Release Notes 4.1.13

Acronym List

Below is the list of acronyms used in the document.

File Size Specifications

New and Enhanced Features in 4.1.13

NetStorm

VUsers Management

Using this feature, a user can manipulate Virtual Users (VUsers) and can perform ‘pause’ and ‘resume’ on them.

• The user can select VUsers and apply ‘pause’ to all the VUsers of a group or to a particular VUser in the group.
• Once the user applies ‘pause’, the UI state is updated accordingly (paused, stopped, exiting, gradual exiting, running).
• For a VUser already in paused / stopped state, UI does not display the option of pausing the VUser.
• A user can see the summary or list of users in different states.

Script

• Encrypt User Credentials in File Parameter:A feature is added to encrypt sensitive personal information, such as passwords in a file parameter.

• Split Flow File: A user can split a flow file into two flow files by right-clicking a page. The preceding pages are added in a new flow file.

• Request and Response details in Script Manager: A user can see Page Detail information of recorded script, such as URL, Headers, Request and Response, Cookies, etc. Page Details option can be accessed by ‘View’ menu of the Script Manager UI.

• Debugging Tools Support to see URL request / response in Script Recording using NetStorm Browser.
• Scripts Debugger: Script debugging feature allows a user to debug the script by adding breakpoint so that the user can analyze or verify the data or flow by printing the value of any variable / step execution to verify the condition.

• Script Compilation Enhancement
  • Improvement in Compilation Error messages.
  • Detection of undefined API calls.

• Transaction name length is now supported to 1024 characters.

Test Metrics Enhancements

• HTTP Request Group
  • Started / Sec graphs
  • HTTP response time component details:
  • DNS time
  • Connect Time
  • SSL Time
  • First Byte Time
  • Download Time
• All Failure graphs is changed from ‘sample’ to ‘sum’. Using this graph, a user can find the count of failures.
• Success and Failed Response time graph is implemented in Transaction, Page, Session and HTTP Request.
• Think-Time graphs are implemented in ‘Transactions’ and ‘Transaction Stats’ group. Think-Time column is added in Transaction Detail so that the user can see the added page think time in transaction.
• HTTP Response Code:
  • Added two new graphs for status code ‘422’ and ‘Others’.
  • If a status code is encountered that is not known, ‘Other’ graphs are plotted.
  • Response code is now file-driven.

Real Browser User (RBU)

• JavaScript Parsing Time is provided in resource timing of Waterfall. This can be enabled in Scenario settings.
• Data URI Representation is provided in Waterfall. This can be enabled in Scenario settings.
• All downloaded files can now be viewed from UI.
• An API is provided to execute JS on browser at runtime.
• LightHouse reporting is supported with RBU (for Chrome version 68 or later).

Miscellaneous

• Socket Bind Failure:
  • Configuration for Bind Failure is added. A user can retry session with status code ‘BindFail’ or can abort test as per requirement.
  • ‘Socket Bind Failure’ graph is added under ‘VUser info’ group of Test Metrics.

NetCloud

• A user can add / update / delete generators in Scenario.
• A user can stop generators in a running test. This is very useful in case one generator does not work properly.
• Debug User trace now displays the combined view of all generators.
• NetCloud test continues to run even if some generators do not work.
• An alert is displayed on UI if some generators behave abnormally (Progress report delay / not hitting the load / stuck).

NetOcean

• Chunk Encoding Header Support (Content Length Indicator): This allows a user to transfer data into a series of overlapping chunks. The response is sent in chunks based on some configurations.

• Current date header is appended in the response.
• Content Encoding Header Support (Gzip and Deflate): Response is sent in zipped form. This supports all parameters.

• Multiple certificates support in UI for making SSL connections.
• Custom Headers support in Tibco JMS.
• Continuous Monitoring test runs by default on NetOcean server restart.

NetDiagnostics

Java Agent

• NetDiagnostics Enterprise (NDE) Purge from UI: This feature is used for cleaning up and backing up of files and database, which are no longer needed. Deleting older file / data from a disk can clear up a significant amount of storage space. In NDE, sometimes it is too difficult to manage the data in disk for a long time. In production, NDE stores GBs of data per day, so managing the data for a long time is tough. This can be controlled from the UI.

