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Web Activities (Time View)

PerformanceGuard normally collects data on a TCP packet-basis, but if your organization has defined Web Applications, you can dig further down into web requests and return information about specific elements, such as URLs, cookies, etc.

The Transactions graph (ANALYZE > Graphs > Time View > Transactions) helps you with this. Set up the graph with the following fields, and then click Update.

  • Transaction filter: Select required transaction filter. A transaction filter is a definition of things to look out for in a web request—for example images so that you can measure how long it takes before all images on a web page are available for the user to view in his or her browser. Transaction filters are very flexible: PerformanceGuard administrators can define more or less any element of a web request as a thing to look out for.

    The prefix of the filter name tells you about the type of transaction filter:

    • WEB monitors web requests in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge through the PerformanceGuard browser extension. See Configure Chromium based Browser Extensions.
    • IE is aimed at Internet Explorer. It monitors web requests as they are experienced in that browser.
    • HTTP monitors directly on the network interface rather than in the browser. Response times for the HTTP type are thus often slightly lower than for the browser-based types.

  • Server & Port: Select required server and port combination. You can only select server/port combinations for which the selected transaction filter is defined.

  • Transaction: Select one or more transaction tags from the selected transaction filter. To select multiple tags, press CTRL on your keyboard while you select.

    The PerformanceGuard agents installed on your organization’s computers look out for the things that your transaction filter specifies. When an agent detects one of those things, it generates a transaction tag and sends it to PerformanceGuard so that you are able to select it when you want to view a transaction graph or create SLA items. In other words, a transaction tag is a thing to look out for that one or more agents have positively found.

    If there are no tags to select, none of the selected computers have made a web request that matches the selected transaction filter yet, so the agents haven’t generated any transaction tags.

  • Agents: Select the group of computers that the graph should be based on. Super groups, that is groups of groups, are enclosed in <>.

  • Type: Determines which type of data the graph will contain. You can view descriptions of the available types in Graph Terms and Definitions.

  • Y-axis Min and Max: Enter the required range for the graph’s vertical axis. If you leave the fields empty, the range will automatically reflect the minimum and maximum values found in the data.

  • Interval: Select the period of time that the graph should cover. If the predefined intervals don’t suit you, select Custom to Custom Time Periods on Graphs.

  • Disconnect samples: By default, the samples in the graph are connected by a line. Select this check box to show the samples as separate points.

    Graph where the samples are connected by a line.

    Connected samples

    Graph where the samples are shown as separate points.

    Disconnected samples

Thresholds

Section titled “Thresholds”

For the data type Transaction response time, a threshold—that is a baseline that the displayed values must ideally be below—can be displayed as a horizontal line in the graph when:

  • Your PerformanceGuard administrator has defined such thresholds
  • You have selected one tag in the Transaction field (if you have selected multiple tags, threshold display is not available, because thresholds can be different across tags)

You may sometimes see more than one threshold on a graph. This is because your PerformanceGuard administrator is able to set up multiple thresholds for the same type of data. This can be useful in order to indicate different severities, for example if values above 80 are acceptable for short periods of time, whereas values above 90 require immediate attention.

On the graph each threshold has a name, so it is easy for you to see what the threshold is about.

Display of thresholds is by default on. On the Graph tab, you can toggle threshold display off by clicking Hide thresholds (and on again with Show thresholds). This can be useful, for example if you think that a threshold blocks your view of the graph’s data points.

If a graph has thresholds, the thresholds will also appear if you use the graph in a report, except when they’re hidden. Displayed thresholds are always the currently valid ones.

Statistics table

Section titled “Statistics table”

When you view the graph, you’ll also see a Statistics table below the graph. Note that the Statistics table shows the weighted average for the graph’s samples. That means that each value to be averaged is assigned a weight based on the number of occurrences of that value.