HP 7102dl - ProCurve Secure Router Configuration Manual page 449

Selecting the HTTP Request Type. You can choose from three types of
requests:
Get—An HTTP Get packet is the standard request sent to a Web server,
and this is the default probe type. Because the probe sends the same type
of request that a typical workstation would send, it is well-suited to testing
a Web server's actual performance. However, because the server returns
an entire response packet with all the data that it would send to a user
who actually wanted to view the Web page, this probe adds overhead to
the network.
Head—A head packet requests the same response as a Get packet, but
requests that the Web server send only the heading. Using this request
type makes the probe more courteous; the server is not forced to congest
the network with a large packet that the router does not really need to
see. This type is ideal for testing simple connectivity to the Web server
because it monitors the Web server's ability to return information,
although not the actual information returned. You can also monitor the
status for the response, as this status is included in the header.
Raw—Use the Raw type if you want to customize the request. (For the
purposes of monitoring routes, such customizing is rarely necessary.) You
must then enter HTTP commands to configure the probe to request
specific information from the server. (See "Configuring a Raw String of
HTTP Commands" on page 9-24).
To select the HTTP request type, from the network monitor probe configura-
tion mode context, enter:
Syntax: type [get | head | raw]
Requiring a Particular Status in the Web Server's Response. Some-
times, when you are monitoring an Web server, you want to know not just that
the server is up and connected, but also that it is successfully returning Web
pages to the users who request them. One way to verify this is to configure the
probe to make the success of a test depend on the status indicated in the HTTP
response header.
A Web server uses the status code to inform the HTTP client what type of
response it is sending. Ideally, the status indicates success, and the response
includes the Web page that the client has requested. But sometimes problems
arise, and the status code indicates the type of problem.
Table 9-2 lists the HTTP response status codes defined by RFC 2616.
Network Monitoring
Configuring Network Monitoring
9-21