Configure SaaS Application Monitors

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You configure SaaS application monitors to perform SD-WAN performance-based path selection. SaaS application monitors check liveness of an application using each next hop, and they also monitor application performance. While you can use performance-based path selection for any application, you typically use it in the context of selecting the best path to cloud-based SaaS applications.

In an SD-WAN network, a tenant or organization can reach a SaaS application using multiple WAN links directly or using some other SD-WAN appliance (typically hubs). These WAN links can use different paths and even different transport networks (such as MPLS, internet, LTE, and satellite links). Because the transmission latency among different paths can vary, it is important to choose the best available path for optimal SaaS-application performance.

To configure SaaS application monitoring, you configure VOS devices to send HTTP, ICMP, and TCP probes. These active monitoring probes measure the responsiveness of commonly used cloud-based SaaS applications.

You use SaaS application monitors when you are configuring forwarding profiles.

To configure a SaaS application monitor:

1. In Tenant view, go to Configuration > Profile Elements > Elements > Monitor > SaaS Application Monitor.
   
   
   
   The SaaS Application Monitor screen displays.
   
   
    
2. To customize which columns display, click the Select Columns down arrow and then select or deselect the columns you want to display. Click Reset to return to the default columns settings.
   
   
    
3. Click + Add SaaS Application Monitor. In the Monitor Destination section on the Create SaaS Application screen, enter information for the following fields.
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Monitor Destination (Group of Fields)	Select which applications the SaaS application monitor monitors (that is, the monitor destination).
   Predefined SaaS Group	Click to use the SaaS application monitor to monitor a predefined set of SaaS applications. Then select the group.
   FQDN/Host Address	Click to use the SaaS application monitor to monitor applications using a specific domain or host address as the monitor destination. Then enter the FQDN or host address.
   WAN Connections	Select one or more WAN connections to monitor SaaS applications.
   Monitoring Threshold	Enter a value for the monitoring threshold, which indicates the number of consecutive monitor probes lost (or with no response) before declaring the application monitor down. Range: 1 through 60 Default: 5
   Monitoring Interval(s)	Enter how often, in seconds, to send monitoring probes. Range: 1 through 60 seconds Default: 3 seconds

4. Click Next. In the Monitor Protocol section, enter information for the following fields.
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Monitor Protocol Type	Select a protocol type to use to monitor SaaS applications: ICMP HTTP TCP
   Destination Port	For the HTTP and TCP monitor types, enter the port number on which the application monitor is located. Range: 0 through 65535 Default: None
   Response Code Range (Group of Fields)	For the HTTP monitor type, enter values for the low range and a high range of response codes to use instead of using a list of specific response codes.
   Low	Enter the low range value of the response code. The low range value should be less than or equal to the high range value. Range: 1 through 600 Default: None
   High	Enter the high range value of the response code. The high range value should be greater than or equal to the low range value. Range: 1 through 600 Default: None
   Response Codes	For the HTTP monitor type, enter one or more response codes, which are the expected response codes from an HTTP HEADER request. If the received response code does not match one in a response code in the list, the monitor is declared to be down.

5. Click Next. In the Consuming Tenants section, enter information for the following fields
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Tenants on Local Device	Select one or more tenant organizations on a local device that you want use the metrics collected by the application monitor. The list shows the current tenant and all subtenants and descendant tenants of the current tenant.
   Tenants on Remote Device	Select one or more tenant organizations on a remote device that you want to use the metrics collected by the application monitor.
   Traceroute (Group of Fields)	Enter the frequency with which traceroute requests are sent.
   Up Interval	Enter the traceroute repeat interval when the monitor state is up, in minutes. To disable traceroute when the monitor is up, configure an interval value of 0. Range: 0 through 10080 minutes Default: None Recommended Value: 60 minutes (1 hour)
   Down Interval	Enter the traceroute repeat interval when the monitor state is down, in minutes. To disable traceroute when the monitor is down, configure an interval value of 0. Range: 0 through 10080 minutes Default: None Recommended Value: 15 minutes

6. Click Next. In the Name, Description, and Tags section, enter information for the following fields
   
   
    

   Field	Description
   Name	Enter a name for the SaaS application monitor.
   Description	Enter a text description for the SaaS application monitor.
   Tags	Enter one or more tags for the SaaS application monitor. A tag is an alphanumeric text descriptor with no spaces or special characters that is used for searching objects.
   Logging Enabled	Click the slider bar to the enable logging to Versa Analytics.

7. Click Save to save the SaaS application monitor.