature in the Cato Cloud.

Overview of Synthetic Monitoring

The Synthetic Monitoring feature lets you monitor the quality of the last mile ISP link. Starting with Socket v20, you can also monitor the reachability and availability of business critical applications via both the Cato Cloud, or directly through your internet connection. The Synthetic Monitoring feature sends ICMP packets over your various transport types to domains or IP addresses that you define. If there is a connectivity problem, such as latency or packet loss, with these connections, it can indicate where the problem lies, i.e. your ISP, network, or the Cato Cloud.

By default, this feature measures the quality for the ISP links to these destinations: facebook.com, google.com, and amazon.com. However, you also have the option to configure custom websites for the entire account or a specific site.

The monitoring data for the synthetic probes are shown in the Last Mile Packet Loss and Last Mile Distance graphs in the ​Site Monitoring > Network Analytics​​ for a site.

Note

Notes:

  • Make sure that your Network and Security policies allow probing using ICMP packets.

  • If you probe the same destinations over multiple transport types, e.g. local internet breakout and Cato Cloud, you might see slightly higher latency for traffic via the Cato Cloud. This occurs as a result of the smaller payloads sent with the ICMP packets. For larger payloads, Cato Cloud should be faster.

Configuring Synthetic Monitoring for the Account

You can enable Synthetic Monitoring for the entire account and define how often you want to send packets, as well as to which domains or IP addresses to send them.

To configure Synthetic Monitoring for the account:

  1. From the navigation menu, click Network > Synthetic Monitoring.

    lastmile.png

  2. Select each segment to which you want to send synthetic probes. For example, Internet Applications via local internet breakout and Internet Applications via the Cato Cloud.

  3. In Test Interval (sec), select the number of seconds between ICMP test packets.

  4. Optional: Customize the website destinations you are monitoring. You can enter up to 5 IP addresses or domains:

    1. Click remove.png to remove a default destination.

    2. Click Domain_plus.png and start typing or select from Domain or IP.

    3. Enter the value for the defined destination and click Add.

  5. To exclude a Last Resort interface from sending packets, select Exclude Last Resort Socket interfaces. This is only available for probes sent via the Cato Cloud (for example, probes are still sent over Internet Breakout).

  6. Click Save.

    The configuration is changed and data in the Experience Monitoring widgets will appear within approximately 10 minutes.

Configuring Synthetic Monitoring for a Specific Site

For each Socket site, you can configure specific settings for the Synthetic Monitoring feature. The settings for a specific site take precedence and override the settings for the entire account.

In addition, when you configure this feature for a site, you have the option to exclude one or more Socket interfaces. This means that the excluded interfaces are NOT monitored for last mile connectivity. For example, you can choose to exclude an interface that uses 4G/LTE links.

To configure Last Mile Monitoring for a site:

  1. From the navigation menu, click Network > Sites and select the site.

  2. From the navigation menu, click Site Configuration > Synthetic Monitoring.

  3. Select Override Account Settings, to use only the Socket settings for this site.

  4. In Test Interval (sec), select the number of seconds between ICMP test packets.

  5. To configure a custom destination:

    1. Click Domain_plus.png and IP or Domain.

    2. Enter the value for the defined destination. You can enter up to 5 IP addresses or domains.

  6. To exclude an interface for local internet breakout from sending packets, under Excluding, click Domain_plus.png and start typing or select the desired interface.

    To exclude an interface from sending packets, select Exclude Last Resort Socket interfaces. This is only available for probes sent via the Cato Cloud.

  7. Click Save.

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