Introduction
AppDynamics is an Application Performance Management (APM) product. It is a tool that Monitors your Application Infrastructure and gives you code-level visibility. It is supported for all major technologies (Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, NoSQL, etc) and can be installed either as on-premise or SaaS (Software As a Service) solution.
A piece of software called Agent is installed in the Application to be monitored. The Agent collects the performance metrics and sends them to a Server process called Controller. Controller processes the metrics and presents them via a Web Browser. A monitoring analyst can configure Alerts and generate reports using the Web Interface.
The agent constantly monitors the application. Since it uses byte code instrumentation technology, Agent has hooks to every line of code. This is how AppDynamics is able to provide code level visibility. Agents are available for most of the popular technologies.
Business Use cases
In a complex micro service environment, users (cloud admins and developers) need the capability to trace the flow of business transactions across various runtimes/micro services. There are several tools in the market to accomplish this.
One such tool is AppDynamics (others are New Relic, Instana, etc).
In Cloud Deployment we mask all the complexities of our environment from the customers and take care of all infra maintenance activities on our own. Due to this, we have to provide capabilities (in UI) for our customers to set up and configure these external tools.
Doing so would add a lot of value to our customers.
Steps to Configure AppDynamics Agent in Cloud Deployment
1. Create a Trial Account
a) Open a web browser and provide below link
https://www.appdynamics.com/free-trial/
b) Provide Details and click on “Create A Free Account”
c) Users will receive an email with Instructions, SaaS URL and Account name.
2. Login to AppDynamics and Download the Agent file
a) Login and Navigate to Home-->Getting Started
b)Click on “Getting Started Wizard”
c)Click on “Java”
d)Click on “Click Here To Download” in “Download the Agent Installer” section to download the Agent Installer
e) Unzip the folder after download and copy the “Controller-info.xml “ file in one separate folder
f)Keep “controller-info.xml” and “app-agent-config.xml” files in a separate folder
Note: Sample files are attached.
g) Add Application name, Node Name and Tier name is Controller-info.xml file
Open the Controller-info file and add below Details:
1. Application Name: Application is the top level container in AppDynamics.
2. Node Name: A node is a monitored Server or JVM (or CLR). Typically the node corresponds to an individual Application Server (Physical or Virtual)
3. Tier Name: A tier is a logical grouping of nodes generally relating to a particular business function.
3. Enable Tracing with AppDynamics in cloud Deployment
a) Login to CloudDeployment Tenant and Create a solution (10.4 version and above)
b) Navigate to Solution->Manage->Landscape->AppIS(Integration Server) and Enable Tracing
c) Click on Browse and select “Controller-info.xml” and “app-agent-congig.xml” files
d) Click on “SAVE”
e)Confirm Update Popup will be shown, Click on Update and wait for the solution to come up
Start Monitoring your Solution
1.) Login to AppDynamics and verify created Application, Node, and Tier.
2) Verify Application Dashboard
3. Trigger some DB calls or other calls and verify in AppDynamics
controller-info.xml (8.28 KB)
app-agent-config.xml (36.1 KB)
AppDynamics Agent Configuration for Cloud Deployment.docx (1.73 MB)