Getting Started with Synthetic Monitoring

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Overview

Synthetic tests allow you to observe how your systems and applications are performing using simulated requests and actions from around the globe. Datadog tracks the performance of your webpages and APIs from the backend to the frontend, and at various network levels (HTTP, SSL, DNS, WebSocket, TCP, UDP, ICMP, and gRPC) in a controlled and stable way, alerting you about faulty behavior such as regressions, broken features, high response times, and unexpected status codes.

Synthetic test types

Datadog offers API tests, Multistep API tests, Browser tests, and Mobile tests.

To monitor internal-facing applications, run your tests from managed locations or private locations. Synthetic tests can be triggered manually, on a schedule, or directly from your CI/CD pipelines.

Prerequisites

If you haven’t already, create a Datadog account.

Configure your first test

To set up your first Synthetic test with Datadog, choose from the following options:

Create an API test to start monitoring your API endpoints’ uptime.
Create a multistep API test to link several HTTP requests and start monitoring key workflows at the API level.
Create a browser test to start testing critical business transactions on your applications.
Create a mobile test to start testing key business workflows on your Android and iOS applications.
Create a private location to start monitoring internal applications using all Synthetic test types.

Synthetic Monitoring notifications

Use and enrich Synthetic monitors to send notifications when a Synthetic Monitoring test is failing. The following use cases are available:

Pre-filled monitor messages: Pre-filled monitor messages provide a structured starting point for Synthetic test alerts. Each message includes a standardized title, summary, and footer containing test metadata, making it easier to understand the alert at a glance.
Template variables: Template variables let you inject test-specific data into monitor notifications dynamically. These variables pull from the synthetics.attributes object.
Advanced usage: Advanced usage includes techniques for surfacing deeper test insights or structuring complex messages using handlebars templating.
Conditional alerting: Conditional alerting allows you to change the content of a monitor notification based on specific test results or failure conditions.

For more information, see Synthetic Monitoring notifications.