API monitoring

Application performance interface (API) monitoring ensures the reliability of APIs by tracking their availability, response times, and functional accuracy. API monitoring tools provide valuable metrics related to the steps in a transaction, help in ensuring the security of your APIs, and enable performance optimization.

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What is API monitoring?

API monitoring is a critical component of web service management and plays a pivotal role in ensuring the optimal functioning of web services. By carefully observing and analyzing API interactions, organizations can proactively identify and address potential issues that may affect user experience. This monitoring safeguards the reliability and performance of digital infrastructure.

Why is
API monitoring important?

API monitoring is crucial for ensuring the smooth functioning of the application, its reliability, and security. By tracking the key metrics, developers and operations teams can proactively identify and resolve issues impacting application functionality, user experience, and overall business operations. This proactive approach minimizes downtime, prevents cascading failures, and helps maintain the integrity and availability of critical services.

How can API monitoring help you?

Multi-step API monitoring helps you see beyond the surface, revealing hidden bottlenecks and dependencies that can slow down your API performance. With a detailed log of each step, you can:

Pinpoint performance issues: Identify the exact step causing delays.
Map dependencies: Understand external factors impacting your API.
Stay ahead of problems: Set up proactive alerts for potential issues.

Key features of our API monitoring tool

Identify and address performance and availability issues that impact APIs, reduce technical debt, and gain valuable insights into the behavior and performance of your API mesh. Maintain peak performance and prevent disruptions with our comprehensive suite of API monitoring tools. We offer a range of solutions to keep your integrations running smoothly, no matter the protocol:

REST API monitoring

Monitor the performance and accessibility of your REST APIs. Receive alerts if API responses don't meet your specified validation criteria, using RegEx, XPath, or JSONPath. Additionally, validate your JSON responses against a defined schema.

REST API transaction monitoring

Track the performance and behavior of your REST APIs. Monitor workflows, test endpoints, and validate API responses. Monitor workflows in REST applications and get synthetic monitoring performed for web application workflows. You can monitor a sequence of 60 endpoint URLs and even allow parameter forwarding in your step sequence. Enjoy the flexibility of importing APIs in various formats, including POSTMAN, HAR, cURL, WSOL, or Hoppscotch.

SOAP monitoring

Ensure your SOAP-based web services are functioning properly and get regular availability and performance checks done. Get alerted you whenever the response (XML) does not bear the specified SOAP attribute name or when the SOAP attribute value provided in response validation does not validate against its corresponding SOAP attribute name.

gRPC monitoring

Run health checks to ensure the availability of your gRPC services and the functionality of all the related services. Track whether the client-server communication is working well by ensuring that the data is rendering and by confirming whether the gRPC endpoints are available. Validate the availability of your service, track the RPC time, as well as ensure the presence of an expected output. You can also configure a threshold for the RPC time, upon breaching which, an alert notification will be sent to you.

GraphQL monitoring

Site24x7's GraphQL monitoring provides a comprehensive solution for ensuring the performance and reliability of your GraphQL APIs. You can track the performance of your GraphQL API endpoints in real time, identifying issues as they arise, measure key metrics such as response time or error rates to trace bottlenecks and optimize performance.

What are the challenges in API monitoring?

One of the top challenges in API monitoring is the high volume of data generated, the complexity of modern distributed systems, the need for real-time insights into performance across various environments (development, staging, production), and ensuring accurate and timely alerting mechanisms. Integrating monitoring tools with existing infrastructure and maintaining the monitoring process as the API landscape evolves also pose significant hurdles.

What are the real-time use-cases of API monitoring?

Identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks as they occur, ensuring critical services remain available during peak demand, detecting security threats and anomalies in real time, and providing immediate feedback to developers for rapid debugging and issue resolution are a few of the real-time use cases of API monitoring. This allows applications to adapt dynamically to changing conditions and maintain optimal performance, crucial for services like e-commerce transactions, online gaming, and financial applications.

How does an API monitoring tool work?

Based on the location server you've chosen (public or private), you can monitor specific APIs used in your application, their endpoints, authentication details, and expected responses.

Simulated API requests will be created at regular intervals to mimic real-world scenarios.

Performance metrics (e.g., response time), availability, and accuracy of the API responses will be analyzed. A comparison of the measured performance metrics against predefined thresholds will be done. If any metrics exceed their thresholds, an alert will be triggered. Additional data on the API performance can be obtained through a seamless integration with our RUM and APM tools.

Alert notifications will be sent via email, SMS, push notifications, or through integrated collaboration tools. This helps to notify relevant teams promptly or individuals to address issues.

The logs, monitoring data, and application diagnostics help in investigating the cause of an alert. Take corrective actions to resolve the issue and restore normal API functionality. Analyze historical performance data to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement.

All the data obtained can be used to implement changes to optimize API performance, such as code refactoring, infrastructure upgrades, or caching. Repeat the monitoring process to ensure ongoing API health and performance. Continuously adjust thresholds, alerts, and monitoring strategies based on evolving needs.

What are the best practices to be followed in API monitoring?

Establishing clear performance thresholds and alerts
Implementing robust logging and tracing mechanisms to track requests
Utilizing monitoring tools that support distributed tracing
Providing insights into different layers of the application
Integrating monitoring with CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and feedback loops.
Regular reviews and monitoring strategy evaluation
Prioritizing critical APIs based on business impact

Key metrics to note in API monitoring

Key metrics in API monitoring go beyond simple counts and encompass a holistic view of API health and performance. Crucial metrics include:

Availability

The percentage of time the API is operational and accessible. Downtime, even for brief periods, can have significant business consequences.

Latency

The time taken for an API request to be processed and returned. High latency indicates potential bottlenecks, impacting user experience.

Throughput

The number of requests handled per unit of time. Understanding peak and average throughput helps identify capacity issues and scale requirements.

Error rates

The percentage of API requests that fail. This includes both client and server errors. Identifying patterns and root causes of errors (e.g., database issues, network problems) is crucial for troubleshooting and preventing cascading failures.

Request volume

The total number of API requests received over a period. High volumes can indicate increased demand and potential capacity limitations.

Success rate

The percentage of API requests that are completed successfully. This metric is highly correlated with user satisfaction and often directly tied to business outcomes.

Resource utilization

The CPU, memory, and disk usage of the API's infrastructure. Monitoring resource utilization helps identify resource limitations that can affect API performance.

What makes Site24x7 stand out as the top API monitoring tool?

AI-powered anomaly detection
Custom dashboards and detailed reports
Third-party alert integrations
Root cause analysis (RCA) to identify the reason for outages and service level (SLA) reports
Android and iOS apps
Zero false alerts (Rechecks from secondary locations)

Enhance your API performance with our smart AI-powered API monitoring tool!