Configuring the Synthetic Playback agent

You must configure the Synthetic Playback agent so that the agent can collect data on the availability and performance of internal web applications. This data is displayed in the Application Performance Dashboard.

• To configure the agent by running the script and responding to prompts, complete the following steps:
  1. Enter install_dir/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh config where install_dir is the Synthetic Playback agent installation directory.
  2. When prompted to Edit Monitoring Agent for Synthetic Playback settings, enter 1 to continue.
  3. When prompted to enter a data center name for your playback point of presence, enter a name that identifies the location of your agent.
     Important: Choose a descriptive name for your playback point of presence. When you complete the installation of your agent, you can then select that location by name as a playback location for your synthetic transactions and view transaction data from that location in the Application Performance Dashboard.
  4. When prompted for Java parameters, choose a Java trace level. Press Enter to choose the default parameter, or enter a number from 1 - 8 to specify a trace level.
  5. When prompted for Class path for external jars, press Enter to leave blank, or else specify the location of an external jar.
• To configure the agent by using the silent response file, complete the following steps:
  1. In a text editor, open the synthetic_playback_silent_config.txt file that is available at the install_dir/samples path. For example

     /opt/ibm/apm/agent/samples

  2. In the synthetic_playback_silent_config.txt file, uncomment and assign values to the following properties:
     • For LOCATION, equate this parameter to the name of your data center or a name describing where your agent is installed.
     • For JAVA_TRACE_LEVEL, equate this parameter to one of the listed trace levels, such as JAVA_TRACE_LEVEL=ERROR.
     Save the file.
  3. On the command line, change the path to install_dir/bin.
  4. Run the following command to configure the agent in silent mode:

     synthetic_playback-agent.sh config install_dir/samples/synthetic_playback_silent_config.txt

• To start the Synthetic Playback agent, enter: install_dir/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh start.
• To verify that the Synthetic Playback agent is running, enter: install_dir/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh status. For more information, see Table 2.