This month, we are introducing a new experience for submitting product improvement feature requests for the Kentik platform.

In this completely new experience, anyone who uses Kentik can submit feature requests for product improvements, vote and comment on existing requests and get timely updates.

What’s New?

Navigation to the new feature request portal is found in the Contact Support window, where a link for feature requests will automatically open a new tab with the feature request portal.

This link will bring you to the portal dashboard where you can click “Make a suggestion” to open the feature request form. The feature request form consists of the problem you are trying to solve, a details section for in depth criteria for the feature request and a current workaround section (if applicable).

When beginning to type the request in the first open text field, if there are any existing feature requests that sound similar, they will show. From here, you can vote or add comments on any existing feature requests. Once your feature request is submitted any status changes that are made to the feature request will be emailed directly to you, so you can follow your request from idea to release.

Voting on Existing Feature Requests

One of the most impactful advantages of this new feature request system is the ability to go and vote on feature requests that already exist. Voting on requests can be done in two ways.

1. In the above paragraph it was mentioned that as you are typing a feature request on the submission form, existing feature requests that are relevant will populate. Clicking the ‘I want this’ button will cast a vote for that feature request without having to resubmit the same request.
2. On the dashboard landing page, there is a list of recently submitted feature requests. These can be read and voted on at any time by all members of the feature request portal.

Commenting is also available on existing feature requests. Dropping comments on requests with details to your specific use case is helpful for other Kentik users to ideate on how to use the Kentik system, but also incredibly helpful to know what feature requests are in high demand.

Feature Request Status Changes

As feature requests get submitted, they will be regularly evaluated by our teams. When feature requests change status, the submitter and all individuals who have voted or commented on the request will get an email updating them on the status change. This level of transparency is to keep those that need the new feature aware of when they can expect the work to be started and eventually completed.

Let us know what you think in the comments. Happy submitting!

Ensuring that DNS is healthy and working as expected is fundamental to the performance and availability of any network service.

Kentik's DNS Server Monitor and DNS Server Grid tests already allow users to monitor and alert on the DNS Resolution Time - an important metric to track to ensure that no delays are introduced at this step of the interaction.

We've now enhanced these tests with the ability to monitor and alert on the IP mappings returned by the DNS servers being queried. By specifying an allowed list of IP addresses we can alert when an unexpected mapping is returned.

The Allowed DNS Results field under Advanced Options allows users to specify the expected IP results. If the test returns an IP that isn't in this allowed list the test health will be marked as Critical and an alert is triggered based on the alert activation settings.

Websites and web applications rely on SSL certificates to demonstrate their authenticity to end users connecting to them. 

Whether the web application is one the customer owns themselves or one that they consume as a service from a service provider if the server certificate attached to the application expires or is invalid, users will not be able to connect to them securely. It is therefore important to monitor the health of these certificates and alert when one is about to expire or is no longer valid.

With the TLS Certificate Expiry Check feature we have introduced a new column in the Results page of HTTP(S) and Page Load tests displaying the server certificate’s expiry status and we've expanded test Health options to alert when the certificate is about to expire.

When the target website's certificate is valid we will display the expiry date of the server certificate as seen below.

When the certificate is invalid (or expired) we will display an error message indicating the cause of the failure.

Health options now includes the option to alert the user when the certificate is nearing expiry to prevent site outages due to invalid certs.

If the website's certificate is within the specified threshold the Certificate Expiry column values will be colored accordingly.

To disable all certificate checks, enable the "Ignore TLS Errors" switch under Advanced Options > General Options. This will remove the "Certificate Expiry" column in the test results page.

In previous releases we provided the option to include network layer data in web tests by enabling ping and trace route in HTTP(S) and Page Load tests. This allowed us to quickly correlate application and network metrics to identify the root cause of an application's performance or availability issues.

Expanding on our cross layer visibility we can now include BGP data in web tests as well. Allowing us to further improve the time it takes to identify the root cause of issues as originating in either the application, network or routing domain.

Where previously you would need to create a separate BGP Monitor test you can now examine the same BGP data in an adjacent tab on the results page itself. No need to jump between test views!

When included, BGP data will be visible as an additional tab in the test results page.

Putting it altogether, we can now analyze all layers of information relevant to a target application's health on the same screen, including

Application metrics and Network Ping metrics in the Results tab.

Network Trace metrics in the Path View tab.

To add BGP data to an HTTP(S) or Page Load test turn the switch to "Enable bgp monitoring" (disabled by default) and enter the necessary details as you would for a regular BGP Monitor test including health options for Allowed ASN(s), RPKI status and Reachability (Advanced Options). 

Refer to the KB for more details on configuring BGP Monitor tests.

