Monitoring Web Service Performance: Strategies For Success

Website monitoring tools are essential for businesses to ensure their websites are performing optimally, are available to users, and are providing a good user experience. Monitoring web service performance involves keeping track of web services connected to an application to determine if they have enough storage capacity, are secure, and are operating well within SLAs. This can be done through synthetic monitoring, which simulates user interactions to provide insights into how a website behaves under different conditions, and real user monitoring, which captures and analyzes user data to understand the experiences of real website users. Monitoring web service performance is crucial to identify and fix issues, ensuring applications remain free of errors and glitches and providing a seamless user experience.

Monitoring application availability

Server Availability Monitoring:

This type of monitoring focuses on the servers that host the web application. It involves tracking the health and performance of servers, including virtual machines, clusters, hosts, and datastores. Tools like SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) provide real-time data on server utilisation, such as CPU, memory, virtual memory, and disk I/O. Additionally, SAM offers advanced alerting features to notify users of potential issues before they impact performance or availability.

Web Application Availability Monitoring:

This approach involves observing the health of web application endpoints, such as URLs or methods of a web service. Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012, for example, allows monitoring of both internal and externally-facing endpoints, providing detailed health state information and visualisations through dashboards.

Performance Monitoring:

Performance monitoring ensures that a web application is loading quickly and working correctly. This includes monitoring application dependencies, such as SQL databases, NoSQL, caching, and external web services. Tools like Retrace can track the performance of the application down to the code level, helping identify performance bottlenecks and potential errors.

HTTP Ping Monitoring:

A simple and effective method is to use an HTTP ping monitor that runs every minute. This checks the response time and HTTP status code of web applications, ensuring they are available and responding as expected.

Error Monitoring:

Monitoring error logs is crucial for identifying and resolving issues with web applications. Tools like Retrace provide alerts and dashboards that help developers quickly identify errors, exceptions, and high error rates, enabling them to take prompt corrective actions.

Tracking Important Web Requests:

Certain web requests or "key transactions" within an application may require special attention. For example, in an e-commerce site, critical web requests like the shopping cart page should be closely monitored to ensure a smooth user experience.

By employing these methods and utilising tools such as Retrace, SolarWinds SAM, and Microsoft SCOM, organisations can effectively monitor application availability, ensuring their web services are reliable and accessible to users.

Tracking application errors

Firstly, if your web application is not working as it should, your error logs are your first line of defence. You should check your error logs for potential problems as soon as you receive an alert about high error rates or page load times. Error logs can help you identify the root cause of the problem, such as issues with Redis or other external web services.

Secondly, monitoring error rates is crucial. There are three ways to do this:

• HTTP Error % – monitor the number of web requests that end in an error
• Logged Exceptions – track the number of unhandled and logged errors from your application
• Thrown Exceptions – keep an eye on the number of all exceptions that have been thrown

It is common for applications to have thousands of exceptions that are thrown and ignored, which can cause a lot of performance issues. Therefore, it is important to send all of your application errors to an error monitoring and reporting service.

In addition, you can use tools like PageSpeed Insights to get a performance report on your website. This will give you scores indicating how your website performs on mobile and desktop, as well as suggestions on how to improve speed.

Monitoring important web requests

Identifying Key Transactions

Every application has unique critical web requests that require close monitoring. These could include high-volume web requests, problematic requests that cause slowdowns, or critical requests such as a shopping cart page on an e-commerce site. Identifying these key transactions is the first step towards effective monitoring.

Monitoring Tools

Various tools are available to monitor web requests, such as:

• PageSpeed Insights: This tool provides quick performance measurements by analysing a URL and generating a report with scores for mobile and desktop performance.
• Webpagetest.org: It automatically tests a website and provides valuable metrics for evaluation.
• Network Monitor Tools: Modern browsers offer built-in network monitoring tools like Firefox Network Monitor and Chrome's Network Monitor. These tools provide detailed information on downloaded assets, loading times, and potential areas for improvement.
• Performance Monitor Tools: Firefox Performance Monitor and Chrome's Performance tool help measure the performance of a web app or site's user interface as you interact with it, identifying features that may cause slowdowns.
• Fiddler: This tool specialises in monitoring, manipulating, and generating HTTP(S) packets, making it ideal for capturing all HTTP requests and responses.
• Wireshark: Wireshark is an advanced network protocol monitoring and analysis tool that can capture and analyse all network traffic, including HTTP requests.
• Request Metrics: A platform that offers real-user monitoring, providing insights into user experiences, device performance, and page load times.

Custom Performance Tools

Additionally, developers can utilise Web APIs like the Navigation Timing API, Performance API, and Resource Timing API to create custom performance-measuring tools tailored to their specific needs.

Analysing application dependencies

Today's applications often depend on multiple external dependencies, such as databases and web services. For comprehensive web performance monitoring, it is essential to monitor the entire application stack. This includes SQL databases, NoSQL, caching, and external web services.

To effectively analyse application dependencies, you can utilise tools like Retrace, which can track the performance of your application down to the code level. Retrace supports various frameworks, including SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, and Redis. With Retrace, you can identify performance bottlenecks and optimise your application accordingly.

Additionally, it is important to monitor exceptions and SQL queries within your application. Exceptions can indicate connection problems or SQL query timeouts, while slow or frequently called SQL queries can impact performance.

By regularly monitoring application dependencies and addressing any issues, you can ensure the smooth operation of your web service and enhance user satisfaction.

Monitoring web application metrics

Synthetic Monitoring:

Synthetic monitoring involves simulating user interactions with a website to proactively evaluate its performance and functionality. This includes performance testing, transaction monitoring, and availability monitoring. Performance testing simulates user interactions such as page load times, form submissions, and API calls. Transaction monitoring enables the creation and tracking of multi-step transactions like login processes. Availability monitoring regularly checks website availability from multiple global locations.

Real User Monitoring (RUM):

RUM captures and analyzes user data in real-time, providing insights into real user experiences. It includes user experience analysis, device and browser performance monitoring, and geographic and demographic insights. User experience analysis measures page load times, click-through rates, and navigation patterns. Device and browser performance monitoring ensures compatibility and performance across different platforms. Geographic and demographic insights help businesses understand their user base and tailor content accordingly.

Key Performance Indicators:

Tools for Monitoring:

Various tools are available for monitoring web application metrics, including general performance reporting tools like PageSpeed Insights and webpagetest.org, network monitor tools like Firefox Network Monitor and Chrome's Network Monitor, and performance monitor tools like Firefox Performance Monitor and Chrome's Performance tool. These tools provide insights into page load times, byte downloads, and user interactions.

Benefits of Monitoring:

Frequently asked questions