Probe & test connection

Outcome

Before any production traffic flows to a partner, you have a clean probe result that confirms the transport, credentials, and basic identifier agreement work end to end — and you have a runnable health check you can re-trigger any time the partner reports an issue.

Prerequisites

A partner record with connection, credentials, and at least one capability set (2.1 through 2.4).

What Test connection does

The probe behavior depends on the connection type:

Step	What it confirms
TCP open	Network reachability + correct host/port.
TLS / SSH handshake	Crypto compatibility; certificate validity.
Auth	Credentials are accepted.
Capability check	A minimal protocol exchange (LIST for SFTP, encrypted ping for AS2, synthetic transaction for REAL_TIME).
Latency	Round-trip time recorded.

The probe never sends a real transaction. SFTP probes do not write or read claim files. AS2 probes do not deliver a real EDI payload. Real-time probes use a synthetic member designed to be rejected by every payer.

Steps

1. Open the partner detail → Connection tab → click Test connection.

2. Watch the result. The probe returns within 30 seconds with one of:

   Outcome	Display	Meaning
   Success	green check + latency	Probe completed cleanly.
   Auth failure	red auth_failed + raw error	Credentials wrong / expired.
   Network failure	red network_unreachable + raw error	Wrong host, port, or partner firewall.
   Protocol failure	red protocol_error + raw error	TLS / SSH / certificate issue.
   Timeout	amber timeout	Partner is slow or unreachable.

3. For real-time partners, inspect the synthetic 271. The Last probe panel shows the raw response. The AAA*N*… segment confirms the partner exists and is responding (rejecting our deliberately-bad test subscriber, exactly as expected).

4. Re-run the probe any time. It is safe to run during production traffic — it does not block, throttle, or interfere.

Scheduled health checks

The gateway can probe partners on a schedule and raise an issue when a probe fails:

1. On the partner detail → Connection tab, scroll to Scheduled probes.

2. Toggle on and pick a cadence (hourly, every 6h, daily). Hourly is the default for production-critical partners.

3. Set the alert recipient — usually a team distribution list. The issue is raised in the Issues queue and (if email is configured) sent to the recipient.

Steps to run an end-to-end test transaction

Test connection confirms the connection; an end-to-end test confirms the partner accepts our actual EDI shape:

1. Pick the simplest transaction type the partner supports. Most forgiving: real-time 270. Most informative for batch partners: a single-claim 837P with ISA15 = T (test envelope).

2. Submit through the normal path but with usageIndicator = T. The gateway honors the test indicator end-to-end — the partner returns acks and (for 270) a 271 with no real PHI lookup.

3. Open /transactions filtered to this partner. The test submission appears with the test indicator visible.

4. Walk the segment trace tab to confirm the envelope, names, and qualifiers all render as expected.

5. Watch for the ack chain — 999, 277CA (for claims), 271 (for eligibility). All should arrive within the partner's published SLA.

Validation

Check	Expected
Probe returns success on first try	Yes (99% of new onboardings).
Probe latency under 1s for SFTP, under 5s for AS2/REAL_TIME	Yes — anything higher warrants a partner-side check.
Test envelope (ISA15 = T) does not produce a member-charging adjudication	Yes — payers respect test envelopes.
Scheduled probe failure raises an issue	Yes — see Issues queue triage under Operations.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Probe succeeds but real transactions fail	Capability mismatch or routing rule mis-targets a different partner	Confirm capability set (2.4) and routing rules.
Probe sometimes fails, sometimes passes	Partner load-balancer routes to a stale backend	Open ticket with partner; in the interim, raise the scheduled probe cadence to detect quickly.
Probe always passes, real transactions always 999-rejected	Companion guide issue, not connection issue	Open the live preview on the bound guide; confirm the rules produce valid output.
Real-time probe fails with TLS error	Partner rotated their certificate	Refresh the trust store; if AS2, also refresh the partner certificate field.

Next

End of Trading Partners. The Eligibility section starts with 270 outbound — composing a request.