AppDynamics

Send monitoring events from AppDynamics to BigPanda.

Supported VersionsTypeAuthentication Type
up to v21; On-Premise, Dedicated SaaS Deployments

- For previous versions, an Action Script version of the integration is available.
WebhookOrg Bearer Token

The integration uses a custom HTTP action, policy, and template in AppDynamics. When an event occurs and a policy fires the action, AppDynamics sends an HTTP request to BigPanda as defined by the template. BigPanda then processes and correlates the alert data to create and maintain up-to-date incidents in BigPanda.

👍

The Open Integration Manager is available for use with AppDynamics. For more information, see the Open Integration Manager documentation.

👍

AppDynamics Version 2.0.0

The BigPanda AppDynamics integration has been upgraded!

  • The integration can receive all event types in AppDynamics, not just Health Rule Violations
  • Tags that do not match the normalizer will no longer be dropped, but can be included as additional tags
  • Events now support the inclusion of a note field
    If you previously had integrated with AppDynamics, you will need to update to the newest version to use the latest functionality.
  • For more information about the integration, see the BigPanda University App Dynamics Integration 2.0 Course.

Key Features

  • Is resource-efficient for the AppDynamics controller; reuses one server thread for all alerts
  • Uses the Custom HTTP action feature in AppDynamics alerts

Install the Integration

Administrators can install the integration by following the on-screen instructions in BigPanda.

AppDynamics Data Model

BigPanda normalizes alert data from AppDynamics into tags. You can use tag values to filter the incident feed and to define filter conditions for Environments. The primary and secondary properties are also used during the deduplication and correlation processes.

Standard Tags

TagsDescription
applicationName of the business application
messageSummary of the notification. For example: health rules have been violated
severitySeverity of the alert in AppDynamics
incidentAppDynamics incident identifier
app dynamics_urlURL to the Controller UI in AppDynamics for this event
event_guidUnique identifier for the AppDynamics event
appd_event_typeWhat type of event occurred

Options include: Health-rule or Error-event
affectedEntitiesList of the affected entities

This integration supports 4 types of entities: Application, Node, Tier, and Business Transaction.

For entities not already mapped to existing tags, BigPanda adds name and ID tags for the entity
objectConcatenation of the business application, tier name, and node name

primary_property*
titleConcatenation of the business application, tier name, and node name, delimited by colons.
For Example “Application: Tier: Node”
notesNotes describing the event that was triggered

The BigPanda AppDynamics integration files events into one of two classifications: Health Rule events and Error events. These classifications have tags that are specific to that type of event.

Health Rule Tags

TagsDescription
health_ruleName of the health rule that was violated

secondary_property*
incident_idName of the incident that was triggered

Error Event Tags

TagsDescription
error_nameNormalized name of the error that occurred
error_display_nameAppDynamics display name for the error that occurred.

secondary_property*

Custom Tags

The AppDynamics alert allows you to add extra fields, to be included as tags on the BigPanda alert. If you wish to add a tag not included in the above list, add the tag to the HTTP request template and update the include_fields list to include the field. For a list of variables that can be used in the AppDynamics HTTP request template, please consult the Predefined Templating Variables section of the AppDynamics documentation.

For more information on adding custom tags to the final BigPanda alert, please see the in-app AppDynamics integration documentation.

Uninstall AppDynamics

You must delete the BigPanda action, policy, and template from AppDynamics to stop sending alerts to BigPanda via the AppDynamics Webhook integration.

Before You Start

Manually resolve any open incidents related to the integration to remove them from your incident feed. Optionally, remove any additional data in BigPanda. For example, modify or remove any Environments or AutoShare rules that reference the integration.

Procedure

  1. Log in to your AppDynamics controller.
  2. Go to Actions.
  3. Delete the BigPandaAlert action.
  4. Go to Application > Alert & Respond > Policies.
  5. Delete the BigPanda policy.
  6. Go to Alert & Respond > HTTP Request Templates.
  7. Click Delete beside the BigPandaAlertTemplate row.

After Uninstalling

Delete the Integration in BigPanda to remove the AppDynamics integration from your UI.

Action Script Version

For versions prior to AppDynamics 4.1, use this version of the BigPanda integration.

Supported Versions.8, 4.x; On-premise, dedicated SaaS Deployments

For versions 4.1 and up, the Webhook version of the integration is recommended
TypeAction Script

The integration uses a custom action script, custom.xml file, policy, and action in AppDynamics. Configuring this integration installs a custom action script and custom.xml file on the Controller. When an event occurs and a policy fires the action, AppDynamics sends information to BigPanda as described in the custom action script and custom.xml file. BigPanda then processes and correlates the alert data from AppDynamics to create and maintain up-to-date incidents in BigPanda.

Key Features

  • Uses one thread per alert.
  • Uses the custom action script feature.

Install the Action Script

Administrators can install the integration by following the on-screen instructions in BigPanda.

Uninstall the Action Script

If you previously installed the action script version of the integration, you can remove the BigPanda custom action from your AppDynamics instance to stop sending alerts to BigPanda.

  1. For every application you have configured in AppDynamics:
    a. Go to Application > Alert & Respond > Policies.
    b. Remove the BigPanda policy.
  2. For every application you have configured in AppDynamics:
    a. Go to Application > Alert & Respond > Actions.
    b. Remove the BigPandaAlert custom action.
  3. Edit <CONTROLLER INSTALL ROOT>/custom/actions/custom.xml and remove these lines:

<action> <type>bigpanda-alert</type> <executable>bigpanda_alert.py</executable> </action>

  1. Remove the directory: <CONTROLLER INSTALL ROOT>/custom/actions/bigpanda-alert.

❗️

The bigpanda-alert option remains in the custom actions list until the next time it reloads.

Release Notes

v2.0.0 (10/12/21)

  • Error alert types now included
  • Note Field Added
  • Additional Tags Included

v1.0.0

  • Initial release 🎉