In this blog post I describe how you easily can monitor the performance and the availability of a website. You need an Azure (trial-) account and Visual Studio Enterprise (or Ultimate). There are multiple options, but in this post I describe the URL ping test and the Multi-step web test.

The ping test is an easy way to start. From 5 multiple locations all over the world Azure send an ping to the specified website.

Ping Test

First login to your Windows Azure account. Make sure you’ve already created an Application Insight Resource. Check the following pictures how to create :

Create the Application Insight:

Specify a name and choose for ASP.NET

Go to your Application Insight Resource and Add a web test.

Specify a name, the URL ping test type and the test frequency. Make sure you add the http prefix to the url specification.

When you are ready wait when the test has been completed (this can take some time) go to your Application Insight Resource Tile.

Click the Availability Tile and check your results.

See the above example for the number of tests and the performance.

Multiple-step test

First make sure you have Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 Enterprise or Ultimate. Create a new project :

Choose a unique name and create a new project. Select the .webtest file and click the red record button.

Record the actions you wish to test and click stop when you’re finished.

Alright, test the file. And save the file. Now go Azure and choose to Add a web test :

Fill in the webtest name and upload the .webtest file.

All done. Now watch your Azure portal and see the new test appearing.