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How to use the Web API tile with Pingdom

Catherine
  • Updated

This article covers how to use the Web API tile to display live API data from Pingdom on a dashboard or perspective.

SquaredUp uses the Pingdom account that you configure and queries will be updated as the page updates, by default every minute.

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This article covers:

  1. Adding Pingdom as a provider in SquaredUp
  2. Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Grid tile to show Pingdom checks
  3. Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Scalar tile to show response time
  4. Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Donut tile to show a status count
  5. Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Bar Graph tile to show last response time
  6. Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Line Graph tile to show the average response time

You may also be interested in watching our webinar - "Integrating with Splunk, New Relic, Solarwinds and more" (38 mins) which demos different methods, or jump to the part about Pingdom.

Prerequisites

  • The SquaredUp server must have access to your Pingdom instance, since it is the server that connects to Pingdom, and not your users' browser.
  • If you use a proxy server you may need to configure the proxy to allow the SquaredUp server to communicate with Pingdom.
  • A Pingdom instance. You may need some help from a Pingdom admin to get an account with the correct privileges.

Adding Pingdom as a provider in SquaredUp

See How to add a Pingdom provider in SquaredUp

Adding a Pingdom provider is a one-time configuration task, and once you have a Pingdom provider configured you can use it with multiple tiles as described below.

Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Grid tile to show Pingdom checks

It is important to use http get mode and to set the key path in the response data section to checks.

  1. On the top navigation bar in SquaredUp click the + to create a new dashboard, and give your dashboard a title.

  2. Click on the Web API tile.
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  3. Select Web API (Grid).
    Snag_1523d523.png

  4. Leave the scope section blank for this walkthrough.

  5. In the provider section select the Pingdom provider.
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  6. In the http mode section leave the http method set to get.

  7. Type checks in the box after the URL. The URL shown here is that specified when you created the Pingdom Web API provider.
    mceclip1.png

  8. Leave the headers & data section as it is, and in the response data section also type checks into the key path box.
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  9. Click next to move to the grid columns section.

    Here we are going to use the grid designer make the data more meaningful. For more information see How to use the Grid Designer

  10. Click hide next to some of the columns you might not wish to show, e.g. id, created, resolution, ipv6, verify_certifcate.
  11. You may like to rename the columns to make them more readable, e.g. name to Check Name, lasttesttime to Last Test, lastresponsetime to Response (ms), status to Status, hostname to URL, type to Type, lasterrortime to Last Error.
  12. The time values are currently shown in UNIX time format. Click edit next to Last Test and paste the following in to the custom template box:

    {{timeago(value*1000)}}

    This shows how long ago the event occurred.
    mceclip3.png

  13. Repeat the above step for Last Error.
  14. Leave the grid options section as it is.
  15. You may wish to change the order the columns by dragging them into position.
  16. Click done.

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Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Scalar tile to show response time

  1. Click the orange plus button to add a new tile to the dashboard.

  2. Click on the Web API tile.
    Snag_15242f1a.png

  3. Select Web API (Scalar).
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  4. Leave the scope section blank for this walkthrough.

  5. In the provider section select the Pingdom provider.
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  6. In the http mode section leave the http method set to get.

  7. In the box following the URL you need to type checks/<check id> where <check id> is the number shown in the URL when you browse to that check in Pingdom.
    Snag_1564acde.png
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  8. In the response data section, type check.lastresponsetime into the key path box.
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  9. Click next to move to the scalar section.

  10. In the unit box type ms for milliseconds.
  11. Click done.
    mceclip7.png

Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Donut tile to show a status count
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  1. Click the orange plus button to add a new tile to the dashboard.

  2. Click on the Web API tile.
    Snag_15242f1a.png

  3. Select Web API (Donut).
    mceclip8.png

  4. Leave the scope section blank for this walkthrough..

  5. In the provider section select the Pingdom provider.

  6. In the http mode section leave the http method set to get.

  7. In the box following the URL you need to type checks/ .
    mceclip9.png

  8. In the response data section, type checks into the key path box.
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  9. In the data mapping section click on count under data aggregation:
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  10. In the grouping box either type {{status}} or select status from the drop down list:
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  11. Adjust the display section as you require, for example you may like to change the color palette to health1:
    mceclip13.png
  12. Click done.

Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Bar Graph tile to show last response time

  1. Click the orange plus button to add a new tile to the dashboard.

  2. Click on the Web API tile.
    Snag_15242f1a.png

  3. Select Web API (Bargraph).
    mceclip16.png

  4. Leave the scope section blank for this walkthrough.

  5. In the provider section select your Pingdom provider.

  6. In the http mode section leave the http method set to get.

  7. In the box following the URL you need to type checks/ .
    mceclip9.png

  8. In the response data section, type checks into the key path box.
    mceclip10.png

  9. In the data mapping section click on sum under data aggregation:

  10. mceclip17.png
  11. In the grouping box either type {{name}} or select name from the drop down list:
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  12. In the metrics box either type {{lastresponsetime}} or select lastresponsetime from the drop down list:
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  13. In data range select fit to data (from zero):
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  14. The sort section allows you to configure how the values are sorted and how many are shown:
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  15. Label can be left as auto.
  16. Color allows you to turn off multiple colours.
  17. Click done.

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Walkthrough: Adding a Web API Line Graph tile to show the average response time

  1. Click the orange plus button to add a new tile to the dashboard.

  2. Click on the Web API tile.
    Snag_15242f1a.png

  3. Select Web API (Line graph).
    mceclip23.png

  4. Leave the scope section blank for this walkthrough.

  5. In the provider section select your Pingdom provider.

  6. In the http mode section leave the http method set to get.

  7. In the box following the URL you need to type summary.performance/<check id> where <check id> is the number shown in the URL when you browse to that check in Pingdom:
    Snag_1571963a.png
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  8. You can use the data section of headers and data to configure the data period. 604800 is 7 days in seconds.
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  9. In the response data section, type summary.hours into the key path box.
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  10. In the data mapping section type {{starttime*1000}} into the timestamp box, to convert seconds to milliseconds:
    mceclip27.png

  11. In the metrics box either type {{avgresponse}} or select avgresponse from the drop down list:
    mceclip28.png
  12. In data range select fit to data (from zero):
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  13. Click done.

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