The instructions below show you how to fetch and install a Synthetic Private Agent. 

The installation of the Synthetic Private Agent will make the following changes to your system:

  • Install the Synthetic Private Agent.
  • Install browsers.
  • Configure many aspects of Windows to make it amenable for collecting performance data from browsers, including changing several Windows registry settings.
  • Turn on the Windows firewall and prevent any inbound network connections to the server.

Prerequisites

Before beginning the installation, confirm that you have completed the following:

Installation Steps

Follow the steps below to install the Synthetic Private Agent:

Fetch the Synthetic Private Agent

Navigate to the AppDynamics Downloads and download the Synthetic Private Agent.

Log in as the Administrator

Before you can copy and run the Synthetic Private Agent installer, you are required to log in as the administrator to the dedicated Windows machine for the Synthetic Private Agent.

Copy/Move the Synthetic Private Agent to Your Dedicated Machine

  1. Move or copy the compressed archive file SyntheticAgentInstaller.zip containing the Synthetic Private Agent to this machine. 

  2. Unzip and decompress the archive file.
  3. Confirm that the directory SyntheticAgentInstaller contains the installer script install.ps1. 

Prepare Account and Location Information

Before you install the Synthetic Private Agent, you will need the following information:

  • EUM Account Name / EUM License Key:
    1. Go to your SaaS Controller.
    2. Navigate to License > Peak Usage.
    3. Scroll down to the User Experience section.
    4. Copy the values for the Account Name and License Key fields.
  • Location name: A user-friendly string for the location. You can use the same location information on multiple computers to add capacity to that location. For example, if the private location is for multiple machines running from the company office in SF, you might use "SF Office".
  • Location ID: A unique alphanumeric string from 4-10 characters identifying a location where one or more agents may be running. You should create this ID based on the location name. 

  • Latitude and longitude of the location: Navigate to the GPS Coordinates with Google Maps tool at 
    https://www.gps-coordinates.net/ to get the latitude and longitude of your location.

Run the Installer

After you unzip and decompress the archive file:

  1. Open a PowerShell console.

  2. Change to the directory SyntheticAgentInstaller.

  3. Set the PowerShell execution policy to Unrestricted: 

    > Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
    POWERSHELL

  4. Execute the PowerShell script install.ps1 to install the Synthetic Private Agent, Internet browsers, and make changes to the Windows configuration:

    > .\install.ps1
    POWERSHELL
  5. At the command prompts, enter the information that you prepared in the last step.

Connect the Agent to the Synthetic Server (Optional)

By default, the Synthetic Private Agent will report measurement results to the SaaS Synthetic Server located in the Americas business region. Thus, if your Synthetic Private Agent is located in the Americas business region and reporting to our SaaS Synthetic Server, continue to Start the Synthetic Private Agent.

If your Synthetic Private Agent is reporting measurement results to an on-prem Synthetic Server, see Connect Synthetic Agents to the Synthetic Server for configuration instructions.

To configure your Synthetic Private Agent to report to a SaaS Synthetic Server in the EMAC or APAC business regions, follow these instructions:

  1. Select the EMAC or APAC tab in the following table to find the URL to the SaaS Synthetic Server in your region.

    Cisco AppDynamics SaaS Domains and IP Ranges

    Americas

    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Ranges

    Cisco Cloud Observability

    		https://observe.appdynamics.comus-west-2-pdx-1a (AWS Local Zone)

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    		https://pdx-sls-agent-api.saas.appdynamics.comus-west-2






    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP ranges for the us-west-2 region.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://analytics.api.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenant

    https://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud
    https://col.eum-appdynamics.com or http://pdx-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)


    As part of a critical infrastructure upgrade, Cisco AppDynamics will be deprecating support for static IP ranges for the PDX/Oregon SaaS EUM collector https://col.eum-appdynamics.com/ on May 27th, 2022.  This upgrade is required to improve the scalability of the cloud infrastructure used by the Cisco AppDynamics EUM solution. If your organization currently utilizes firewall rules based on static IP ranges, you will need to update them to add the https://col.eum-appdynamics.com/ domain to the allowlist instead. This change needs to be made before May 27th, 2022, otherwise EUM data will be lost (including Mobile and Browser RUM) for any applications being monitored which sit behind the firewall.

