DX ASM NOTIFICATION - The version of Chrome has changed in ASM v23.10

Products

• CA App Synthetic Monitor

Issue/Introduction

We have noticed that all our webdriver monitors have been reconfigured with "Chrome 110" as the browser, however we had initially configured them with "Chrome" without any version. 

Has this change done automatically by ASM Engine or SaaS Ops team? What is the meaning and reason of these changes?

 

Environment

DX ASM

Resolution

The version of Chrome has changed in ASM v23.10

 

With the 23.10 release we announced the chrome browser update, here is the link to the ASM release notes:
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/ca-enterprise-software/it-operations-management/app-synthetic-monitor/SaaS/getting-started/release-notes-and-information/october-2023-10.html 

"Fixed several zero day vulnerabilities in Google Chrome"

 

The update policy is as follows:

• we always keep the last 2 versions of both browsers (Chrome and Firefox) - the latest (see below for definition of "latest") and the previous one
• when we upgrade the browser (as part of the release) we add a new browser version which is the new "latest", mark the previous latest version as old by adding a version number, e.g. Chrome 110, and remove the previous old version
• during the release, all monitors using the "latest" version of the browser are automatically switched to use the same version by switching them to the new "old version". Thus, these monitors are running on the same version before and after the release. All monitors using the old version are configured to use the new latest version (because the old version was removed)
• customers have time till the next release to migrate their monitors to the new browser version. It can be done easily using a bulk action in the main menu, see below.

The reasons for this is scenario are

• preserve the browser version during release and to give customers time to migrate to new browser versions
• simulate the standard situation when browsers are updated very often, usually every month
• notify customers in case their scenarios stop working in new browsers

The "latest" in our case doesn't mean the latest version as the browsers are updated very often, usually monthly. We try to use new versions if it makes sense. In this case it was really important - several very severe (zero day) vulnerabilities were found in Chrome.

 

If a customer migrate to the Chrome 110 (which was the latest version before the release) the script would have been automatically re-configured to use that version after release. However, in the above example the monitor was using the old version and were switched to the latest version.

 

How to switch to the latest browser:

 

1) filter monitors running on old browser: use "browser:old" in the filter menu:

 

 

In the same they can search for "browser:latest"

2) select monitors to switch to the latest browser and select the corresponding bulk action "switch to the latest browser"      

 

Additional Information

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/ca-enterprise-software/it-operations-management/app-synthetic-monitor/SaaS/using.html