AppDynamics Dashboard Integrations

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Features

  • You can configure Zebrium to automatically add Root Cause (RCA) reports as Monitor Events in AppDynamics. This allows you to see the details of root cause on any AppDynamics dashboard.
  • Each Zebrium RCA report includes a summary, a word cloud, and a set of log events showing symptoms and root cause, plus a link to the full report in the Zebrium user interface.
  • This means faster Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) and less time manually hunting for root cause.

How It Works

The recommended mode of operation for observability dashboard integrations is to use the Zebrium Auto-Detect mode as an accurate mechanism for explaining the reason something went wrong. In this mode, you continue to use your existing rules, alerts and metrics as the primary source of problem detection. You can then review Zebrium RCA report findings directly in your AppDynamics Dashboards, alongside other metrics to explain the reason behind problems you were alerted on.

The Zebrium Augment mode is useful when you have Health Rule Violation or Anomaly-based Policy triggers defined in AppDynamics, and you want a Root Cause report automatically generated at the time of the alert. In this mode, Zebrium uses an AppDynamics webhook as a notification channel, and it updates your Dashboard with Root Cause reports that coincide with the triggering monitor so the reports are immediately visible to you as you work the issue.

The two modes of operation are independent. You can configure Auto-Detect and/or Augment modes depending on your operational use case.

Auto-Detect (Recommended): Send Root Cause Suggestions to your AppDynamics Dashboards

  1. Zebrium continuously monitors all application logs and uses unsupervised machine learning to find anomalous log patterns that indicate a problem. These are automatically turned into Root Cause reports that highlight details of any problems, with over 95% accuracy.
  2. Root Cause report summaries are sent to AppDynamics using the event API, and Root Cause details are visible on your AppDynamics Dashboards.
  3. With a single click on your Dashboard, you can drill down further into the Zebrium user interface to look at correlated logs across your entire application.

For details, see Sending Root Cause Detections to AppDynamics Dashboards.

Augment (Advanced Users): Receive Signals from AppDynamics Health Rule Violations

  1. Any AppDynamics Health Rule Violation or Anomaly-based Policy can trigger a webhook request for Root Cause Analysis from Zebrium.
  2. Zebrium finds anomalous log patterns from your application that coincide with the event and creates a Root Cause report.
  3. Root Cause report summaries are sent to AppDynamics using the event API, and Root Cause details are visible on your AppDynamics Dashboards.
  4. With a single click on your Dashboard, you can drill down further into the Zebrium user interface to look at correlated logs across your entire application.

For details, see Receiving Signals from AppDynamics Health Rule Violations.

Sending Root Cause Detections to AppDynamics Dashboards

STEP 1: Configure API Access for Creating Root Cause Reports as Monitor Events

To configure API Access:

  1. In the AppDynamics user interface, click the gear icon and select Administration.
  2. On the API Clients tab, click Create.
  3. Enter a Client Name and make a note of that name for later use when configuring Zebrium.
  4. Enter a Description.
  5. Generate a Secret and make a note of the secret for later use when configuring Zebrium.
  6. Add minimum Roles required to create a Monitor Event.
  7. Click Save.

STEP 2: Create an AppDynamics Integration in Zebrium to Send Detections to AppDynamics

The following prerequisites are needed for the Zebrium configuration:

  • Controller URL for the application being monitored, from the My AppDynamics Accounts page.
  • Account Name from the My AppDynamics Accounts page.
  • Application ID for the application being monitored. You can find this number in your browser URL when viewing the Application.
  • API Client Name from step 3, above.
  • Client Secret from step 5, above.

To create the AppDynamics integration in Zebrium:

  1. In the Zebrium user interface, go to the Integrations & Collectors page (Settings () > Integrations & Collectors).
  2. In the Observability Dashboards section, click the AppDynamics button.
  3. Click Create a New Integration button. The Create AppDynamics Dashboard dialog appears.
  4. On the General tab, enter an Integration Name for this integration.
  5. In the Deployment drop-down, select a deployment for the integration.
  6. In the Service Group(s) drop-down, select a service group for the integration.
  7. On the Send Detections tab, click Enabled.
  8. In the remaining fields, enter all of the information listed above in the Prerequisites.
  9. Click Save.

Receiving Signals from AppDynamics Health Rule Violations

STEP 1: Configure API Access for Creating Root Cause Reports as Monitor Events

To configure API Access:

  1. In the AppDynamics user interface, click the gear icon and select Administration.
  2. On the API Clients tab, click Create.
  3. Enter a Client Name and make a note of that name for later use when configuring Zebrium.
  4. Enter a Description.
  5. Generate a Secret and make a note of the secret for later use when configuring Zebrium.
  6. Add minimum Roles required to create a Monitor Event.
  7. Click Save.

STEP 2: Create an AppDynamics Integration in Zebrium to Receive Signals from AppDynamics

Prerequisites needed for Zebrium configuration:

The following prerequisites are needed for the Zebrium configuration:

  • Controller URL for the application being monitored, from the My AppDynamics Accounts page.
  • Account Name from the My AppDynamics Accounts page.
  • Application ID for the application being monitored. You can find this number in your browser URL when viewing the Application.
  • API Client Name from step 3, above.
  • Client Secret from step 5, above.

To create the AppDynamics integration in Zebrium:

  1. In the Zebrium user interface, go to the Integrations & Collectors page (Settings () > Integrations & Collectors).
  2. In the Observability Dashboards section, click the AppDynamics button.
  3. Click Create a New Integration button. The Create AppDynamics Dashboard dialog appears.
  4. On the General tab, enter an Integration Name for this integration.
  5. In the Deployment drop-down, select a deployment for the integration.
  6. In the Service Group(s) drop-down, select a service group for the integration.
  7. On the Receive Signals tab, click Enabled. You might need to save the integration and then edit it to see this tab.
  8. In the remaining fields, enter all of the information listed above in the Prerequisites.
  9. Click Save.
  10. Copy the Webhook URL and make a note of it for the next procedure.
  11. Click OK.

STEP 3: Create HTTP Request Template in AppDynamics to send Signals to Zebrium

  1. In the AppDynamics user interface, click the Alert & Respond tab at the top of the window.
  2. Click HTTP Request Templates from the navigation pane on the left side.
  3. Click New.
  4. Enter a Name for the template.
  5. Under Request URL, select POST as the method.
  6. Enter the Inbound Webhook URL from step 10 of the previous step.
  7. Select UTF-8 encoding.
  8. Under Authentication, select NONE as the type.
  9. Under Payload, select application/json as the MIME Type.
  10. Select UTF-8 as the Payload Encoding.
  11. In the Payload Text Box enter the following: { "event_time" : "${latestEvent.eventTime}", "event_type" : "zebrium" }
  12. Enter desired Response Handling Criteria and Settings.
  13. Click Test. A successful configuration will return: Response Status: 200 OK Response Payload: Processed signal: success.
  14. You can now create an Action to send an HTTP Request using the template you just created and use these Actions in your Health Rule Policies for your monitored application.