    If you have any questions or concerns, please contact customer support or use our support portal. 

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP ranges for the us-west-2 region.

    IoT REST APIhttps://iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com
    Screenshot Servicehttps://image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Serverhttps://synthetic.api.appdynamics.com
    • 52.40.35.5 (Boardman, Oregon)
    • 52.201.103.47 (Ashburn, Virginia)
    Synthetic Server Feederwss://synthetic-feeder.api.appdynamics.com
    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP ranges for the us-west-2 region.
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Oregon Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 34.218.183.67 

    • 52.88.49.75

    • 34.218.135.55

    • 44.224.91.190

    • 44.224.93.208

    • 100.21.44.47

    • 35.163.240.75

    • 100.21.168.150

    • 44.224.41.204

    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Ranges

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    		https://gru-sls-agent-api.saas.appdynamics.comsa-east-1













    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP ranges for the sa-east-1 region.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://gru-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenant

    https://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://gru-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://gru-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP ranges for the sa-east-1 region.

    IoT REST APIhttps://gru-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server Feeder

    wss://gru-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Server

    https://gru-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com


    Synthetic Server Feederhttps://gru-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Sao Paolo Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 54.94.50.188

    • 54.233.178.89

    • 18.229.226.158


    EMEA

    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Range

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    		https://fra-sls-agent-api.saas.appdynamics.comeu-central-1








    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region eu-central-1.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://fra-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenanthttps://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://fra-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://fra-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region eu-central-1.


    IoT REST APIhttps://fra-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com
    Screenshot Servicehttps://fra-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Serverhttps://fra-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com

    52.48.243.82 (Dublin, Ireland)

    Synthetic Server Feederwss://fra-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.comPlease refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region eu-central-1.
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Frankfurt Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 18.195.41.33
    • 18.195.153.182
    • 18.195.58.148
    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Range

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    		Coming sooneu-west-2









    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region eu-west-2.
    Serverless Service 
    Analyticshttps://lon-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenanthttps://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://lon-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://lon-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region eu-west-2.






    IoT REST APIhttps://lon-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com
    Screenshot Servicehttps://lon-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server Feeder

    wss://lon-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Serverhttps://lon-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server Feederwss://lon-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the London Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 3.8.253.170
    • 18.135.187.156
    • 18.135.213.75


    APAC

    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Range

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    		Coming soonap-east-1







    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-east-1.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://hkg-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenant


    		https://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://hkg-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://hkg-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-east-1.








    IoT REST API

    https://hkg-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com

    Screenshot Servicehttps://hkg-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server

    https://hkg-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Server Feederwss://hkg-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Hong Kong Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 18.163.88.143
    • 18.162.92.41
    • 18.166.80.78
    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Range

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    https://bom-sls-agent-api.saas.appdynamics.com

    		ap-south-1









    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-south-1.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://bom-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenant


    		https://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://bom-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://bom-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-south-1.

    IoT REST API

    https://bom-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-south-1.





    Screenshot Servicehttps://bom-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server Feeder

    wss://bom-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Server

    https://bom-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Mumbai Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 13.232.191.174
    • 3.7.186.32
    • 13.127.49.48
    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Range

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics for OpenTelemetry

    https://sin-sls-agent-api.saas.appdynamics.com

    ap-southeast-1







    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-southeast-1.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://sin-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenant


    		https://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://sin-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://sin-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)

    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-southeast-1.






    IoT REST API

    https://sin-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com

    Screenshot Servicehttps://sin-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server

    https://singapore-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Server Feederwss://sin-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Singapore Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 13.228.123.222
    • 54.169.20.120
    • 13.229.165.25
    Platform ComponentsDomainsAWS RegionIP Addresses/Range

    Cisco AppDynamics Content Delivery Network (CDN)

    		https://cdn.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics uses Amazon CloudFront for the CDN.

    See the CloudFront IP ranges for the possible IP addresses used for the Cisco AppDynamics CDN.

