Network Path Testing in Synthetic Monitoring gives you complete visibility into the routes your synthetic tests follow. You can pinpoint where failures happen, whether in applications, on-premises networks, or with ISPs. This accelerates root cause analysis, enables proactive issue detection, and triggers actionable alerts when tests fail. It also provides uptime data to help you measure and communicate the value of your network reliability investments.
Running Network Path tests from managed locations lets you perform TCP, UDP, and ICMP checks on your application. Visualize the Network Path packets follow when executing queries from different global locations.
For information on billing for Network Path Testing in Synthetic Monitoring, see the pricing page.
Test creation
In Datadog, hover over Digital Experience in the left-hand menu and select Tests (under Synthetic Monitoring & Testing).
Click New Test > Network Path Test.
Test configuration
Choose your request type (TCP, UDP, or ICMP) and specify the host or URL to query. Port information is optional.
Name your test.
Optional: Configure advanced options:
Source service: The label displayed for the source host in the Network Path visualization.
Destination service: The label displayed for the destination host in the Network Path visualization.
Max TTL: Maximum time-to-live (maximum number of hops) for outgoing probe packets. Defaults to 30 hops.
E2E Queries: Number of packets sent to the destination to measure packet loss, latency, and jitter. Defaults to 50.
Traceroute Queries: Number of traceroute path tracings to perform. Results are aggregated in each test run details panel. Defaults to 3.
TCP traceroute strategy (TCP tests only): Choose between Selective Acknowledgement (SACK) and Synchronize (SYN) traceroute strategies. SACK and Force SACK more closely mimic modern application traffic.
Define assertions to determine the expected results for your test. At least one assertion is required.
Type
Operator 1
Operator 2
Value type
latency
avg, max, min
is, <, <=, >, >=
int
packet loss
is, <, <=, >, >=
int (0 to 100)
jitter
is, <, <=, >, >=
float
network hops
avg, max, min
is, <, <=, >, >=
int
Select the locations from which to run your test. Network Path tests can run from managed locations to test your endpoints from global locations.
Datadog’s out-of-the-box managed locations allow you to test public-facing websites and endpoints from regions where your customers are located.
AWS:
Americas
Asia Pacific
EMEA
Canada Central
Hong Kong
Bahrain
Northern California
Jakarta
Cape Town
Northern Virginia
Mumbai
Frankfurt
Ohio
Osaka
Ireland
Oregon
Seoul
London
São Paulo
Singapore
Milan
Sydney
Paris
Tokyo
Stockholm
GCP:
Americas
Asia Pacific
EMEA
Dallas
Tokyo
Frankfurt
Los Angeles
Oregon
Virginia
Azure:
Region
Location
Americas
Virginia
The Datadog for Government site (US1-FED) uses the following managed location:
Region
Location
Americas
US-West
Set the test frequency to determine how often Datadog runs your Network Path test. Scheduled tests ensure your most important endpoints remain accessible to your users.
Set alert conditions to determine the circumstances under which you want a test to fail and trigger an alert.
Alerting rule
When you set the alert conditions to: An alert is triggered if any assertion fails for X minutes from any n of N locations, an alert is triggered only if these two conditions are true:
At least one location was in failure (at least one assertion failed) during the last X minutes;
At one moment during the last X minutes, at least n locations were in failure.
Configure the test monitor
A notification is sent by your test based on the alerting conditions previously defined. Use this section to define how and what to message your team.
Similar to how you configure monitors, select users and/or services that should receive notifications either by adding an @notification to the message or by searching for team members and connected integrations with the dropdown menu.
Enter the notification message for your test or use pre-filled monitor messages. This field allows standard Markdown formatting and supports the following conditional variables:
Conditional Variable
Description
{{#is_alert}}
Show when the test alerts.
{{^is_alert}}
Show unless the test alerts.
{{#is_recovery}}
Show when the test recovers from alert.
{{^is_recovery}}
Show unless the test recovers from alert.
{{#is_renotify}}
Show when the monitor renotifies.
{{^is_renotify}}
Show unless the monitor renotifies.
{{#is_priority}}
Show when the monitor matches priority (P1 to P5).
{{^is_priority}}
Show unless the monitor matches priority (P1 to P5).
Notification messages include the message defined in this section and information about the failing locations. Pre-filled monitor messages are included in the message body section:
Specify how often you want your test to re-send the notification message in case of test failure. To prevent renotification on failing tests, check the option Stop re-notifying on X occurrences.
Click Save Test to save your Network Path test configuration and monitor.
Click on a Network Path test on the Synthetic Tests page to view the Test Details page, which displays comprehensive information about your test:
Test properties and configuration
Test history
Individual test runs
Aggregated Network Path visualizations across all test runs
The Network Path visualization shows the routes packets take to complete queries during each test run. Drag the health bar handles to adjust the time frame and view a snapshot of end-to-end latency and packet loss for a specific time interval. For more information about how Network Path visualizations are built, see the Network Path documentation.
Changing the health bar does not affect the global time range at the top of the page.
To view details for a specific test run, click on a test run in the table at the bottom of the page. A side panel opens displaying run information, Network Path visualization, and assertion results.
Retention
Network Path Testing data is retained for 30 days.
Further Reading
Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:
