Configuring AppDynamics Observer jobs

Using the AppDynamics Observer, you can define a full load job that will read data from the AppDynamics Controller via the REST API. This job can provide, for example, business applications, nodes, and tiers to Agile Service Manager.

Before you begin

Important: The AppDynamics Observer supports the cloud/SaaS AppDynamics version 4.5.12 and API version 4.5.x.

Ensure you have the AppDynamics details to hand, such as the instance, account, username and password before running the observer job.

The AppDynamics Observer is installed as part of the core installation procedure.

Tip: Before defining the observer load job, you must create an AppDynamics user with the correct permissions. This is required for REST API authentication.
  1. On the AppDynamics Administration page, click the gear icon (top right).
  2. Under the Admin group, select Administration, then select the Users tab.
  3. Select the AppDynamics option from the Display users drop-down list.
  4. Assign all available roles to the user by selecting Add from Roles > Select All > Done, then click Save.

About this task

The AppDynamics Observer imports ITSM Resource Topology Service data to Agile Service Manager.

You define and start the following job. You must edit the parameters in the configuration file before running this job.
Full Topology Upload job
By default, these jobs are one-off, transient jobs that perform a full upload of all requested topology data as soon as they are triggered.
You can also run these jobs (again) manually from the Observer UI, or schedule them to run at set times when configuring them.

Procedure

  1. On the Observer jobs page, perform one of the following actions:
    To edit an existing job
    Open the List of options overflow menu next to the job and click View & edit.
    To create a new job
    Click Add a new job + and select the AppDynamics Observer tile.
  2. Enter or edit the following parameters, then click Save to save your job and begin retrieving information.
    Table 1. AppDynamics Observer Load job parameters
    Parameter Action Details
    Unique ID Enter a unique name for the job. Required
    Instance Specify the AppDynamics Controller instance. Required
    Account Specify the Tenant account name. Required
    Username Specify the name of the user of the specified tenant account. Required
    Password Specify the password for the specified user. Required. Use plain text.
    SSL Verification Choose to use SSL validation or not. The options are 'true' or 'false'. Optional. The default is 'false', which uses HTTPS validation without hostname validation.
    Connection timeout Specify the connection timeout in milliseconds. Optional. Default is 5000 (5 seconds).
    Read timeout Specify the read timeout in milliseconds. Optional. Default is 5000 (5 seconds).
    Access scope

    Enter text to provide a scope for the resources.

    Access scope can help map alerts to resources when resources in different scopes share the same parameters, such as matchTokens.

    		 Optional.
    Tip: You can define access scope for locations, project names, namespaces, etc.
    Generate debug support file
    Set the optional Generate debug support file parameter to 'True' in order to capture the output of the next scheduled job run as a file. This file will be stored with an observer's log files and can be used to debug observer issues, for example at the request of your designated Support team, or while using a test environment. For one-off jobs (that is, Load jobs), this parameter reverts to 'False' after the next completed run. To examine the output produced, you can load the generated debug file using the File Observer. The file is saved to the following locations:
    On-prem
    $ASM_HOME/logs/<obs>-observer/
    On OCP
    /var/log/itsm/<obs>-observer
    		 Optional
    Observer job description Enter additional information to describe the job. Optional
    Job schedule

    Specify when the job should run, and whether it should run at regular intervals.

    By default the job runs immediately, and only once.

    Optionally you can specify a future date and time for the job to run, and then set it to run at regular intervals after that.

    Optional. Transient (one-off) jobs only.

    If you set a job schedule, the run intervals must be at least 90 seconds apart, and if you set them at less than 15 minutes, a warning is displayed, as the frequency can impact system performance.