Configuring AppDynamics as a third-party data source
IBM® NS1 Connect® integrates with AppDynamics as a third-party monitoring service that can be used to inform DNS traffic steering by the NS1 Connect platform.
AppDynamics allows you to monitor various aspects of your applications, databases, or infrastructure to detect service disruptions or application performance issues. If the AppDynamics monitor detects an issue, it can communicate the change to the NS1 Connect platform to trigger automatic failover or modify traffic steering behavior based on key metrics.
During the implementation process, you will configure a third-party data source within the NS1 Connect platform to connect with your AppDynamics account. Then, you will create a data feed for each individual monitor you want to connect to the corresponding answer(s) in the NS1 Connect DNS records. Finally, you will configure a Filter Chain within the relevant DNS records to activate dynamic traffic steering based on the up/down status or other key metrics collected from the monitored endpoints. If the AppDynamics monitor detects an endpoint is down, then the up/down metadata for each connected answer is updated and the NS1 Connect platform avoids serving it to requesting clients.
An AppDynamics policy consists of a specified trigger and the action to respond to that trigger.
Typically, a trigger activates when a monitor indicates a “critical” or “warning” status based on
the defined health rule for a server. For example, you can configure a health rule that sets a
server's memory threshold at 85% capacity before it is considered to be in a "critical" state. This
triggers an action to execute an HTTP request template, sending a webhook to an NS1 Connect data feed. The data feed connects
the AppDynamics agent to a specific DNS answer, automatically changing the answer’s up status to
false
. Once the server returns to a normal state, another update is sent from
AppDynamics to the NS1 Connect
platform, setting the up status in the associated answers back to true
.
Refer to the AppDynamics product documentation to learn more about key concepts and workflows for monitoring the health and performance of your network endpoints.
Step 1- Create a third-party data source on the NS1 Connect platform
Follow the instructions below to configure a data source, connecting AppDynamics to the NS1 Connect platform.
- In the NS1 Connect portal, click Integrations from the main navigation.
- Click Add a data source.
- Click the AppDynamics logo.
- Enter a name for the data source for internal reference.
- Click Save data source. The button text changes, asking if you want to
create a data feed.
- Click the X in the top right corner to close the window. You can create the data feeds later.
- Navigate back to the Data sources tab and copy the Source
ID next to the AppDynamics data source you just created. You will need this ID to
configure the HTTP request template on the AppDynamics platform.
Step 2 - Create an AppDynamics HTTP request template
Follow the instructions below to configure an HTTP request template for sending event notifications via webhook to NS1 Connect.
- In the AppDynamics portal, navigate to .
- Click New to create a new template.
- Enter a name for the template; for example, ns1_webhook.
- In the Request URL section, next to Method, select Post from the dropdown.
- Next to Raw URL, enter https://api.nsone.net/v1/feed/<sourceID>, replacing <sourceID> with the unique ID for the data source generated in the previous step.
- Next to URL Encoding, select UTF-8 from the
dropdown.
- In the Authentication section, next to Type, select none. Leave all other fields in this section blank.
- In the Payload section, next to MIME Type, select
text/plain.
- Next to Payload Encoding, select UTF-8.
- Copy and paste the following code into the payload entry
box:
{ "topSeverity": "${latestEvent.severity}", "eventType": "${latestEvent.eventType}", "application": "${latestEvent.application.name}", "tier": "${latestEvent.tier.name}", "node": "${latestEvent.node.name}" }
Attention: You must enter the code exactly as it appears here. Otherwise, the integration will not work. - In the Response Handling Criteria section, click Add Failure
Criteria and select 404 (status code) from the dropdown.
- Click Add Failure Criteria again and select 400 from the dropdown.
- Click Add Success Criteria and select 200 from the dropdown.
- Click Save.
Step 3 - Create a health rule in the AppDynamics portal
Complete the following instructions to configure a health rule, defining the conditions that should be considered normal in your environment. Health statuses include critical, warning, normal, and unknown.
- In the AppDynamics portal, click Alert & Respond in the main
navigation.
- Select Health Rules from the left sidebar
- At the top of the page, next to Health Rules, select the scope of the health rule to view the predefined rules for applications, servers, or databases. Typically, the integration with NS1 Connect leverages data collected from server agents. If so, select Servers from the drop-down list.
- Select one of the predefined rules or create a new one. For example, Memory usage is too high.
- With the rule selected, click the edit (pencil) icon on the top of the page.
- Enter a name for the rule and adjust the settings as desired, ensuring the box next to
Enabled is checked.
- Navigate to the Affected Entities tab and select a server or group of
servers to monitor.Note: Do not change the health rule type.
- Navigate to the Critical Criteria tab and set the conditions under which
to trigger a critical event. For example, if memory usage exceeds 85%.
- Navigate to the Warning Criteria tab and set the conditions under which
to trigger a warning event.
- Click Save.
