Observability overview: RUM, replay, APM and ingest
Noxtica observability shows what happens in your visitors’ browsers: performance, errors, console output, recorded sessions and behavior. Separate ingestion keys cover your own backend. This page maps each tool to what it measures, the Backoffice page that shows it, what you install and the gates it passes. The rest of the section has one page per tool.
What it is
Availability: session replay and real user monitoring have Controlled availability. APM has In development. The other tools on this page have no separate label: availability depends on your plan, role and the modules enabled for your organisation. Every tool runs when enabled for your organisation and is off for a domain until you switch it on.
The browser tools
| Tool | What it measures | Read it in Backoffice | Switch it on in Backoffice | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real user monitoring | Web Vitals, navigation timings, page views, error counts, SDK health | Session Insights → RUM & APM → Client RUM | Web Analytics & Privacy → Consent & Privacy and RUM Collection, then a per-domain sample rate | RUM |
| Error detail | Redacted error occurrences, grouped, with stack frames | Session Insights → Issues → Errors | Web Analytics & Privacy → Tracking Allowlists → RUM trace controls | Errors |
| Console logs | Masked browser console lines | Client RUM → Console logs | Web Analytics & Privacy → Capture Policies | Errors |
| Source maps | Original file, line and name for a stack frame | Issues → stack trace | An upload from your build | Errors |
| Session replay | Masked recordings you can play back, and Live Assist | Session Insights → Session Replay | Privacy & Legal → Legal Basis Register, Web Analytics & Privacy → Capture Policies | Replay |
| Behavior analytics | Clicks, scroll depth, page-to-page paths, conversion steps | Session Insights → Behavior Analytics, Heatmaps, Journeys, Funnels | Administration → Domains → Configuration → Tracker policy | Behavior |
| Events, tags and tracing | App events, session tags, hashed identity, trace headers | Behavior Analytics, replay timeline | Web Analytics & Privacy → Tracking Allowlists | Events |
Heatmaps, journeys and funnels sit under Behavior Analytics in the sidebar. The page called Behavior Analytics is the runtime tracker.
How data flows
- The core script loads on the page and gets a short-lived token and the domain’s signed policy from the collector host. Clients refresh the token about every 5 minutes, so a policy change can take a few minutes to reach visitors.
- The extensions script starts the lanes that the policy and the visitor’s consent allow.
- Each lane sends to the ingest host. The collector checks consent, Do Not Track, Global Privacy Control and the domain policy again on its side, and it discards what the checks refuse.
- Backoffice reads the stored data under the signed-in user’s role and tenant scope.
What you install in the browser
| Piece | Needed for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Core script | Everything | Loads the extensions. On its own it never sends RUM, replay or tracker data. |
| Extensions script | RUM, error detail, console logs, replay, tracker, heatmaps, journeys | Load it after consent, or switch on Auto-load extensions in Script & Consent. |
| Recorder head | Replay from the start of the page | Optional. A small synchronous script that must run before every other script in <head>. |
| Content Security Policy | All of the above | Allow the collector host collect.noxtica.com and the ingest host ingest.noxtica.com in connect-src, and 'wasm-unsafe-eval' in script-src. |
Telemetry goes to the ingest host and fails over to the collector once, then stays there. A policy that allows one of the two hosts and not the other breaks part of the traffic. See Install & Browser Runtime and Content Security Policy, hosts and relay.
Backend traces, metrics and logs use separate ingestion keys and are not covered by the site key. See APM and the ingestion service (OTLP).
Consent and legal-basis gates
| Tool | Visitor consent category | Record in Backoffice | Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| RUM, error detail, console logs | analytics | A per-domain privacy decision in Consent & Privacy | Honor, or a documented override with a legal basis |
| Session replay | replay | A replay legal basis in the Legal Basis Register, plus the replay policy | Honor, or a documented override |
| Behavior analytics and app events | analytics | The domain’s tracker switches | Honor when the domain policy is Honor |
| Live Assist | Its own consent, asked of the visitor | A replay policy, and the feature enabled for your organisation | See the replay guide |
The consent categories apply in consent-gated modes (api and cookie). See Consent modes, GPC and Google Consent Mode. Legal text is on the Privacy and Cookies pages. The decisions you record are your organisation’s own: Noxtica does not make them for you.
