Synthetic Testing on Netdata

Nagios Plugins: Run Existing Checks & Custom Scripts

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of teams have a collection of Nagios plugins and custom monitoring scripts that have been running reliably for years. Some are standard community plugins for checking disk health or SSL certificate expiry. Others are homegrown Bash or Python scripts that check something very specific to the business: whether an API endpoint returns the right payload, whether a batch job completed on time, whether a queue depth is within bounds. These scripts work, they’re battle-tested, and nobody wants to rewrite them.

Synthetic Monitoring Solution For APIs & Services

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Real-time synthetic monitoring for APIs, certificates, DNS, and network health - unified with infrastructure observability for faster troubleshooting and predictable costs.

What Is Synthetic Transaction Monitoring

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s digital-first world, the performance and availability of web applications are paramount to business success. Users expect seamless, fast, and reliable interactions, and any hiccup can lead to frustration, lost revenue, and a tarnished brand reputation. This is where synthetic transaction monitoring (STM) emerges as a critical proactive strategy. Unlike monitoring that relies on actual user traffic, STM uses simulated user journeys to continuously test and validate application functionality, performance, and availability, even before real users encounter issues.

Understanding Digital Experience Monitoring DEM

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s digital-first world, the way users interact with your online services defines their perception of your brand. A slow-loading webpage, a confusing mobile app, or an unavailable critical feature can quickly lead to frustration and churn. This is where Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM) becomes indispensable, offering a critical lens into how users truly perceive and interact with your digital platforms. Understanding and optimizing these interactions is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses aiming to thrive.

Synthetic Checks: Definition, Examples & Benefits

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What Are Synthetic Checks?

Synthetic checks are proactive tests that simulate user interactions or network requests to monitor the availability and performance of services. Rather than waiting for an issue to be reported by a user, synthetic checks continuously run automated checks to detect problems before they affect real users. This makes them an essential tool for DevOps and Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) who aim to maintain a reliable and responsive infrastructure.

How to monitor HTTP endpoints

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The HTTP protocol has become the de facto standard application layer protocol of the internet. From publicly available web sites and APIs to “inter-process” communications in REST based microservice architectures or large Service Oriented Architectures based on SOAP, you find HTTP being used again and again, due to its simplicity and our familiarity with it. How many protocols can you name that have memes for their status codes? Of course, such a popular protocol has endless pages written about how to properly monitor the services that rely on it, with many options specific to every use case. What you will learn here is how to get your basics done in monitoring HTTP endpoints, so you can be up and running in a few minutes, monitoring all HTTP services in your entire infrastructure.

How to monitor DNS query response time

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

DNS (Domain Name System) servers translate standard language web addresses to their actual IP addresses for network access.

DNS Lookup Journey

DNS response time is the time it takes a Domain Name Server to receive the request for a domain name’s IP address, process it, and return the IP address to the browser or application requesting it. When it comes to DNS response times, the lower the better, and generally values less than 100ms are considered to be in the acceptable range (depending on the application).

Blackbox Monitoring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Blackbox Monitoring

What Is Blackbox?

Blackbox is a versatile monitoring tool designed to test endpoints via HTTP, DNS, TCP and ICMP protocols. As a member of the Prometheus ecosystem, Blackbox enables the continuous evaluation of uptime and response times, providing critical insights into external service availability. By simulating requests to your key infrastructure components, Blackbox ensures you are the first to know when issues occur.

Monitoring Blackbox With Netdata

To effectively monitor Blackbox, Netdata integrates with the Prometheus ecosystem via an openmetrics (Prometheus) exporter. This means you can leverage the Blackbox exporter to gather metrics seamlessly. With Netdata, you can ingest data from any Prometheus exporter, streamlining your monitoring setup without needing a full Prometheus server or Grafana dashboard stack. Netdata automatically provides dashboards and alerts, ensuring you have real-time insights into your monitored services.

HTTP Endpoints Monitoring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

HTTP Endpoints Monitoring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

HTTP Endpoints Monitoring

What Is HTTP Endpoints?

HTTP Endpoints are specific URLs or web services that applications or users interact with. Monitoring these endpoints involves tracking their availability, response times, and reliability to ensure smooth and efficient operation of web services.

Monitoring HTTP Endpoints With Netdata

Netdata offers a comprehensive HTTP Endpoints monitoring tool, designed to provide real-time insights into your web services. With Netdata, you can monitor HTTP Endpoints to identify issues like increased response times or server connectivity problems before they impact user experience. You can sign up for a free trial or check out a live demo to see how it works.

MQTT Blackbox Monitoring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

MQTT Blackbox Monitoring

What Is MQTT Blackbox?

MQTT Blackbox is a specialized monitoring technique designed to test and track the performance of MQTT message transport using blackbox testing methods. It leverages the MQTT Blackbox Exporter to simulate client interactions and analyze the reliability and efficiency of message brokers in real-time.

Monitoring MQTT Blackbox With Netdata

Netdata excels at comprehensive MQTT Blackbox monitoring by utilizing an openmetrics (prometheus) exporter. With Netdata, you can effortlessly ingest data from any Prometheus exporter, eliminating the need for a Prometheus server or Grafana. This integration provides users with automated dashboards, real-time alerts, and more, making it an incredibly efficient tool for monitoring MQTT Blackbox.

Response Time Monitoring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

What is Response Time Monitoring?

Response time monitoring is the process of measuring the time it takes for a system or application to respond to a request made by a user. This measurement can help identify performance bottlenecks and potential issues with the system, and can be used to optimize its performance.

Response time monitoring is a critical aspect of performance monitoring that can benefit a wide range of systems and applications including web applications, such as e-commerce sites, social media platforms, enterprise web applications, mobile applications, such as gaming apps, social media apps, productivity apps, API-based systems, especially microservice architectures, database systems, including relational and NoSQL databases.

TCP/UDP Endpoints Monitoring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

TCP/UDP Endpoints Monitoring

What Is TCP/UDP Endpoints?

Understanding TCP/UDP Endpoints involves recognizing the critical roles these protocols play in network communications. TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol, managing data delivery through acknowledgment and retransmission processes. Conversely, UDP, the User Datagram Protocol, is connectionless, meaning it caters to applications where speed trumps reliability.

Monitoring TCP/UDP Endpoints With Netdata

When it comes to efficient and real-time monitoring, Netdata offers a profound solution. The Netdata platform monitors TCP/UDP endpoints efficiently, helping you track the availability and responsiveness of your network services. Netdata’s portcheck monitoring tool checks the availability of specific ports, which is crucial for assessing service health.