    Cisco AppDynamics OpenTelemetry Service (SaaS Controller)

    		https://syd-sls-agent-api.saas.appdynamics.comap-southeast-2







    		Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-southeast-2.
    Serverless Service
    Analyticshttps://syd-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com
    Controller Tenant


    		https://my-controller-tenant.saas.appdynamics.com

    Cisco AppDynamics will provide a unique set of IP addresses at the time of provisioning the Controller Tenant within AWS.

    EUM Cloud

    https://syd-col.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM Collector)

    https://syd-api.eum-appdynamics.com (EUM API)


    Please refer to the AWS IP range JSON file for the IP range for the AWS region ap-southeast-2.






    IoT REST API

    https://syd-iot-col.eum-appdynamics.com

    Screenshot Servicehttps://syd-image.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Server

    https://syd-synthetic.eum-appdynamics.com

    Synthetic Server Feederwss://syd-synthetic-feeder.eum-appdynamics.com
    Synthetic Hosted AgentsSee Synthetic Hosted Agents.

    Notes:

    All traffic originating from the Sydney Datacenter environment will have one of the following source IP addresses: 

    • 13.210.238.7
    • 13.54.206.49
    • 13.55.209.28

  2. Change to the directory C:\appdynamics\synthetic-agent\synthetic-driver\conf.
  3. Edit the file synthetic-driver.yml.

  4. Set the URL to SaaS Synthetic Shepherd in your region to the shepherdUrl as shown below:

    ## Use the SaaS Synthetic Server URL from the table above for EMAC or APAC.
shepherdUrl: http://<saas_synthetic-server_url>
    POWERSHELL

  5. Save your changes and close the synthetic-driver.yml file.

Start the Synthetic Private Agent

After installation is complete (the installer may restart your computer), start the Synthetic Private Agent by double-clicking the desktop shortcut Start Agent.

Confirm the Installation Was Successful

  1. Go to your SaaS Controller and to the Synthetic Job List.
  2. Click Create a Job.
  3. From Choose Locations, select Private from the dropdown to view all the Synthetic Private Agents associated with your account.
  4. Verify that your private location shows up as one of the available locations. 

Configure Autologon 

You should configure autologon so that the machine after booting up will automatically log on to the Administrator account. You are recommended to use the free Microsoft Sysinternals utility Autologon.exe for configuring autologon. Autologon.exe is easy to use, and more importantly, encrypts the account credentials stored in the Windows Registry.

To configure autologon:

  1. Download Autologon.exe from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autologon.
  2. Double-click the executable Autologon.exe.
  3. Enter the requested information (username, domain, password, etc.).
  4. Click Enable.

You can also run Autologon.exe from the command line, but be sure to escape any special characters in your password.

To manually configure autologon by editing the registry, see How to turn on automatic logon in Windows. Note that the given instructions can change slightly depending on the version of Windows being used. 

Schedule the Synthetic Private Agent to Start on Logon

After you have set up autologon, you still need to schedule the Synthetic Private Agent to automatically start after the machine logs on to the Administrator account.

  1. Open a PowerShell console.

  2. Download and save the file startagent.xml to your $HOME directory.

  3. Change to your $HOME directory.
  4. If you are logged on as a different user than "Administrator", edit the startagent.xml file and replace the value "Administrator" for the following XML elements with your user name. (Remember, your user account still must have Administrator permissions.)
    • <Author>
    • <UserId>

  5. Schedule the task of starting the Synthetic Private Agent:

    > schtasks /create /f /tn "Start the Synthetic Private Agent"/xml .\startagent.xml
    POWERSHELL

  6. Restart your machine.

  7. After the machine boots up, you should see the Windows console open titled "Administrator: Windows PowerShell" that displays the log message "Synthetic-agent is running".

Advanced Options

Install Multiple Agents 

After installing one Synthetic Private Agent, you should consider whether you need to install more Synthetic Private Agents.

Installing multiple agents is recommended for the following use cases:

  • You want to test multiple locations. You need to install the Synthetic Private Agent on multiple machines and provide different location information during the installation. Each location will appear separately in the Job Editor.
  • You need more throughput to run more tests. If you run a lot of synthetic jobs from a location, you may see errors like “Location is overloaded”. This means the machine is at capacity and you need to add another machine. You can simply install the agent on another machine and provide the same location information. 
  • You want support for multiple versions of Internet Explorer. See Software Requirements for more information.