Private locations overview: Monitor internal sites and add new locations

In synthetic monitoring, a private location is a collection of private minions. A minion is a containerized application that receives and manages jobs set up through the Synthetics UI.

A private location can contain any number of private minions. Private locations allow you to extend your synthetic monitoring coverage to new geographical locations, and to monitor websites behind your firewall (like an intranet site).

What you need

To use private locations, first review these requirements and other factors:

Compatibility for...	Requirements
Check budget	Checks from a private location count against your budget.
Synthetics horde endpoint	For US-based accounts: `https://synthetics-horde.nr-data.net/` For EU-based accounts: `https://synthetics-horde.eu01.nr-data.net/`
Outbound network access	The minion needs to connect to the synthetic monitoring's horde endpoint to receive and process jobs. If your firewall rules don't permit direct access, you must configure proxy access. Test your connection to the horde endpoint with a successful response from the following command: `curl -X GET https://synthetics-horde.nr-data.net/synthetics/api/v1/ping`
Account access and permissions	How access works depends on your user model: Original user model: If a private location is set up by an account with child accounts, it can be used by users with access to those child accounts. But if it's set up on a child account, it can only be used by users in that account. New Relic One user model: user access to an account depends on whether they've been granted access to that account.

Create a private location

one.newrelic.com > Synthetics > Private Locations: Use the Private Locations page to create, edit, and delete private locations.

Before installing private minions, you need to create a private location. To create a new private location:

Ensure you meet the requirements, including account access requirements.
Go to one.newrelic.com > Synthetics > Private locations. Then select Create private location.
Tip
The private locations sub menu becomes available after you create your first monitor.
Type a location name.
Optional: Configure these additional settings:
- Description: Describe your private location for other account users.
- Verified script execution: Require a passphrase when assigning scripts to this location, or when adding minions to the location.
Select Create.

After creating the location, Synthetics lists your Private location key so you can install a private minion.

Ping monitor checks

Each minion can run about 200 ping monitor checks per minute (about 8,640,000 checks per month). If the job queue for a particular location is growing, add additional minions. The exact capacity of the minions can vary, depending on:

Your network performance
The complexity of your scripts
The hardware configuration for the private minion

Add jobs to the location queue

To add jobs to the queue for your location, follow standard procedures to add or edit a monitor, and select your location from the Private locations list. To assign an existing monitor, edit that monitor's settings.

one.newrelic.com > Synthetics > Create monitor: To assign new jobs to your private location and its minions, select its name from the Create monitor page.

Manage private locations

Tip

If you can't access this feature, check the Factors affecting access to features and data.

Synthetic monitoring includes tools to manage locations and individual minions. You can also install new minions, and clear the job queue if it backs up.

To access these tools, go to one.newrelic.com > Synthetics > Private locations. Then follow the steps:

If you want to...	Do this...
Clear the job queue	Click the icon, and select Clear queue. This is useful when the number of scheduled jobs has increased faster than the minions can process them, such as when the minion is offline.
View the status of an individual minion	Select the parent location's name from the list. The green health status indicator identifies active minions. You can also view the last reported time for each minion, and check whether the minion software is out of date.
Change location or view the private location key	Click the icon, and select Edit.
Delete a location	Click the icon for the location, and select Delete. This does not shut down any minions assigned to that location. The minions must be shut down manually or reassigned.
Enable or disable verified script execution	Legacy minions: Verified script execution requires that you set up a passphrase on the minion before assigning any scripts to the location. CPM: You need to pass the MINION_VSE_PASSPHRASE variable to the minion. Then, at the Private locations tab, click on Edit and, in the menu, enable the Verified script execution option.

Set proxy configuration

You can set proxy server configuration for synthetic scripted monitors that run from local private locations. For more information, see Synthetic's proxy settings.