{"id":8516,"date":"2020-01-07T13:18:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T21:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=8516"},"modified":"2020-01-07T13:18:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T21:18:47","slug":"check-web-server-sanity-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/service-protector\/check-web-server-sanity-check\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: How do I Test the “Check Web Server” Sanity Check?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Q&A<\/div>\n
\n  I’ve already started the trial of the Service Protector<\/a> and I’m comfortable with the way it is working. I manually stopped my web service and Service Protector started it up right away.<\/p>\n

I’m specifically interested in detecting some nasty 502 errors and downloaded the check website BAT file<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Any suggestions on how to simulate or force a 502? My test environments rarely crash (of course) and I need to gain a little bit of confidence before applying to one of our big customers.<\/p>\n

— Greg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hi Greg, thanks for trying Service Protector.<\/p>\n

After discussing with our team, here are three ways you can test:<\/p>\n

1. Specify a non-working URL<\/h2>\n

To make the sanity check work, you had to specify your server’s URL in the batch file (in the SET url<\/b> line).<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

\r\n      SET url=http:\/\/localhost:8080<\/b>\r\n<\/pre>\n
To confirm that your service will be promptly restarted when the sanity check fails, simply specify a bogus URL in the batch file.<\/p>\n
An invalid URL will cause the URL ping to fail and signal Service Protector to restart your Windows Service — every time the sanity check runs.<\/p>\n
To perform this test:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    Open the batch file in your favorite text editor<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    Update the SET url<\/b> line with a URL that does not point to an actual site<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \n
    Save the batch file<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  4. \n
    Launch Service Protector<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  5. \n
    Highlight your web server service and select Application > Start Protector<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  6. \n
    Wait for the sanity check to be run (as per the frequency you provided when you setup the sanity check)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  7. \n
    Validate that your service is stopped and restarted, as expected<\/b><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    2. Update your web application to return a 502<\/h2>\n
    The previous test applies to all failures, not only 502 errors.<\/p>\n
    If you have control of your web site code — in Laravel<\/a>, Django<\/a>, ASP.NET<\/a> or another dynamic framework — you can create a URL endpoint that simply returns 502.<\/p>\n
    Put that URL that into the check website batch file (in the SET url<\/b> line) and your service should be restarted whenever Service Protector runs the sanity check.<\/p>\n
    3. Use the free  webhook service<\/h2>\n
    If you don’t want to mess with your web site, we recommend use the free webhook service<\/a> to create a URL that always returns a 502. If you place that URL in your batch file, your service should be restarted every time the sanity check is run.<\/p>\n
    To create the endpoint:<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. \n
      Open this page in your browser: https:\/\/webhook.site\/<\/a><\/p>\n
      A unique URL will be created automatically for you:<\/p>\n
    2. \n
      This URL is immediately usable, but it will return HTTP Status code 200 by default. Click the Edit<\/b> button and change the Default status code<\/b> to 502. You might as well put in some response text, to explicitly signal what the URL does too:<\/p>\n
      \"Set<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      Visit the URL to ensure that it is responding as expected:<\/p>\n
      \"Check<\/a><\/div>\n
      Note that the URL won’t be available forever. From the Webhook.site Terms of use<\/a>:<\/p>\n
      \n  For non-Premium URLs, data may be automatically deleted after a maximum of 7 days.\n<\/div>\n
      So you’ll have to purchase a premium offering if you want the URL to persist.<\/p>\n
      \nHappy testing!<\/p>\n