Add, View or Edit the Activities of an Application

You can add a new activity to the system by uploading its core definition (signature file), or just edit the properties of an existing activity by selecting a managed application.

For example, you can create a new activity in the Aternity Activity Designer and upload it to Aternity, then later modify its properties to change when it generates incident alerts or SLA violations in the Monitor SLA dashboard.

You can also change an activity's name to change the way it appears in the dashboards, or change the group of devices where this activity is deployed. For example, when you first upload a custom activity, you can restrict its deployment to the test group, then after testing, you can edit the activity's properties to change its deployment to cover all users.

View the activities of a managed application
Tip

This page displays any disabled settings as grayed out.

All default activities are locked, and therefore cannot be edited. Managed desktop applications have two default (locked) activities: Process Resources which monitors the application's PRC, and Launch which monitors the launch time. Managed web applications have one default locked activity called Other Pages which measures the load time of all pages in the web application.

To... Do This...

To add a new custom activity to Aternity

To create a new activity, you must first design it in the Aternity Activity Designer, then export its signature file to upload it to Aternity.

Select the Gear Icon > Managed Applications > Edit Activities > Add Activity. For details see Upload a Custom Activity to Aternity.

Add a new activity to an application

To add an application event

Create the application event in the Aternity Activity Designer, then use the monitors tree to upload the application event to Aternity.

To change or update the core definition (signature) of a custom activity

You can change the activity's definition by uploading a new signature for this activity.

In the Aternity Activity Designer, modify the activity's definition, then export it as a signature file.

Then, for the activity you want to change, select the menu on the right > Upload Signature.

Upload a new activity definition (signature) which you created in the Designer
Tip

Do not directly edit the XML code of a signature file unless you are an expert in signature development.

To quickly find an activity

Enter the name of the activity in the search box in the top right corner of the window.

To change the properties of an activity (like its name, scope of deployment, incident settings, or SLA thresholds)

For the activity you want to edit, select the menu on the right > Edit.

For details on each setting, see the step below.

Edit an activity's properties

To temporarily stop (disable) or start monitoring an activity

For the activity you want to edit, select the menu on the right > Start or Stop.

Disable or remove an activity

For example, if you want to compare the functionality of two custom activities you created in the Aternity Activity Designer, you can upload both and start and stop them sequentially to see which provides the more useful and accurate data.

To remove an activity

For the activity you want to delete, select the menu on the right > Delete.

You would remove an activity when you are sure you would never use it again (otherwise you can temporarily disable it). For example, you may have discovered that the activity is returning inaccurate data, or has become obsolete do to an application update.

To change several activities at once

Select the check box of several activities, then select Bulk Actions to perform that action on all selected activities. For details, see the step below.

Change several activities at once

To add or edit activities measuring the load time of a web page (WPM)

(For web applications only) Select Page Load Activities from the top right corner.

Add activity for page load times

Before you begin

Add an application as managed to enhance its monitoring to include its PRC, launch times, and define any custom activities to measure the response times of specific user activities.

Procedure

  1. Step 1 Open a browser and sign in to Aternity.
  2. Step 2 View the list of applications already managed by the system by selecting the Gear Icon > Managed Applications.

    Aternity has several predefined managed applications, and discovers all others in use. You can add new applications as managed if they do not already appear here.

    List of managed applications
  3. Step 3 To view the activities of an application, select the menu on the right > Manage Activities, or select the application name.
    Select an application to view and edit its activities
    Tip

    If a setting is gray, it is disabled for that application.

    View the activities of a managed application
    Field Description
    Activity Name

    Displays the name of the monitored activity within the application as it appears in the dashboards.

    When you add an application as managed, the system adds two default activities: process resources and launch times. You can only edit some of their settings.
    Rollout

    Displays the group of devices which monitor this entry:

    • Test Group indicates that Aternity only monitors this entry for users or devices in the test group.

    • All Users indicates that Aternity monitors this entry for all reporting devices.

    • Custom indicates that Aternity monitors this entry for users or devices in a custom group that you created.

    • Multiple indicates that Aternity monitors this application for several different groups, which are assigned to different activities of the application.
    Incidents (# users and % users)

    Displays the settings for Aternity to trigger an incident for this activity when BOTH:

    • # Users There are at least this number of unique Windows usernames in this deployment group which suffer poor performance (activity status is major ).

    • % Users There is at least this percentage of unique Windows usernames in this deployment group which suffer poor performance (activity status is major ).

    An incident for an activity indicates several devices in a group are responding slowly
    Alert Settings

    Displays the email addresses to send an alert message whenever the system automatically opens an incident on this activity. To enter more than one address, separate them with a semi-colon (;) only, no spaces. You can set the default email for incidents by selecting the Gear Icon > Settings > Advanced Settings > monitors > defaults > IncidentAlertSettings > toRecipients.
    SLA Threshold

    Displays the SLA thresholds of an activity:

    SLA internal and external thresholds

    The Internal threshold is the response time (in seconds) of an activity which would be your early warning, showing you are at risk of exceeding your official service level agreement (SLA) with your customers. Any response longer than this threshold is colored yellow in the SLA dashboard, as it warns you risk breaking the SLA commitment for this activity.