We're excited to announce that our initial launch of Synthetic Transaction Monitoring (STM) is now GA!

Transaction tests expand on our existing suite of web/app layer testing capabilities. While an HTTP/API test tests the availability of the front door (hosting web server) of an application and a Page Load test gives you the ability to test the performance of how a website loads, a Transaction test goes much deeper and allows you to simulate a user's journey as they interact with an application, like logging into an email application or checking out a shopping cart or searching for a stock ticker symbol.

For instance, an e-commerce site has many user workflows which enable a customer to login, search through selections, select payment and delivery options and finalize a transaction. Delays or errors in any of these steps can impact the customer experience and lead to lost revenue. STM will enable you to benchmark the performance of each of these transaction stages and troubleshoot specific performance issues.

Steps to perform STM in Kentik:

1. Mimic the actions of your users as they would log into your application and perform a transaction.
2. Records these actions using the Chrome DevTools Recorder.
3. Open your Kentik account and create a new Transaction Test.
4. Paste the script exported from Chrome DevTools Recorder.
5. Select the agents (private or public) that you’d like to run the test from.
6. Run the test and analyze results.

Here is an example of a Transaction recorded on Chrome DevTools.

We can now export the Transaction script as a Puppeteer script and paste it into new Kentik Transaction script as below 

You can select any of our public Application agents to test from, and/or easily deploy your own private Application agents which we can supply (for Docker, x86 and ARM). STM tests can be set as both automatic and periodic on time intervals.

Presentation of Synthetic Test Monitoring Results

Results are presented on a timeline that shows transaction completion time. Performance is measured against dynamically calculated baselines and lags in performance are colored - orange is a warning, red is critical. 

Selecting a point on the line will indicate total completion time and the rolling standard deviation baseline. 

Screenshots captured during the transaction process provide insight into the script execution flow and aid in troubleshooting. 

The Waterfall tab shows the load order and load duration of each element in the Document Object Model (DOM) of every page visited.

Analyzing the results give us insights into how our users experience the performance of an application in real time from different geographies allowing us to proactively respond to user experience issues before they are reported by real users. When used in conjunction with Kentik's suite of network tests we can identify the root cause of performance issues as originating in the network or application stack within minutes.

March 2022 marks another important milestone milestone in Kentik's Hybrid Cloud observability product offering by not only releasing Azure Maps, but also  adding AWS VPC endpoint support.

Azure Map

In March we made a large leap forward in enhancing our multi-cloud observability solution. We are introducing the first version of our Kentik Map for Azure, providing a similar look and feel to the AWS map. While many concepts are the same, there are differences, for example a VPC in AWS is a VNET in Azure:

Similar to AWS, we are now showing the Azure regions including their VNETs, allowing users to click into the subnets, and display traffic and other details:

VPC Endpoint support for AWS

We now display VPC endpoints in the AWS Map as network gateways so that map users can easily view traffic to (or in some cases, from) these constructs.

KMI is a new service provider workflow that uses the global routing table to classify the peering and transit relationships between ASes and to identify the providers, peers, and customers for any AS in any geography. KMI estimates the volume of IP space transited by ASes in different geographies and produces rankings based on that volume, thereby enabling users to compare ASes in various markets.

This new workflow is available to all Kentik users with Premier Edition or with the service provider add-on available for the Kentik Pro Edition. This new workflow does not require any configuration and is immediately usable, as it relies on public routing data from a large number of BGP vantage points all around the world.

As routing data gets crunched on a daily basis, it can now be consumed via a simple interface allowing our users to decrypt how networks are connected to each other, what any network’s customer base looks like or what their providers and peers are.

KMI uses the global routing table to classify the peering and transit relationships between ASes and to identify the providers, peers, and customers for any AS in any geography.

Additionally, KMI scores and ranks any network against the size of their customer base in any subdivision of markets, as well as per customer base type such as retail, wholesale or backbone. KMI can now serve as a public, neutral and objective benchmark to score and rank all networks.

Here are a few pointers to get you started with KMI:

• Product page: Kentik Market Intelligence
• Blog post: Launching a labor of love, Kentik Market Intelligence
• Press release: Kentik Market Intelligence launches to benchmark the internet
• Knowledge Base article: Details about how the neutral, objective scoring and ranking algorithm works

This new feature is the beginning of a broader Kentik initiative to share the Network Observability love outside of the Kentik user crowd. As a lot of our users have asked for means to be able to reliably and systematically share Kentik visualization outside of their own silo, all the way to public audiences, Kentik now offers Public Link Sharing ! 

Sharing is caring

Publicly accessible visualization pages can now be created from Data Explorer visualizations and Synthetics test results and shared as links with people who aren’t registered Kentik users.