• Support for Java Interface as Entry Point: It provides support for detecting transaction and call outs using Java interface method only without requiring actual concrete class implementing the interfaces. It automatically  instruments all classes implementing Java interfaces configured. List of third party framework monitored using interfaces are Logger, JDBC and JMS.
• Support for monitoring Spring Boot batch jobs: It collects metrics, such as TPS and response time for batch jobs running in spring boot.

• Support for NetVision (NV) Agent Injection via Net Diagnostics (ND) Agent: For Real User Monitoring, NV agent needs to be injected into web pages of client application fetched from web server. In some environment, it is not possible to inject NV agent manually. Therefore, this support is introduced so that the ND agent running with the client application automatically injects the NV agent in web pages. This is done by identifying all the required pages where NV agent needs to be injected based on the configuration. It is also supported in ND Config.
• New framework supported – Apache Camel, Java Stream API
• Performance improvements in Auto Sensor feature: It improves performance by monitoring limited threads only involved in the execution of client transactions.

Node JS Agent

• NetDiagnostics (ND) – NetForest (NF) Integration for Node JS: NF is used to capture server logs (access log, error log). ND-NF Integration is introduced to drill down from logs captured by NF to corresponding transactions details captured by ND.

• Node JS 10.x version support
• Auto Discovery of Node JS modules: Provides support for discovering modules loaded by Node JS application and allows to create or modify instrumentation profile using auto discovered information.

• Runtime change supports for entry point and instrumentation profile: Provides support for runtime modification of entry point file and instrumentation profile used by Node JS agent.

• Capture Node JS process core dump file for heap memory analysis: It captures process core dump file of client application without re starting Node JS process and allows it to download for analysis of heap memory taken using third party tools.

.NET Agent

• Exception Capturing Support: It provides support for capturing and monitoring exceptions in .NET application. It captures exception message, cause, class, and method in which exception is thrown and complete stack trace of the exception.

• Dynamic Diagnostics Support: It is a light weight solution of finding problems in business transactions. Dynamic Diagnostics instrumentation is triggered only on specific Business transaction, and stack dump is considered only for those threads, which are executing that transaction.

ND Config

• Enhancements in Agent Info window: This feature is used to view or update the machine agent settings and restart the machine agent server from the UI.

• Business Transaction (BT) Pattern Window – Global Threshold Value Support in Java Profile: A user can apply threshold value globally in all BT patterns at once, which minimizes the extra efforts of the user to apply a certain threshold value in multiple BTs.

DDR

• Multi DC Support for Web DDR: A user can now drill-down across all connected remote data centers data via Web DDR.

• Support for Multiple Correlation IDs in FlowPath: A user can also search related FlowPaths via targeting multiple correlation IDs for a tier.

• Scheduled Thread Dump Enhancements: Earlier, users used to take thread dump for a specific tier / server / instance at a time, and meanwhile they could not use other UI / functionalities. This feature is supported now and the user can set a specific range of time in which thread dump is taken. In case if load is generated at a specific time, the user can set that time to take thread dump of running processes.

Implemented Changes:

• ‘Start Time’ and ‘End Time’ options to schedule Thread Dump.
• Write Scheduled Thread Dump in a file. It takes Thread Dump at the scheduled time.
• After scheduling, Scheduled Thread Dump table can be located just above to Total thread dump table, which is by default collapsed.
• After Scheduling, the user can perform schedule / reschedule / cancel / resume / stop.

Dashboard

Reports

• Support for ‘Donut’ and ‘Line Stacked Bar’ Chart types in Report Management.
• Multiple Duration Support in Summary Report.
• Support for Minimum and Maximum Value and Max sample timestamp in Compare Report.
• Support for Favorites in Scheduler Report based on selected favorite.
• Custom PDF Reports Support:
  • Compare and Hierarchical type report
  • Vector Based in Tabular type widget

Alerts

• Support for more than three levels of hierarchy in ServiceNow incidents.
• Alert Action and Policy in Angular.
• Alert Generation Time and Alert Message in Run Script for Multi-condition alert.

Miscellaneous

• Support for Trend Compare in NDE Dashboard.
• Alert Count Graphs on Tier and Server basis.
• Lower Panel Color based on Severity in System Health Widget. Red – Critical, Orange – Major, Green – Normal

• Mobile View Enhancements

 Monitors

• ND-Prometheus Integration: This is an enhanced view of getting data from Prometheus using HTTP calls and creating monitors (Node Metrics). We have created a monitor that helps to monitor Kubernetes node stats metrics. Prometheus is provided with a URL. This URL gives a response JSON. From this JSON, we monitor Prometheus node stats metrics.