    The External threshold represents the maximum response time (in seconds) of an activity as defined in your official service level agreement (SLA) with your customers. Any response longer than this threshold is colored red in the SLA dashboard, since it breaks the official SLA commitment for this activity.
    Last Modified

    Displays the time stamp when someone last changed any of the settings of this activity.
  4. Step 4 To create a new activity, you must first design it in the Aternity Activity Designer, then export its signature file to upload it to Aternity.

    Select the Gear Icon > Managed Applications > <managed application> the menu on the right > Edit Activities > Add Activity.

    For details, see Upload a Custom Activity to Aternity.

    Tip

    To update the core definition of an existing activity, you must first update it in the Designer, export its new signature file, then select the menu on the right > Upload Signature.

    Create and upload a custom activity

    The activity appears in the list with default incident detection and SLA threshold values. The system assigns it to the Test Group rollout.

  5. Step 5 To edit the properties of an existing activity (not its core definition), select the menu on the right > Edit.
    Tip

    To update the core definition of an activity, update its signature file by selecting the menu on the right > Upload signature. This step only refers to changing the properties of an activity, not its core definition.

    Edit the properties of an activity
    Field Description
    Start Activity Monitoring

    Select to enable or disable this activity in the deployed group specified in Deploy to.

    When you disable an activity, Aternity tells the devices in that group to stop reporting performance for that activity.
    Activity Name

    Enter the name of the activity as it should appear throughout the dashboards.

    Tip

    If you change an existing name, the dashboards display the new name as a separate entry, starting its own new history. For a week since the change, you can continue to view its previous data under the old name.
    Deploy to

    Choose the group of devices which should report performance data for this entry:

    • Test Group indicates that Aternity only monitors this entry for users or devices in the test group.

    • All Users indicates that Aternity monitors this entry for all reporting devices.

    • Custom indicates that Aternity monitors this entry for users or devices in a custom group that you created.

    • Multiple indicates that Aternity monitors this application for several different groups, which are assigned to different activities of the application.
    Incident Detection Settings

    Select to enable or disable reporting incidents from this activity's performance in the deployment group. By default, the system enables an activity's incident detection.
    Incident is set when

    Enter the settings for Aternity to trigger an incident for this activity when BOTH:

    • # Users There are at least this number of unique Windows usernames in this deployment group which suffer poor performance (activity status is major ).

    • % Users There is at least this percentage of unique Windows usernames in this deployment group which suffer poor performance (activity status is major ).

    Tip

    If these fields display N/A, check your incident detection advanced settings in the Monitors Settings tree.

    A Power User of Aternity can edit the email notification template for incidents by selecting the Gear Icon > Settings > Advanced Settings > monitors > defaults > IncidentAlertSettings > message, edit the message, and then select Publish.
    Email to

    Enter the email addresses to send an alert message whenever the system automatically opens an incident on this activity. To enter more than one address, separate them with a semi-colon (;) only, no spaces. You can set the default email for incidents by selecting the Gear Icon > Settings > Advanced Settings > monitors > defaults > IncidentAlertSettings > toRecipients.
    SLA Thresholds (Internal / External)

    Enter the SLA thresholds of this activity:

    The Internal threshold is the response time (in seconds) of an activity which would be your early warning, showing you are at risk of exceeding your official service level agreement (SLA) with your customers. Any response longer than this threshold is colored yellow in the SLA dashboard, as it warns you risk breaking the SLA commitment for this activity.

    The External threshold represents the maximum response time (in seconds) of an activity as defined in your official service level agreement (SLA) with your customers. Any response longer than this threshold is colored red in the SLA dashboard, since it breaks the official SLA commitment for this activity.
  6. Step 6 To edit several activities at once, select their check boxes, then select Bulk Actions.
    Change several activities at once
    Field Description
    Start

    Select to enable all the selected activities so devices start monitoring their performance in their deployed groups.
    Stop

    Select to disable all the selected activities so devices stop monitoring their performance in their deployed groups.

    When you disable an activity, Aternity tells the devices in that group to stop reporting performance for that activity.
    Rollout

    Select to assign the same deployment group to all the selected activities. If you select activities with different deployment groups, it displays them initially as Multiple.
    Incident Detection Settings

    Enter to enable or disable the ability of all these activities to raise an incident, and enter the same incident settings for all of them.

    SLA Thresholds

    Select to enter the same SLA thresholds of all the selected activities.
    Delete

    Select to remove all selected activities from this application.