As of Friday, February 25th, users can use Public Link Shares. This feature allows users to share Data Explorer visualizations and synthetic monitoring tests with unauthenticated users. This feature has many useful applications, such as helping:

• Efficiently instrument troubleshooting sessions internally and externally
• Show evidence of outages and performance issues to vendors
• Augment support responses to customers with actual, interactive evidence
• Build brand confidence by transparently communicating on outages and their impact
• Empower your product and marketing teams with tools to showcase the performance of your infrastructure

Each public share created comes with a public URL in the form of: https://portal.kentik.com/share/<view-type>/<entropy_hash>/<title>

You will then be presented with a list of options including the ability to send an email to notify public users and get them to navigate to the share.

Native email notifications

A public share notification email will look like the one below:

Alternatively, Kentik Portal will copy the public URL for the new public share upon creation. Users accessing this URL will not be required to authenticate and will be able to visualize the same chart on a public interface.

Managing your Public Shares

Users will be able to modify, delete and audit existing shares via this new navigation menu entry:

Useful pointers

• For more information on using Public Link Sharing documentation is available in the Kentik Knowledge Base.
• Also see our blog post, Network observability, now publicly shareable that describes some use cases for the new Public Link Sharing feature.

We know that many of our users are fond of Kentik’s dashboarding capabilities. A quick survey of our user population shows that some users save as many as 500 dashboards or views. Taking this to heart, we’ve entirely redesigned and optimized the Library module. 

Read on for a summary of the great new things we’ve done.

Shortcuts, shortcuts, shortcuts

First, we wanted to make sure the Library is easier to access. For that, we have added keyboard shortcuts to quickly summon the Library from anywhere in the portal.

Try SHIFT+? to see a list of available shortcuts. There you’ll see you can bring up the Library by simply hitting SHIFT+L.

User set categories

A top request from users is to be able to create and manage categories in the Library. Now you can create a category on the spot! To do this, click on the top right Add Category icon on the Categorized Views screen.

You can also now rename categories using the triple-dot icon to the right of categories:

Content can be moved between categories by using drag-and-drop. You can auto-open categories using drag-hover, scrolling up and down when dragging a category above and below the fold.

Content that hasn’t been placed in a category will sit in the Uncategorized Views section of the main Library screen, waiting for you to find a new category home for them.

If shortcuts are your thing, we even added a very useful shortcut. When SHIFT-clicking on a category’s expand or collapse arrow, you will now be able to expand or collapse all categories in the Library screen.

Be more productive

Further study of some of our sample users’ portal behavior shows that workflows often gravitate around frequently eyeballing a discrete set of dashboards and saved views, so we’ve made improvements to help.

Favorites and recently viewed panes

The right side of the Library screen is now dedicated to two always-on Favorites and Recently Viewed panes.

You can favorite (or un-favorite via the star icon toggles) any dashboard or saved view from anywhere in Kentik Portal, whether from the Library or in the central content section. You can also favorite in the always-on panels and directly from dashboards and saved views.

Beyond that, you can also favorite Kentik Presets content from the second tab of the Library screen!

As you visualize more dashboards and saved views, your recently viewed items will stack up in the namesake Library panel.

Quicker access to Guided Mode dashboards

Guided Mode dashboards are a long-time favorite, and you can now directly input the pivot value from the Library screen.

The Guided Mode input will also be available directly from within both the Favorites and Recently Viewed panels.

Contextual actions galore

A handful of actions can now be taken directly from the Library entry of dashboards and saved views. These will reduce the number of clicks needed to visualize, and allow you to immediately select the necessary action:

If you are a My Kentik portal tenant, you can now directly export and add saved views to dashboards, clone, create subscriptions and even view directly. You too are one click away from the Library screen!

New App Agents

We released a new set of agents that will enable tests at the application layer. These are what we’re calling “App Agents” and they are capable of running a full headless Chrome browser instance. These agents will enable us to offer our customers tests like Page Load tests and Transaction tests. When used in conjunction with our rich network layer functionality, these new agents and test types will allow network engineering and network operations teams to quickly determine if the issue is at the network layer or at the application layer.

Full Browser Page Load Test

We activated the Page Load Test type that performs a full browser page load using the new App agents.