• Sequence Vector ID with Vector|Data: We have optimized metric packet size on network from agent to NS / NDE. Now on new vector, first time vector and vector metrics values are sent and on next sample for respective metric, vector id and metrics values are sent to NS / NDE.

• RTG Packet Size Optimization Support in NetStorm: This enhancement reduces the data transmitted over the network and RTG packet size. Monitors send the data after multiplying it by the factor for the data type.

• MySQL Monitor for DB Channels Stat: Now there are two connection URLs – one for MySQL DB and another for Oracle DB. Queries are separated for both DBs in the configuration file and are used based on the DB.

• Navigation Protocol in Machine Agent to NetDiagnostics Collector (NDC): In Negotiation Protocol, machine agent negotiates with NDC supported protocols. Priority is given to NDC protocol.

• Implementation of Postgres Monitor in Cavisson Windows Monitoring: Postgres stores data securely and allows retrieval at the request of other software applications. It can handle workloads, ranging from small single-machine applications to large Internet-facing applications. We have implemented performance metrics for Postgres to capture DB health.

• Infinispan Cache Stats on Application Server: Infinispan is a distributed in-memory key / value data store with optional schema. It can be used as a cache or a data grid. We are capturing metrics related to transactions, events, querying, distributed processing, off-heap, and geographical failover. The user can monitor and manage it through JMX, CLI, and a web-based console.

• Automatic Discovery of Tibco Queue: Earlier, queue name was provided in JSON manually whenever any new queue was added. Now any new queue is automatically discovered and added. Tibco monitor can detect Queue and Topic automatically and the user does not need to provide specific Queue and Topic to be monitored.

• Metric Priority at Tier / Server Level from Monitor UI: Support for setting metric priority at tier / server level is provided through Monitor UI. A user can use this feature by clicking the ‘Settings’ button.

NetVision

• NV Session Export
  • Whole Session as Interactive Excel File: Now a user can download a particular NetVision (NV) session in an interactive excel file format. This excel file contains all the data, such as the list of pages, event, HTTP Request, JS Error, Custom Metrics etc. This file also includes Pagedump of each page (optional). It can be helpful for the users to share the complete NV session over email.
  • Replay as Video Format: Session Replay can be downloaded in MP4 video format. A user can share the replay to other users who do not have NetVision access. In case of any UI issue, a replay video can be attached with the bug details, which can help a developer to easily understand the issue.

• Support for NetVision (NV) JS Agent in Electron Application:Now NV JS agent also works with any electron application. It captures the metrics that are captured in any web page.

• NV Cluster Mode Enhancement
  • Run Time Change (RTC) in Cluster Mode: RTC can be made in configuration in the cluster mode, which was not possible earlier.
  • More Parameters for Slave Weigh Calculation for performance optimization.
• NetVision SDK for .Net Applications: Now NV can monitor .Net (C#) desktop applications too. It captures the following:
  • User activities – Replay
  • Performance data
  • HTTP Calls – response time, failure, and others
  • Custom metrics
  • Event
  • Crash

Others

• JS Error – Aggregate View Enhancements: JS errors can be visualized on different two-dimensions, such as Browser and Version, Page, OS and Version. It helps in quickly identifying the impact of a particular error.

Synthetic Monitoring

• Access Control List (ACL) support for NVSM

 NetForest

• Sparkline: Sparklines are inline charts that appear within the table cells in the search results, and are designed to display time-based trends. Sparklines depict the variation of a specific field with respect to the time. By providing the time filter, a user can view the variations within a particular time range. This feature is added in Visualization.

• Reporting: With reporting, a user can generate different types of reports based on various visualization charts. A report generation feature schedules the time for generating report from time to time and sends it to the user. The user can get the report using the ‘Schedule Report’ method where the user can schedule the time on which report is generated. Three types of task scheduler are available for generating reports – Hourly, Weekly, and Monthly. Further, a report history template allows the user to see the list of scheduled tasks. With ‘View Report’, the user can see the list of generated reports, and can download reports from this template. The user can delete the generated reports from this template.

