Cisco 500-430 - Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer(CAPI)

The AppDynamics Rest API allows you to retrieve information and perform operations on the AppDynamics platform using HTTP requests. To retrieve all AppDynamics business applications from an AppDynamics Controller using the AppDynamics Rest API, you need to use the following URL format:

http(s)://:/controller/rest/applications

This URL returns the business application names and internal numeric identifiers for all the applications that are monitored by the Controller. You can use the application name or ID as a parameter for other API methods that require the application context. You can also specify the output format as XML (default) or JSON by adding the output query parameter. For example:

http(s)://:/controller/rest/applications?output=JSON

This URL returns the same information as the previous one, but in JSON format. You can also filter the applications by their status (alive or not) by adding the time-range-type query parameter. For example:

http(s)://:/controller/rest/applications?time-range-type=BEFORE_NOW&duration-in-mins=60

This URL returns only the applications that are alive in the last 60 minutes. An alive application is an application with at least one node that submits at least one metric to the Controller in the provided time range12. References: Application Model API, Metric and Snapshot API

In a split-host configuration, where the EUM Server and Controller are on separate hosts, the EUM Server requires access to the Controller primary HTTP(s) port. This is because the EUM Server needs to communicate with the Controller API server to send data and receive configuration information. The default primary HTTP port for the Controller is 8090 and the default primary HTTPS port is 81811. The dedicated EUM HTTP(s) ports are used by the EUM agents to send data to the EUM Server, not by the EUM Server to access the Controller2. The GlassFish administration port is used to access the Controller Admin Console, not by the EUM Server3. The Controller database port is used by the Controller to connect to the MySQL database, not by the EUM Server4. References: Controller Port Settings, Configure the Port for the EUM Agent, Access the Administration Console, Controller System Requirements

Before installing an AppDynamics Controller on Linux, you need to perform some preparatory tasks to ensure the system meets the requirements and the installation runs smoothly. Two of these tasks are:

Install libaio on the host machine if it does not already have it installed. This library facilitates asynchronous I/O operations on the system, which are required by the Controller. You can use the package manager of your Linux distribution to install libaio, such as yum or apt-get. For example, on CentOS, you can run yum install libaio1.

Verify that you have enough temporary (tmp) space available on the system, at least 1 GB. The Controller installation uses the tmp space to extract and install the software components. You can check the tmp space by running df -h /tmp2. If the tmp space is insufficient, you can either free up some space by deleting unnecessary files, or specify a different temporary directory for the installation by passing the -Djava.io.tmpdir parameter to the installer3.

Other preparatory tasks include verifying the user account permissions, configuring the virus scanners, installing the netstat network utility, and setting the file descriptor limit2. References: Prepare Linux for the Controller, Install the Controller on Linux, and [Controller System Requirements] in the AppDynamics documentation.

The default configuration of the Mobile SDK enables crash reports and network requests12. Crash reports capture and report any unhandled exceptions or signals that cause the app to terminate abnormally1. Network requests monitor the performance and errors of HTTP and HTTPS requests made by the app2. These features are enabled by default and do not require any additional code or configuration to work12. References: Crash Reports, Network Requests

The REST query that could be used to verify the availability of an AppDynamics Controller is1:

http:// :/controller/rest/ping

This query returns a simple text response of “pong” if the Controller is up and running, or an error message if the Controller is down or unreachable1. This query does not require any authentication or parameters, and can be used as a quick and easy way to check the Controller status1. References: Ping the Controller

The AppDynamics Controller Admin Console lets you configure certain global settings for the Controller, such as metric retention periods, UI notification triggers, tenancy mode, and accounts in multi-tenancy mode1. Two of the settings that an administrator can configure from the AppDynamics Controller Admin Console are:

License allocation: This setting allows you to view and manage the license usage and availability for your Controller. You can see the total number of licenses, the number of licenses in use, the number of licenses available, and the license expiration date for each agent type. You can also allocate licenses to specific applications or accounts, and set license limits and alerts2.