Prerequisites
- Roles. Reading Client RUM, Issues and Behavior Analytics needs the Viewer role or higher. Listing replay sessions needs the Analyst role. Switching tools on, and the capture policies, need the Admin role and a fresh step-up verification. Replay playback needs a separate replay-payload permission.
- Browser. The core script is installed and the page allows the hosts above.
- Privacy owner. Someone who can record a legal basis for your organisation. For replay this is a tenant administrator.
- Flags. Each tool runs when enabled for your organisation. Where a switch is a Noxtica operator action, the tool’s page says so.
Steps
1. Install the browser pieces
Backoffice → Integrations & API → Script & Consent → Snippets prints the tags with your site key and hosts filled in. Add the recorder head if you use replay. Load the extensions after consent, or switch on Load the extensions script automatically for the domain.
2. Decide consent and legal basis
Write down, per domain, which categories your banner grants for each tool, and who records the legal basis. Use the table above. Start with the tightest settings you can live with: strict masking, a low sample rate, and capture off for tools you do not need.
3. Switch each tool on
Follow the guide for the tool in the browser tools table. Each guide lists the exact Backoffice path, the roles it needs and the limits it enforces.
4. Confirm data arrives
Open the page named in the browser tools table. Client RUM, Session Replay, Heatmaps and Funnels name the missing switch when they are empty, so the empty state is the quickest diagnosis.
5. Review retention, usage and deletion
- Backoffice → Web Analytics & Privacy → RUM Data Lifecycle lists what each lane stores and its retention. It offers a permanent purge for console logs, error details and replay. Base RUM counters are platform-managed and have no purge control.
- Replay retention is set in the replay policy. Error-detail retention is set in RUM Data Lifecycle. Both accept 1 to 90 days and start at 7 days on every package. Error details, console log lines and APM data are held in the analytics warehouse, which removes them after 7 days, so a longer setting does not keep them longer.
- Backoffice → Billing & Plan → Usage & Quotas shows metered usage. See Usage, quotas and metering.
- For requests about a person, see Data subject scope, erasure requests and account deletion.
Verify it works
| Tool | What you see when it works |
|---|---|
| RUM | Client RUM shows Total samples and an LCP value for the domain |
| Error detail | Issues → Errors lists a group after a test error |
| Console logs | Client RUM → Console logs lists masked lines |
| Replay | Session Replay → Install & status shows Armed, and Sessions lists a playable session |
| Behavior analytics | Behavior Analytics shows non-zero Total events and a session count |
| Tracing | A request to an allow-listed origin carries a traceparent header |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Every page is empty | The extensions script does not load, consent is not granted, or the Content Security Policy blocks the ingest host. | Check the install, the consent state and connect-src. |
| Client RUM capture is off or No domain is sampling RUM | The workspace switch is off, or every domain sample rate is 0. | See RUM. |
| Session replay has never been armed or Recording is off for every domain | No active replay legal basis, or no enabled policy. | See Replay. |
| Heatmap collection is off | Tracker, Browser interactions or Heatmaps is off for the domain. | See Behavior. |
| No runtime errors | Error detail is off, or a gate is closed. | See Errors. |
| An event or tag is missing | Its name or key is not on the allow-list. | See Events. |
| A switch is not editable for your role | The control is an operator action or needs the Admin role. | Ask your account team or an administrator. |
Related
- Real user monitoring and Web Vitals — Web Vitals, sample rate and the Client RUM page.
- Browser errors, console logs and source maps — error capture and symbolication.
- Session replay: setup, masking and playback — legal basis, masking and playback.
- Custom events, session tags and request tracing — events, tags, identity and trace headers.
- Behavior analytics: heatmaps, journeys and funnels — the tracker and its views.
- APM and the ingestion service (OTLP) — backend telemetry.
- Uptime checks, alerts, status reports and the status page — alerts on the metrics above.
- Browser SDK troubleshooting — script and consent problems.