Generated report name example: name_provided_by_user><Date><Time>

• Query Enhancements:
  • More Splunk Constructs Support: Constructs like Input Lookup, Where, Stats (docs, stream, and others), Nomv, makemv, mvcombine, and others, which are used in Splunk queries frequently, are now added.
    • Lookup: Lookup enriches the document data by adding field-value combinations from lookup tables. NetForest uses lookup to match field-value combinations in document data with field-value combinations in external resources. If it finds those field-value combinations in the resources, it appends the corresponding field-value combinations from the resources to document data in the search result. The user can use it along with REX and EVAL queries.

Syntax: lookup <lookup-filename> <field-name> output <destfield-name>
Required Arguments:

<lookup-filename>
Syntax: <string>​
Description: Refers to the lookup file name.

<field-name>
Syntax:​ <string>
Description: Refers to a field in the index to match against the events.

<destfield-name>
Syntax: ​<string>
Description: Refers to a field in the lookup file to be copied into the events.
Example: * | lookup file pid output pname

• Where: This command is used to filter search results by comparing two different fields and values and use logical expression (AND / OR / NOT) for multi-fields operation.

Syntax: where <expression>

• Stats: This command is used to calculate statistics of the field, such as sum, count, avg, min, and max. It can be grouped by another field.

Syntax: stats <fieldname>
Example: stats resptime
Output: This generates all the possible statistics of the field, such as count, max, min, avg, and sum.

• Docstats: This command is used to calculate statistics based on aggregation function and grouping of data, which is based on another field. Based on the group by field, it appends the generated field (key: value) in the document source.

Syntax: docstats <aggregate_function> (<fieldname1>) BY <fieldname2>
Example: docstats max(resptime) AS maxresptime by server

Output:

This generates statistics of field based on aggregation function for example, count / max / min / avg / sum and are grouped based on the <fieldname2>.

The resultant field is based on <aliasname>. The resultant field value (key: value pair) is appended in the source based on the <fieldname2>.

Here, <fieldname> is the field name for which the aggregated data is required.

<aggregate_function> is the aggregate function to be applied. Currently count, max, min, avg and sum functions are applicable.

• Streamstats: This command is used to calculate the cumulative sum of the field based on the timestamp. Currently, default timestamp interval is 5 seconds.

Syntax: streamstats <numeric fieldname>
Here, <numeric fieldname> is the numeric field name.
Example: streamstats resptime
Output: This generates the cumulative sum of the resptime that is calculated based on timestamp.

• Eval: This command is used to evaluate the expression of a field and save the same value into another field.

Syntax: eval <evaluated field name> = exec(“<script query>”)
where,
<evaluated field name>: To store the data after evaluation of a script query.
<script query>: It is a painless query. In this case, whatever the query is written, it is added same as inline query.
Example: NFUI Query:  * | eval nf = exec("return 'NetForest'")
Output: This generates a field with the variable name and value is assigned within that variable.

• Timeout in Backend: Whenever any request is sent from NetForest UI to NetForest DB, a timeout is also sent in the request. Setting a timeout when a request is sent allows a user to get the data / statistics for the set period only.
• Range Query in Visualization: A user can use range query in Visualization. Earlier, this functionality was only limited to ‘Search’ tab. Range query is a visualization aggregation, which when applied to data table in charts gives the information regarding that specific field in the form of ‘start ranges’ and ‘end ranges’ specified in the aggregation.

Note: It works only if the input to the range query is a numeric value (for example, httpstatuscode, pid, totalrequest, resptime, hits), else it displays the metric value as zero in the ranges

• Auto Suggestion: Auto Suggestion suggests how a user can use the query, and gives the alternate options to select a query while adding the query. This enables the user to select the query from the provided options, and displays the command history, thus saving the time of the user to type the whole query.
• Enhanced Alert Framework: Alert framework is now enhanced and supports alerts such as ‘any’, ‘blacklist’, ‘whitelist’, ‘change’, ‘frequency’, ‘spike’, and ‘others’.

• Storage of Query Result in Cache: When a user hits a query, its result is stored in cache. If the user hits the same request within a minute, the response is provided by cache only, not by the server.

Bug Fixes

The following issues are fixed in 4.1.13

Security Vulnerability Fixes

Below are the security vulnerability fixes done in 4.1.13.