Cisco 500-425 - Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator (CAAA)

The custom dashboard feature in AppDynamics allows you to display a specific set of metrics and data points on one screen. You can use custom dashboards to present selected metrics for a user who only needs a relatively narrow or focused view of the data. You can also share custom dashboards with other users and stakeholders.

According to the [Custom Dashboards - AppDynamics], some of the advantages of the custom dashboard feature are:

It makes drill down across tiers seamless: You can use the grid layout type to create a flexible layout that is easy to rearrange on the canvas. The grid layout also scales in size when viewed on mobile devices. You can also use the absolute layout type to control width and height and the exact placement of widgets on the canvas.

It monitors metrics of interest: You can add widgets from various categories, such as application, server, database, performance, events, and so on. You can also customize the widget properties panel to configure the widget settings, such as title, description, color scheme, time range, auto-refresh interval, and so on.

It schedules dashboard as a report: You can export your custom dashboard as a PDF or HTML report that you can send by email or save as a file. You can also schedule your custom dashboard to run periodically using cron expressions.

Therefore, A (It makes drill down across tiers seamless), C (It monitors metrics of interest), and E (It schedules dashboard as a report) are three advantages of the custom dashboard feature. References:

[Custom Dashboards - AppDynamics]

[Create and Manage Custom Dashboards and Templates - AppDynamics]

Custom Dashboard Permissions - docs.appdynamics.com

When creating a Health Rule condition, you can use baselines instead of defining a specific threshold for some metrics. Baselines are the dynamic values that represent the normal or expected behavior of a metric, based on the historical data collected by the AppDynamics Cognition Engine. Using baselines can help you account for the variations and seasonality of your application performance, and avoid false positives or negatives. You can use baselines for metrics that have a non-zero average value and a meaningful deviation, such as the overall average response time of a business transaction or an expression containing multiple metrics. You cannot use baselines for metrics that have a zero average value or a negligible deviation, such as the Business Transaction errors per minute or the calls per millisecond.https://www.appdynamics.com/product/how-it-works/application-performance-baseline

https://developer.cisco.com/docs/appdynamics/health-rules/

A data collector is used to capture application data in a single business transaction. A data collector is a configuration that specifies what data to capture from a business transaction and how to store it in the AppDynamics Controller or the analytics platform. You can capture data from HTTP requests, method invocations, custom fields, or information points. You can also apply filters and transformations to the captured data. The captured data can be used for various purposes, such as adding context to business transactions, creating custom metrics, triggering health rules, enriching transaction analytics, or creating business journeys.https://university.appdynamics.com/certifications/associate-administrator

https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/22.x/latest/en/application-monitoring/business-transactions

Snapshots are the detailed records of the execution of a business transaction, including the call stack, the exit points, the errors, and the metrics. To locate snapshots showing slow database response, you can use the following methods:

Go to the list of snapshots and apply a filter based on slow database response: You can access the list of snapshots from the Business Transaction Dashboard or the Tier Dashboard. You can then apply a filter to show only the snapshots that have a slow database response time, which is the time spent by the business transaction in calling the database. You can specify the minimum and maximum values for the slow database response time, or use the predefined options such as slower than 1 second, slower than 5 seconds, etc. You can also combine this filter with other filters, such as time range, business transaction name, tier name, node name, etc. to narrow down the results1.

From the flow map, right-click the database icon and select view snapshots: You can access the flow map from the Application Dashboard, the Business Transaction Dashboard, or the Tier Dashboard. The flow map shows the graphical representation of the flow of the business transactions, including the tiers, the nodes, the backends, and the remote services. You can right-click on any database icon on the flow map and select view snapshots to see the list of snapshots that have called that database. You can then sort or filter the snapshots by the database response time column to find the slowest ones2.

The other options are not valid methods to locate snapshots showing slow database response. Going to the dashboard for the database and selecting slowest database calls will show the metrics and the flow map for the database, but not the snapshots. Going to the list of snapshots and selecting analyze for a group of snapshots will show the summary and the comparison of the selected snapshots, but not the database response time.

https://community.appdynamics.com/t5/Share-a-tip/Snapshots-and-identifying-intermittent-issues/td-p/42896

Infrastructure monitoring is the feature in AppDynamics that allows you to monitor and troubleshoot the health and availability of the servers that host your applications and their components. Infrastructure monitoring includes metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, network traffic, and so on. You can use infrastructure monitoring to detect and resolve the problems that affect the performance and reliability of your servers and applications.

According to the Server Visibility - AppDynamics, the following kind of problem is detected with infrastructure monitoring:

Process level problems: These are the problems that occur at the process level of the server, such as high CPU consumption, memory leaks, excessive disk I/O, or network congestion. You can use infrastructure monitoring to identify the processes that are consuming the most resources, and drill down to the details of each process, such as the command line, the environment variables, the open files, the threads, and the sockets. You can also use infrastructure monitoring to correlate the process level problems with the application performance problems, such as slow response time, high error rate, or low throughput.

Therefore, E (process level problems) is the correct answer. References:

Server Visibility - AppDynamics

Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification

Server Monitoring - AppDynamics

To find the information that shows the current application, tier, and node that the agent currently reports to, you can go to View my settings > AppDynamics Agents section in the Controller UI. This section shows you the list of agents that are connected to the Controller, along with their status, version, application, tier, and node names. You can also filter the list by agent type, status, or application1 References: 1: AppDynamics Agents

The UniqueHostID agent property is recommended to be used when the machine agent is with multiple app agents on the same machine or when the machine agent is with an app agent on the same machine. This property allows you to specify a unique identifier for the host machine that overrides the default hostname resolution. This helps to avoid conflicts or confusion when multiple agents are running on the same host or when the hostname is not consistent across different agents1 References: 1: How are you able to associate the machine agent with application

When you assign users to a group in AppDynamics, you can manage their permissions and access levels more easily. A group is a collection of users who share the same roles and privileges. A role is a set of permissions that define what actions a user can perform on the Controller UI or the Events Service.

According to the System Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager - User Management, the following statement is true about assigning users to a group:

When you add a role to a group, every user in the group is assigned that role: This means that the users in the group inherit the permissions of the role that you add to the group. For example, if you add the Administrator role to a group, then all the users in that group can perform administrative tasks on the Controller UI or the Events Service.

The other statements are false because:

When you assign a user to a group, they can only have the roles assigned to that group: This is not true because a user can belong to multiple groups and have multiple roles. For example, a user can be in both the Administrator and the Operator groups and have the permissions of both roles.

You can list all users in a group that are logged into AppDynamics: This is not true because there is no such feature in AppDynamics that allows you to see thelogin status of the users in a group. You can only see the list of users and groups in the User Management page of the Controller UI or the Events Service.

When the user logs in they can log in with the group credentials: This is not true because a user cannot log in with the group credentials. A user can only log in with their own username and password. The group credentials are not used for authentication, but for authorization.

Therefore, D (When you add a role to a group, every user in the group is assigned that role) is the correct answer. References:

System Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager - User Management

Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification

User Management - AppDynamics

The Database Collector’s Hardware Monitoring configuration allows you to enable the Database Agent to monitor the server hardware in addition to the database. You can choose from the following operating systems: Linux, Windows, and Solaris1 You need to provide the credentials and the connection details for the server that hosts the database1 References: 1: Configure the Database Agent to Monitor Server Hardware