Synthetic Jobs

Synthetic jobs are configurable, scheduled tests that mimic end-user actions in remote browsers in supported locations. Synthetic jobs consist of URL measurements or synthetic scripts. To create a job, see Get Started with Browser Synthetic Monitoring.  

Synthetic Job Support

Browser Versions

• IE 10, 11
• Chrome 79
• Firefox 72

Python Libraries

• selenium
• Requests
• pysftp

Synthetic Job Locations

For URL measurements and synthetic script jobs, the Synthetic Agent is always executed in isolation within a Docker container. This location is then mapped to the configured browser location. The synthetic script, however, is run on a different machine or location from the configured browser for security reasons. See Synthetic Agent Locations for more details.

Synthetic Job Queue

When you create a synthetic job, it is added to a queue based on the creation timestamp. Scheduled jobs are assigned a maturity level that influences when they will be executed in the synthetic job queue.

Maturity Level for Scheduled Jobs

Scheduled jobs are assigned a maturity level based on creation time and added to the synthetic job queue. The table below describes the two supported maturity levels.

Synthetic Job Execution 

The synthetic job scheduler executes jobs according to the following cron-based expression:

<second> <minute> <hour> <day-of-month> <month> <day-of-week> <year>

When you schedule a job, you choose how frequently the job runs. It is recommended you choose a larger unit of time (hours or days) that can evenly divide into the smaller unit of time (minutes or hours). For example, if a job is scheduled to run every 15 minutes, the job runs four times within the hour. This results in the job consistently repeating every hour without interruption to the schedule.

However, if you schedule a job such that a larger unit of time that does not divide evenly into the smaller unit of time, such as running every 50 minutes, then the job does not run at consistent times. For example, if the first job starts at 7:03, then the job will run at 7:53, 8:03, 8:53, and so on, resulting in a disruption to the schedule.

Job Execution Order

The execution order of synthetic jobs depends on the job priority and the job creation time. The Synthetic Server job marks the priority of a job based on several factors: the job type, job maturity, and your Browser Synthetic Monitoring license. The table below shows the job priority based on the job type, license type, and job seniority. The actual job execution order depends on the job priority and job creation timestamp. 

Synthetic Job Throttling

Synthetic jobs are only executed if they are in the job queue. If the max job queue size has been reached, however, no additional synthetic jobs will be added to the queue until the queue size decreases. The max queue size is defined by the priority, license, type, and maturity level.

The following table shows how the maximum queue size is calculated:

Job Execution Errors

The following table provides job execution error messages, the cause of the error, and the associated error code.