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AppDynamics

The BigPanda AppDynamics integration sends code-level alerts from AppDynamics into correlated high-level incidents in BigPanda for better visibility and quicker remediation of production issues.

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Supported Versions

Type

Authentication Type

4.1+; On-Premise, Dedicated SaaS Deployments

Webhook

Bearer Token

Key Features

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.

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

👍

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.

Installing 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 correlation process.

Standard Tags

Tags

Description

application

Name of the business application

message

Summary of the notification. For example: health rules have been violated

severity

Severity of the alert in AppDynamics

incident

AppDynamics incident identifier

app dynamics_url

URL to the Controller UI in AppDynamics for this event

event_guid

Unique identifier for the AppDynamics event

appd_event_type

What type of event occurred

Options include: Health-rule or Error-event

affectedEntities

List 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

object

Concatenation of the business application, tier name, and node name

primary_property*

title

Concatenation of the business application, tier name, and node name, delimited by colons.
For Example “Application: Tier: Node”

notes

Notes 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

Tags

Description

health_rule

Name of the health rule that was violated

secondary_property*

incident_id

Name of the incident that was triggered

Error Event Tags

Tags

Description

error_name

Normalized name of the error that occurred

error_display_name

AppDynamics 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.

Uninstalling AppDynamics

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

Prerequisites

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.

Post-Requisites

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

Type

Action Script

Key Features

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

How It Works

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.

Installing the Action Script

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

Uninstalling 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 🎉

Updated 3 months ago

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