Synthetic alerting overview
- Latest Dynatrace
- Reference
- 2-min read
- Published Sep 04, 2025
A synthetic monitor creates a problem when one of the following is true:
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A monitored system is not available. In this case, the monitor reports an availability problem. The problem is created after a specified number of consecutive executions fail.
A monitored system is considered not available if:
- The system does not respond.
- There are certificate issues (in case of browser and HTTP monitors).
- Constraints are violated (in case of all types of monitors). The constraints can be specified when configuring or editing monitors.
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A specified performance threshold is violated, which means that a monitored system is available but slow. In this case, the monitor reports a performance problem.
Outage handling and performance thresholds
To set up outage handling and specify performance thresholds, go to 
Synthetic, select your monitor, and then select Edit.
Be sure to Save to monitor settings.
Outage handling
In the Outage handling section, on the Outage and performance tab, you can set up conditions for creating a problem. Two options are available:
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Generate a problem and send an alert when the monitor is unavailable at all configured locations (global outage). You can specify how many consecutive executions must fail so the problem is generated.
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Generate a problem and send an alert when the monitor is unavailable for one or more consecutive runs at any location (local outage). You can specify:
- The minimum number of locations that must be affected so the problem is generated.
- How many consecutive executions must fail so the problem is generated.
The option is available only when at least two locations are assigned.
For browser monitors, you can additionally select Automatic retry on error—it configures the monitor to avoid false positives by making one more execution after the first one failed. The error is thrown only after the second execution failed.
Performance threshold for a whole monitor
In the Performance thresholds section, on the Outage and performance tab, you can specify a performance threshold for a whole monitor. The monitor creates a problem when the sum of the durations of all steps violates this threshold.
Dynatrace generates a new problem if a synthetic monitor exceeds any of the total duration performance thresholds in three of the five most recent executions at a given location, unless there is an open maintenance window for the synthetic monitor. Multiple locations with three such violations can be included in a problem. The problem is closed if no performance threshold is violated in the five most recent executions at each of the previously affected locations.
Performance thresholds for separate steps
On the Steps tab, you can specify performance thresholds for separate steps. The monitor creates a problem when at least one step with a specified threshold violates this threshold.
Problems
You can monitor problems in:
Problems- Synthetic itself. Monitors with problems have a red icon in the Problems column. The red icon also displays the number of problems for a monitor. From the monitors list, select the monitor whose problems you want to examine. This displays a preview panel on the right. From there you can, for example, select View details > Analyze executions and investigate executions that detected problems.