What is the Private Agent?

Monitoring from global distributed locations helps to see your applications as perceived by your end-user community. However, in some situations, companies would like to check response times and availability of their application within their local network. There are two cases in which customers decide to use a private agent:

  1. The application under monitoring is not available from the Internet.
  2. Performance and uptime comparison – LAN vs. WAN.

Both are good reasons and therefore we provide a Private Agent that can be installed on a dedicated Windows Server within your data center. Once the private agent has been installed you can configure monitoring devices to be executed on this internal private agent.

Note that if you are going to monitor web applications that are not available from outside a company network, use a desktop version of the EveryStep Recorder to record a monitoring script. Due to its nature, a web-based EveryStep Recorder application cannot access this type of web application from the Internet.

This guideline walks you through all steps required to prepare the installation, execute the setup and configure your devices to use the private agent. Additionally, it provides some answers to frequently asked questions.

System Requirements

Hardware requirements:

  • 2-core CPU or higher
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 2 GB Hard Drive space
  • OS Windows Server 2016 or higher x 64bit

Software prerequisites:

The following requirements are fundamental and essential for the proper functioning of the agent. While these cover the basics, it’s important to note that certain aspects may be intricately tied to specific security policies on the client’s side. These individual nuances will be addressed on a case-by-case basis through technical support requests, as they pertain to client-specific security considerations.

  • Private Agent enabled in your Dotcom-Monitor account
  • .NET Framework 4.7.2 or higher
  • Windows Media Player (for Streaming Media tasks only)
  • Remote Desktop service enabled on the machine (for UserView/BrowserView tasks only)
  • Administrative Access for installation and execution
  • Chrome (latest release) or Edge (latest release) for Private Agent registration only

Outbound Traffic Requirements

For Private Agent operation, allow access to Dotcom-Monitor resources from the computer with an installed agent. Depending on your firewall requirements, whitelist either of the below:

IP Range (Recommended) Host URL
8.29.56.0/23
  • *.dotcom-monitor.us
  • *.dotcom-monitor.com
  • https://userauth.dotcom-monitor.com/
  • https://user.dotcom-monitor.com/
  • https://privateagentcontroller.dotcom-monitor.com/PrivateAgentController/RemoteConfigurationService.svc
  • https://privateagentcontroller2.dotcom-monitor.com/PrivateAgentController/RemoteConfigurationService.svc
  • https://privateagentcontroller.dotcom-monitor.com/PrivateAgentWebProxy/entrypoint.wproxy
    https://privateagentcontroller2.dotcom-monitor.com/PrivateAgentWebProxy/entrypoint.wproxy
  • https://userauth.dotcom-monitor.us
  • https://user.dotcom-monitor.us

 

Preparing Your Server for the Private Agent Installation

Procedure

We highly recommend using a dedicated Windows Server for your private agent installation. Depending on the number of monitoring devices you are going to simulate on your private agent, the load can be high and can have an impact on CPU or Memory utilization of this server.

Follow all preparation steps below once you’ve selected your private agent server:

 

Step Details
1. Open Server Manager Click the Server Manager icon on the desktop.
2. Click Add roles and features on the Server Manager Dashboard.
3. In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, navigate through tabs to the Features tab.
4. Streaming Media monitoring and video recording on monitoring sessions To enable video recording on monitoring sessions and to monitor media streaming, select and expand User Interface and Infrastructure, and then select all enclosed check boxes below. Select Media Foundation. 
5. Select .Net Framework 4.7.2 Features Installed and all enclosed items.
6. Click Install.
7. Restart your Windows Server.

Installing Private Agent on Your Server

Private Agent Installation Steps

Once all preparation steps are done, you can install the private agent software on your server. This section covers all installation steps. Follow those instructions step by step.

Step Details
1. Account with Admin Permission You need an account with Admin permission for this Private Agent installation. Ask your domain admin to get administrative rights on your Windows Server.
2. Configure Private Agent 2.1 Login to your DCM Account.

2.2 Go to Manage > Private Agents.

2.3 Click New Agent.

2.4 Specify a descriptive name that is recognizable in a list of other Private Agents. Optionally, fill in the Description field.

2.5 Adjust Private Agent options (if it is necessary) and click the Add button.

A new Private Agent will be displayed in the list of Private Agents.
3. Setup Private Agent 3.1 Login to your Windows Server (with Admin Account).

3.2 Start a browser on your Windows Server.

3.3 Login to your DCM Account.

3.4 Go to Configure > Private Agent.

3.5 Click Download Agent.

If the Download Agent button is disabled, please contact Dotcom-Monitor support team.

3.6 On the Tools page, click Download on the Private Agent Installer panel.

3.7 Click the Save button in the displayed popup.

3.8 Click the Run button after all files have been downloaded.

3.9 Follow the steps of the Setup Wizard by clicking Next.

Accept the terms in the license agreement and confirm or change the destination folder.

3.10 To finish the installation process, click Install and Finish.

3.14 In the appeared Private Agent Registrator dialog, add your DCM User ID and Password and click Continue.

3.15 On the summary page, make sure that all prerequisites are completed and click Continue.

3.16 Choose the Private Agent in the list and click Continue.

3.17 Review details of the Private Agent Configuration, and then click Continue.

Registration of Private Agent will take a few minutes.

3.18 If successful, click Close in the corresponding dialog Setup Successful.
4. Check Services on your Windows Server 4.1 Open Service Overview on your Windows Server.

There are 5 services with the name Dotcom-Monitor Private Agent.

Those are used to simulate up to 5 monitoring devices in parallel.
5. Check User on your Windows Server 5.1 Open Task Manager.

5.2 Click Users.

5.3 Check if there is a user called DotcomMonitorRdpUser.
6. 6.1 Restart your Windows Server.

In some cases, the Private Agent can’t be used without a restart. It’s recommended to restart your Windows Server now.

Using Private Agent

Once a Private Agent is installed and configured, Dotcom-Monitor automatically adds the agent to the list of available monitoring locations under the Private agents region. To use the Private agent location, activate it in the Monitoring Agents list it in the monitoring device settings.

To use the Private Agent in your network in an efficient way, follow the steps provided below:

  1. Login to your Dotcom-Monitor account.
  2. On the left sidebar, select Devices.
  3. On the Device Manager page, create a new device or open an existing one to edit (select Edit from the device menu ).
  4. From within the device editor, go to the Monitoring tab and navigate to the Private agents section.
  5. Activate required Private Agent location(s).
  6. Save changes. The private agent location(s) activated under the Private agents region will be used to run monitoring.

Additional Requirements

When monitoring a website or web application using the Edge browser (UserView/BrowserView monitoring), make sure you have the latest available version of the Private Agent software. See also: Updating Private Agent.

For web application monitoring and some specific custom scripts, Private Agent requires either:

  • Access to RDP for the local user generated during the installation of DotcomMonitorRDPUser or for any other local user supplied by the client.
  • If a group or local policy of the Private Agent server prohibits the use of a local user, the client is required to supply a domain user. This domain user should have the necessary access rights to create an RDP session on the PA server and should also be granted the rights to launch our service.
  • If RDP is present yet the Private Agent is still not working, make sure that the “Always prompt for password upon connection” security policy setting is not enabled on your machine (Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Security). Otherwise, disable this policy setting for the machine.

If you need specific guidance or assistance, please create a support ticket from within your Dotcom-Monitor account.