Retention periods: This setting allows you to specify how long the Controller retains the metric data and the event data for your monitored applications. You can configure the retention periods for different types of data, such as minute-level metrics, hour-level metrics, day-level metrics, transaction snapshots, and events. You can also configure the data purge schedule and the data backup schedule3.

References: Access the Administration Console, License Rules, Data Retention

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the correct method to perform a NET Agent upgrade is to perform the agent upgrade on the application server host by running the MSI Installer Package12. This method will install updated agent files and maintain legacy configurations. You do not need to uninstall the old agent first when you upgrade from the NET Agent >= 3.9, except for patch releases. You need to stop IIS, instrumented Windows services, and instrumented standalone applications before running the MSI Installer Package. You also need to launch an elevated command prompt with full administrator privileges and specify youraccount access key for single-tenant Controller accounts. After the installation, you need to restart Windows services and standalone applications.

The incorrect options are:

Perform the agent upgrade on a remote server host by using the AppDynamics Controller REST API. (B) This is not a valid method for upgrading the NET Agent, because the AppDynamics Controller REST API does not provide any endpoint for agent installation or upgrade. The REST API is mainly used for retrieving or updating configuration data, metrics, events, snapshots, and other information from the Controller3.

Perform the agent upgrade on the application server host by running the Agent Configuration Utility. © This is not a valid method for upgrading the NET Agent, because the Agent Configuration Utility is a tool for modifying the agent configuration after installation, not for installing or upgrading the agent. The Agent Configuration Utility allows you to change the Controller connection settings, the agent logging level, the proxy settings, and other advanced options4.

Perform the agent upgrade via the AppDynamics Controller UI. (D) This is not a valid method for upgrading the NET Agent, because the AppDynamics Controller UI does not provide any feature for agent installation or upgrade. The Controller UI is mainly used for monitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting the performance of the applications, business transactions, tiers, nodes, and other entities that are instrumented by the agents5.

References:

1: Upgrade the .NET Agent for Windows - AppDynamics

2: Release Upgrade Checklist for .NET Agents - AppDynamics

3: REST API - AppDynamics

4: Configure the .NET Agent - AppDynamics

5: AppDynamics Application Performance Monitoring Platform - AppDynamics

To prepare a Linux environment for the installation of an AppDynamics Controller with a Large performance profile, which is suitable for monitoring up to 1000 agents, you need to perform the following steps:

Install libaio on the host machine if it does not already have it installed. This library facilitates asynchronous I/O operations on the system, which are required by the Controller. You can use the package manager of your Linux distribution to install libaio, such as yum or apt-get. For example, on CentOS, you can run yum install libaio1.

Verify the open file descriptor limit on the system. The file descriptor limit determines how many files a process can open at a time. The Controller requires a high file descriptor limit to handle the large number of connections and transactions. AppDynamics recommends setting the file descriptor limit to at least 65535 for the user account that runs the Controller. You can check the current file descriptor limit by running ulimit -n and modify it by editing the /etc/security/limits.conf file2.

Verify the process limit on the system. The process limit determines how many processes a user can run at a time. The Controller requires a high process limit to handle the large number of threads and subprocesses. AppDynamics recommends setting the process limit to at least 65535 for the user account that runs the Controller. You can check the current process limit by running ulimit -u and modify it by editing the /etc/security/limits.conf file2.

Other steps that are not required but recommended for the Controller installation are verifying the user account permissions, configuring the virus scanners, installing the netstat network utility, and setting the NUMA configuration2. You do not need to install MySQL or Java separately, as they are included in the Controller installation package3. References: Prepare Linux for the Controller, Install the Controller on Linux, and Controller System Requirements in the AppDynamics documentation.

To set up AppDynamics Controllers as a high availability pair, you need to meet the following requirements1:

Passwordless SSH must be configured between the two Controller servers. This allows the Enterprise Console to automate the configuration and administration tasks associated with a highly available deployment on Linux systems.

Both servers must have the Controller software installed prior to setting up high availability. The Controllers in an HA pair must be equivalent versions, and be in the same data center.

Both servers must have identical directory structures for the Controller installation. The individual machines in the Controller HA pair need to have an equivalent amount of disk space. References: Prerequisites for High Availability