IBM APM 8.1 : how to troubleshoot Synthetic agent playback of Selenium script issue?

Steps

1)

Check some advice given regarding Selenium script recording:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSMKFH/com.ibm.apmaas.doc/install/admin_syn_record_script.htm

2)

If you got a Selenium(tm) .side script in use, and its robotic play back on Application Performance Management 8.1 synthetic agent fails, I suggest the following steps:

2a)

See Application Performance Management 8.1 Synthetic agent interim fix 15 readme file:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-application-performance-management-8140-8140-ibm-apm-synthetic-playback-agent-if0015-readme

2b)

If still, with above environment, your Selenium(tm) .side script robotically fails on synthetic agent, check the following trace and log files on the Linux synthetic agent system:

Remark: it can be easier to stop the synthetic agent; delete or move all the listed old logs files into a temporary directory; restart the synthetic agent; after the first robotic play back completion, if you are seeing an issue in Application Performance Management UI console under "Synthetic Transactions" dashboard, then take a copy of all above files and review them.

3)

You can also try to troubleshoot further by enabling robotic transaction play back's "screen capture" on the synthetic agent.

Here are the steps to enable screen capture of the automated Mozilla Firefox(tm) that is playing back the selenium "xxx.side" script, or playing back a url, on the synthetic agent:

a. Stop synthetic agent

$> /opt/ibm/apm/agent/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh stop

b. Export system variable

$> export ENABLE_SCREEN_SHOT=true

c. Start synthetic agent

$> /opt/ibm/apm/agent/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh start

d. if the play back failed, then you can possibly get a screenshot file under

/opt/ibm/apm/agent/logs/ScreenShots/<transaction_name>/

Review these screenshots files, if they exist.

Please notice:

Screenshot feature can cause high disk usage potentially, so disable this feature after your investigation, to avoid disk space outage.

How to disable screen capture:

$> /opt/ibm/apm/agent/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh stop

$> export ENABLE_SCREEN_SHOT=""

$> /opt/ibm/apm/agent/bin/synthetic_playback-agent.sh start