Which data source will have the highest priority for populating the End-User Experience Dashboard based on Application Models in Portal?

The Riverbed Portal prioritizes data sources to provide the most accurate representation of the end-user's experience. AppInternals JavaScript provides Real User Monitoring (RUM) data by capturing metrics directly from the end-user's browser. This is the most direct and highest-fidelity source for metrics like page load times and browser rendering performance. Therefore, when data from the AppInternals JavaScript agent is available for an application model, Portal gives it the highest priority for populating the End-User Experience Dashboard over network-inferred sources.

A. AppResponse ASA: Application Stream Analysis (ASA) provides valuable network and server delay metrics but infers performance from network packets, making it less direct than browser-based RUM.

B. NetIM SNMP Polling: NetIM provides infrastructure health metrics (e.g., CPU, memory) via SNMP. This data offers context but does not directly measure the application experience from the user's perspective.

D. AppResponse WTA: Web Transaction Analysis (WTA) reconstructs user web sessions from network traffic. While an excellent source for EUE, it is still network-based and considered secondary to direct measurement from the user's browser.

1. Riverbed Portal User's Guide: In the section describing Application Models and data sources, the documentation specifies the order of precedence for populating metrics. It states that for end-user experience metrics, data from AppInternals (specifically the JavaScript agent for RUM) is prioritized over data from AppResponse WTA, which is in turn prioritized over AppResponse ASA.

Reference: Riverbed Portal 4.7 User's Guide, "Application Models" chapter, section on "Data source precedence for application models," page 45. The guide explicitly lists the priority as: 1. AppInternals, 2. AppResponse WTA, 3. AppResponse ASA.

2. Riverbed NPM and APM Solution Guide: This official vendor documentation outlines the roles of different products. It describes AppInternals as the solution for deep application diagnostics and real user monitoring, positioning its data as the primary source for user-centric performance analysis within the integrated suite.

Reference: Riverbed Application Performance Management (APM) Solution Brief, section on "End-user experience monitoring," which details the function of the JavaScript agent in capturing client-side metrics.