Step 4 - Create an action
Follow the instructions below to define the action to occur when a critical or warning event is triggered. An action is a predefined, automated response to an event.
- In the AppDynamics portal, navigate to Alert & Respond from the main navigation.
- Select Actions from the left sidebar.
- At the top of the page, next to Actions, select the scope you selected
when configuring the health rules (for example, Servers).
- Click Create.
- Under Select what type of action to create, select the radio button next
to Make an HTTP Request.
- Enter a name for the action and select the HTTP Request Template you created in Step 2.
- Click Save.
- Click Save again.
Step 5 - Create a policy
Follow the instructions below to create an AppDynamics policy. A policy consists of a trigger based on one or more events and an action to respond.
- In the AppDynamics portal, click Alert & Response from the main navigation.
- Select Policies from the left sidebar.
- Select the option to create a new policy for servers.
- Enter a name for the policy.
- Under Health Rule Violation Events, check all boxes to enable all events.
- Navigate to the Health Rule Scope tab, and select the health rule(s) to
trigger this policy. You can select Any Health Rule to indicate that all
health rules should trigger the policy (default), or you can choose These Health
Rules to apply specific health rules.
- Navigate to the Actions tab and click the add (+) icon.
- Select the action you created in the previous step, and click
Select.
- Click Save.
Step 6 - Configure AppDynamics agents
Refer to the AppDynamics documentation for instructions to deploy agents to monitor your applications and infrastructure. Typically, those integrating AppDynamics with their NS1 Connect account use the AppDynamics infrastructure visibility agents.
Once the machine agents are up and running, the associated servers appear in your AppDynamics dashboard under Servers.
Step 7 - Create a data feed for each agent
In NS1 Connect, data feeds connect monitors or third-party data sources to DNS answer metadata to enable automatic updates as the status of an endpoint changes. Matching between AppDynamics and NS1 Connect data feed is done at three levels: application name, tier name, and node name. You must enter the application or tier name (or both). The node name is optional. Matching is based on all fields set. To set the DNS record status for an entire application, enter only the application name—leaving all other fields empty. Set both the application and tier names if you have separate DNS answers for each tier. Set all three fields to monitor at the node level.
Follow the instructions below to create a data feed from an AppDynamics agent to the corresponding DNS answer(s).
- In the NS1 Connect portal, navigate
to .
- Click the AppDynamics logo.
- Enter a name for the data feed for internal reference.
- Enter the AppDynamics application name as it appears in your AppDynamics account. If you connect a machine agent, the application name is Server & Infrastructure Monitoring.
- Enter the AppDynamics tier name. The tier name for machine agents is
Root. If you change the machine agent hierarchy as described in the
AppDynamics documentation, then the tier name is formed by prepending
<Root> |
to the hierarchy defined by<machine-path>
. For example, if<machine-path>=”Tier_level_1|Tier_Level_2|NodeNameTB”
then the tier name isRoot|Tier_level_1|Tier_Level_2
.Note: You can find the tier and node names in the AppDynamics portal by navigating to the Servers page and double-clicking the server/machine. The host ID and hierarchy appear at the top of the screen. The host ID is the AppDynamics node name. For example,NS1-demo-host-TB
. The tier name is the hierarchy prepended withRoot |
. For example,Root|Tier_level_1|Tier_Level_2
.Attention: You must enter the application name, tier name, or both. - Optionally, enter the AppDynamics node name. For machine agents, this is the server's hostname.
If set, enter the
<unique-host-id>
in this field. For example, if<unique-host-id>=“NS1-demo-host-TB”
, enter NS1-demo-host-TB. - Optionally, select the checkbox to treat critical and warning statuses the same. In other words,
AppDynamics will send one of three status updates:
info
,warn
, orcritical
. If the option is enabled, the NS1 Connect platform marks the DNS answer as down if AppDynamics sends awarn
status update. - Click Submit.
- Repeat these steps for each AppDynamics agent to the NS1 Connect platform.
Step 8 - Connect each data feed to the NS1 Connect DNS answers
To configure automatic updates from the AppDynamics agents to the DNS answer metadata, you must connect the data feed you created to the corresponding answers within a DNS record. Specifically, you can connect an AppDynamics feed to the up/down metadata field within the answer(s) corresponding to the monitored endpoint.

Follow the instructions in Connecting a monitor or data source to a DNS answer, and repeat these steps for each data feed you create.
Step 9 - Create a Filter Chain
After configuring automatic updates from the AppDynamics agents to their corresponding answers, you can create a Filter Chain for the parent DNS record to activate dynamic traffic steering. If you connected the AppDynamics feeds to the up/down metadata fields, use the Up filter to instruct the NS1 Connect platform to eliminate down or unavailable answers when making routing decisions. As the AppDynamics agents update the answer metadata, the platform adjusts traffic steering behavior to accommodate changing network conditions.

Refer to Create a Filter Chain or Automatic failover for details.