Tracing HTTP(S) Communications Issued by Sitecore

Tracing HTTP(S) Communications Issued by Sitecore

This is for:

Developer System Administrator

Sometimes, it’s very handy to monitor the outgoing traffic from a Sitecore instance to various other services, such as the Admin Service or Coveo Cloud.

This article explains how to use Fiddler for this purpose.

Step 1: Configure Fiddler as the Proxy

1. Enable HTTPS decryption.
   1. In Fiddler menu, select Tools > Fiddler Options.
   2. Select the HTTPS tab.
   3. Check the Capture HTTPS CONNECTs checkbox.

   4. Check the Decrypt HTTPS traffic checkbox.

      

   5. When prompted, authorize the Fiddler certificate.
   6. Close the dialog.

2. (Optional) You can enable filters to only monitor calls made to specific hosts.

   When using Coveo for Sitecore in an on-premises environment, don’t use filters. In this case, ignore the following  sub-steps and jump to Step 2: Configure Sitecore to Use the Proxy

   1. Select the Filters tab on the right-hand part of the screen.
   2. Check the Use Filters checkbox.

   3. In the Hosts section.

      

      1. Set the first dropdown menu to No Zone Filter.
      2. Set the second dropdown menu to Show only the following Hosts.

      3. In the text area, enter the following host names. For example, to monitor calls made to Coveo Cloud, use these host names:

         • platform.cloud.coveo.com
         • push.cloud.coveo.com
         • s3.amazonaws.com

      4. Click the Changes not yet saved label to apply the changes.

         

Step 2: Configure Sitecore to Use the Proxy

1. Edit the Sitecore web.config file.

2. Add the following XML snippet as a peer to the existing system.net element.

    <system.net>
      <defaultProxy enabled = "true" useDefaultCredentials = "true">
        <proxy autoDetect="false" bypassonlocal="false" proxyaddress="http://127.0.0.1:8888" usesystemdefault="false" />
      </defaultProxy>
    </system.net>
   

3. Save the web.config file.
4. Recycle the Application Pool.

Step 3: Capturing the Traffic

1. Ensure that Fiddler is capturing traffic. Look at the capture indicator at the lower-left corner of the window. Use the F12 key to toggle capture.

   

2. In Sitecore, perform the action you want to monitor.
3. As the task progresses, you should see the network traces appear in Fiddler.
4. Once the task completes, save all the Fiddler sessions as a .saz file.