IBM C1000-189 - IBM Instana Observability v1.0.277 Administrator – Professional

According to the official IBM Instana Observability documentation (v1.0.304), retention policy settings in Custom Edition are NOT configured in a custom resource called "StorageConf." Instead, they are configured as properties within the CoreSpec of the Core custom resource. The documentation explicitly states: "Overwriting the default retention settings is optional and should only be done consciously. These retention setting values are configured as properties in the CoreSpec." The actual configuration looks like this:

text

kind: Core

metadata:

name: instana-core

namespace: instana-core

spec:

properties:

- name: retention.metrics.rollup5

value: "86400"

- name: config.appdata.shortterm.retention.days

value: "7"

- name: config.synthetics.retention.days

value: "60"

The retention policies for infrastructure metrics, application data, and synthetic monitoring are all configured as properties within the Core spec, not in a separate "StorageConf" custom resource. "StorageConf" refers to storage configurations for raw spans (S3, GCS, Azure), not retention policies.

According to the IBM Instana Observability documentation, an air-gapped installation is required when your environment is disconnected from the internet or has no access to external networks. The documentation states: "Air-gapped and restricted environments require deploying Instana without any connection to public repositories or backend services, assuring full isolation for compliance and regulatory requirements." The air-gapped setup ensures sensitive data or system configurations are never exposed outside the organization's internal trusted boundaries, making it mandatory for government, defense, or tightly regulated industries. Standard installation processes, including auto-update features and remote license verification, are replaced in air-gapped deployments with manual artifact and key management, as file transfers and package updates must be handled strictly within the controlled environment. The option described in B (high-speed internet) or D (unrestricted internal transfer) does not trigger air-gapping, while option A may require proxy or firewall configuration but is not entirely air-gapped unless full external access is blocked.

Instana triggers Issues and Incidents based on dynamic health signatures and custom metric thresholds established for .NET applications. The official documentation clarifies: "Issues are generated automatically when health signatures fail or when custom metric thresholds are breached for .NET sensors, indicating performance or reliability degradation." This includes transaction latency, error rates, resource exhaustion, or process failure detection. Health signatures are built-in, algorithmic checks using expected baselines and historical data. Custom thresholds may be established by users for business-specific metrics (e.g., request time or throughput), further enriching early warning detection. Offline sensors or regular maintenance only lead to downtime or muted alerts, not issues/incidents. User logins reflect authentication flow monitoring and do not prompt system-wide issues in Instana’s event model unless login failure ties to health impacts.

Enabling advanced features in Instana Self-Hosted Custom Edition requires administrators to add or adjust feature flags in the core configuration file, as per IBM's setup documentation. Specifically: "Feature enablement in Instana Self-Hosted Custom Edition is controlled via feature flags set in the core configuration file, allowing platform-wide updates at startup." Modifying deployment settings may affect resources or endpoints but does not toggle internal features. Unit-level configuration affects only specific microservices, not centralized capabilities. Restarting the backend is necessary after changing configuration but is not itself a feature-enabling action. The central core configuration file, located under the main configuration directory, contains comprehensive toggles for features spanning UI, backend, and data processing pipelines. Only changes made here and saved with appropriate syntax will activate platform features on next start or reload.

IBM's migration process for Instana specifies steps requisite for a successful transition from single-node to multi-node deployment. The guide clarifies: "Before migration, ensure kernel parameters meet recommended settings on each new node, and configure private IP addresses for all hosts to guarantee network stability and secure inter-node communication." Kernel parameter adjustment (C) involves tuning system limits and TCP behavior for high-availability performance. Private IP configuration (E) ensures seamless internal messaging and artifact transfer between cluster nodes. Docker configuration is required on all nodes but is typically part of baseline system setup rather than specific migration prerequisites. Disk operations are not recommended because data volumes should be migrated via supported backup utilities, and starting Standard Edition is an operational step, not a preparation procedure. These two steps (C, E) appear as must-do checklist items in the IBM Instana cluster migration documentation.

According to IBM Instana's integration documentation, webhook notifications support Basic Authentication by embedding the username and password into the URL as part of the standard format (https://user:password@hostname/path). The exact extract from IBM states: "For webhooks requiring basic authentication, username and password must be specified by prepending these values to the webhook hostname in the URL." This approach is supported by most HTTP libraries and ensures ease of integration with third-party endpoints. Instana also allows other advanced authentication mechanisms for webhooks, but this is the documented approach for standard Basic Auth scenarios. Additional header configuration (B) is possible but not required for basic authentication, and option D is incorrect as Basic Auth is explicitly supported (and documented). Limiting to only the Authorization header (C) oversimplifies the supported authentication workflows.

IBM Instana supports direct monitoring ofAWS Lambdavia serverless-specific agents that bridge trace, metric, and log data between Lambda executions and the Instana backend. The documentation specifies: "Instana's serverless agents enable tracing and monitoring of AWS Lambda functions—including cold start events, performance, and error metrics—correlating invocation traces with upstream and downstream services." Lambda is the only public cloud-native serverless runtime natively and fully integrated with Instana’s instrumentation and tracing. Azure Redis Cache, AWS Kinesis, and AWS SQS are data stores or message services, not supported for full serverless agent instrumentation (though they may be monitored via associated infrastructure and integration sensors). Instana’s Lambda agent is deployed as a Lambda layer or sidecar, delivering first-class observability for serverless architectures.

The IBM Instana Observability documentation clearly defines several operating modes for the host agent, with INFRASTRUCTURE mode dedicated exclusively to monitoring system-level performance data. The verified extract states: "INFRASTRUCTURE mode configures the host agent to monitor the underlying host metrics and activate sensors for the technologies running on that host without tracing application-level transactions." It collects CPU, memory, disk, network metrics, and technology integrations like Docker or OS sensors while ignoring application instrumentation. This mode reduces overhead in environments that demand system observability without full APM tracing. APM mode, conversely, extends to application traces and requests. Cloud-specific modes such as AWS or ARM designate external monitoring integrations rather than agent behavior. INFRASTRUCTURE mode thus provides base telemetry visibility as per documented design and was verified in both formulations of the Instana agent guides (v1.0.277, v1.0.307).