• The new test type can be set up by clicking “Page Load” under “Web Tests”
• Agent selection uses the new App agents but this is seamless to the end user.
  • Once in the test setup, clicking the “edit agents” button will only display the App agents in the list (that is currently a subset of all locations but growing to include all currently supported locations).
• The test set up is similar to the HTTP or API test except:
  • It performs a full browser page load (while the HTTP test stops after the page contents are retrieved using a GET)
  • Only includes GET option (since it is a page load). Does not include ping and trace alongside the page load (we have plans to support that in the future).
• The results are presented in a similar fashion to the HTTP or API test, with the following differences:
  • Table columns include new “DOM Processing Time” and “Navigation & App Cache” that are specifically relevant to the time taken for the browser to load and display the contents of the page respectively

BGP Route Viewer

BGP Route viewer is the first of a series of capabilities planned to help proactively monitor BGP-related conditions that can impact performance. In response to customer requests and feedback, we have developed a comprehensive roadmap for BGP monitoring, and we believe our solution will have significant performance advantages over alternative solutions.

The first part of Kentik’s solution is BGP Route Viewer. BGP Router Viewer appears as a tab along with the existing SaaS and Cloud Performance tabs. For customers who have entered prefixes in their Network Classification settings, we will automatically load BGP update data for those prefixes in this tab. For customers who have not entered any prefixes in their Network Classification settings, we will show an interface that allows you to do so and give you the option to save the entered prefixes to the Network Classifications page.

HTTP Stage Timing and Charts

With the new Page Load tests, results can be plotted in a time series along with HTTP stages and the timing for each stage. This new view helps network teams isolate network layer issues from HTTP layer issues.

Major Path UX Overhaul

The (traceroute driven) path experience has been one of the most valued features of Synthetics and while it works well, we felt like we could go back and revisit the design holistically after having added a bunch of small and big features iteratively since it first launched (back in November). The updates we made can be summarized in two main buckets:

1. Improve the overall usability of the product/feature by:
   • Reducing the number of clicks to do things (like setting the thresholds and other config knobs)
   • Reducing the quantity of information presented on default load (intelligently collapsing things to reduce information overload)
   • Reducing the amount of whitespace used so it is more compact and requires less or no scrolling
   • Preventing the path from exceeding the bounds of the page
   • Avoiding the side pane (which required knowing that one should click and would cover a third of the path when open)
   • Remove the ping-driven health timeline, as this data does not necessarily correlate with latency seen on the path and can lead to confusion.
2. Support collapse/group by sites. This has been requested by a few customers, particularly ones that run tests within their own network and find the ASN option of less use (everything collapsed into their ASN). Having the ability to group by sites lets these customers know if a path change caused traffic to go through a different site instead of the expected/desired one.

Here is a list of the main changes:

• 
• Health timeline is removed from path tab. It was ping-results driven and could confuse users when it showed issues, but no issues were present in the path. (The path is trace-probe driven, which may not show the same issues for short-lived spikes.)
• 
• All group/collapse functions (ASN, left/right) have been rolled into one main “Group by” selector and the option to group by “Sites” has been added.
• Copy for geodistance-based latency comparison has been improved and helper text/icon added.
• Option to “Reset” everything back to default quickly has been added.
• 
• The ASN legend has been moved below the path UI and is displayed in a line, moving the path higher up in the page and reducing the amount of whitespace.
  
• The main path trace visualization has received the most significant overhaul and results in a much less overwhelming and much more fluid experience than before. Highlights include:
  • 
  • Extra effort has been put into avoiding overlapping traces that cross other traces and make the overall UI very busy and confusing.
  • You can hover over any node (without needing to click) and it will show you all the information available.
    
  • Similar to the node hover, hovering over an agent (source) or target will show you all the information cleanly organized in sections, and will give you a link to view the raw traceroute output. There is also an option to quickly collapse nodes for this or other agents with just one click, right there.
  • 
  • Previously we would only show latency for (red) links that exceeded the threshold and packet loss for (red) nodes that exceeded that threshold. Now this information is shown for all nodes and links. In cases where the metrics exceed the threshold, a red font is used to highlight. Further, previously high packet loss nodes were identified with a full red circle, which was confusing if there was an ASN with a similar color. Now this is made clearer with a red border.
    
  • 

Density Grid Groups Dashboard

In response to customer feedback, we have added a new type of visualization option under Synthetics in the dashboards (library) portion of the product. One of the key use cases is customers who set up DNS servers by zones and want to see a global view of the performance of their whole DNS infrastructure.

• Select “Add” a “Synthetics Test View” dashboard element and then pick the new “Density Grid Group” allows you to multi-select any tests configured in the system that are of type “DNS Grid” or “Network Grid.”
• Select a few tests and save the widget to display agents in the first column and then test results aggregated by target in the columns to the right of that.
• For each cell in the results, each square represents that specific agent hitting one DNS server to resolve the specific target.
• A holistic view lets the user quickly pinpoint any issues from a large number of DNS servers distributed across the world.
  

9 New LATAM Global Agents

We deployed nine new global agents throughout LATAM, improving our coverage in the region and increasing count from four agents to thirteen.