Configure Synthetics settings

There are several Synthetics settings you can adjust in your Observability project.

Alerting enables you to detect complex conditions using rules across Observability apps and send a notification using connectors.

When you create a new synthetic monitor, new default synthetics rules will be applied. To edit the default rules:

However, the automatically created Synthetics internal alert is intentionally preconfigured, and some configuration options can’t be changed. For example, you can’t change how often it checks the rule.

If you need specific alerting behavior, set up a different rule. To view all existing rules or create a new rule:

On the Rules page, you can manage the default synthetics rules including snoozing rules, disabling rules, deleting rules, and more.

In the Alerting tab on the Synthetics Settings page, you can add and configure connectors. If you are running in Elastic Cloud, then an SMTP connector will automatically be configured, allowing you to easily set up email alerts. Read more about all available connectors in Action types.

Private Locations allow you to run monitors from your own premises.

In the Private Locations tab, you can add and manage Private Locations. After you Set up Elastic Agent and Connect to your Observability project, this is where you will add the Private Location so you can specify it as the location for a monitor created using the Synthetics UI or a Synthetics project.

Global parameters can be defined once and used across the configuration of lightweight and browser-based monitors.

In the Global parameters tab, you can define variables and parameters. This is one of several methods you can use to define variables and parameters. To learn more about the other methods and which methods take precedence over others, see Work with params and secrets.

When you set up a synthetic monitor, data from the monitor is saved in Elasticsearch data streams, an append-only structure in Elasticsearch. You can customize how long synthetics data is stored by creating your own index lifecycle policy and attaching it to the relevant custom Component Template in Stack Management.

In the Data retention tab, use the links to jump to the relevant policy for each data stream. Learn more about the data included in each data stream in Manage data retention.

Project API keys are used to push monitors created and managed in a Synthetics project remotely from a CLI or CD pipeline.

In the Project API keys tab, you can generate API keys to use with your Synthetics project. Learn more about using API keys in Create monitors with a Synthetics project.