500-425 Practice Questions

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO45X/Install+the+Database+Agent

To properly configure a database agent from a zip file, you need to provide the following minimum

details:

Controller Host: This is the hostname or IP address of the machine where the Controller is

installed. You need to specify this so that the Database Agent can communicate with the Controller

and send the collected data1

Controller Port: This is the port number that the Controller listens on for incoming connections. You

need to specify this so that the Database Agent can connect to the Controller using the correct

protocol. The default ports are 8090 for HTTP and 8181 for HTTPS for on-premise Controllers, and 80

for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS for SaaS Controllers1

Account Access Key: This is the key that authenticates the Database Agent with the Controller. You

need to specify this so that the Database Agent can register itself with the Controller and access the

license. You can find the account access key in the Controller UI under Settings > License > Account1

Account Name: This is the name of the account that the Database Agent belongs to. You need to

specify this so that the Database Agent can associate itself with the correct application and user

permissions. You can find the account name in the Controller UI under Settings > License > Account1

Reference: 1: Install the Database Agent

According to the Data Collectors document1, a data collector is a configuration that captures

application data from a method invocation or an HTTP request. A data collector is associated with a

specific method signature or an HTTP parameter name. Therefore, if a new class and method have

been deployed to the application, or a new method parameter has been added to an instrumented

class, the existing data collector may not match the new code and may need to be updated.

However, if the business transaction has been deprecated, or a new HTTP parameter has been added

to an existing business transaction, the existing data collector may still work as expected, unless the

data collector is specifically configured to filter by the business transaction name or the HTTP

parameter value. Reference:

Data Collectors

The default auto-refresh interval for custom dashboards is 120 seconds. This means that the data

displayed on the dashboard will be updated every two minutes. The auto-refresh interval can be

configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the dashboard settings. The auto-refresh

interval can be set to any value between 15 and 300 seconds, or disabled altogether. The auto-

refresh interval applies to all the widgets on the dashboard, unless a widget has its own refresh

interval specified. https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/23.x/latest/en/appdynamicsessentials/dashboards-and-reports/custom-dashboards/create-and-manage-custom-dashboards-

and-templates

A health rule violation canceled warning event or a health rule violation canceled critical event is

generated when the health rule processor can no longer accurately assert that the health rule

violation continues to violate or that it has ended1. This can happen when the health rule is edited or

disabled, among other reasons1. Adding a new condition to the health rule or disabling the health

rule are two actions that would trigger a health rule violation canceled event, as they would change

the evaluation criteria or stop the evaluation altogether1. Marking the health rule as canceled or

removing the health rule from a policy are not valid actions, as they do not affect the health rule

configuration or status

https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/22.x/22.1/en/appdynamics-essentials/alert-andrespond/troubleshoot-health-rule-violations

Remote Services metrics are the metrics that show the performance and behavior of the external

systems that an application interacts with, such as web services, databases, message queues, etc. An

AppDynamics administrator can use two locations to view Remote Services metrics: the Tier

Dashboard and the Exit Point Metrics. The Tier Dashboard shows the flow map of a tier and its

downstream dependencies, including the remote services that the tier calls. The administrator can

click on any remote service node on the flow map to see the metrics such as average response time,

calls per minute, errors per minute, etc. The Exit Point Metrics show the metrics for all the exit points

(remote service calls) of an application, grouped by type, such as HTTP, JDBC, JMS, etc. The

administrator can drill down to see the metrics for each exit point, such as the backend name, the

tier name, the business transaction name, etc.

To capture business data for Transaction Analytics, you must first configure a data collector. A data

collector is a configuration that specifies what data to capture from a business transaction and how

to store it in the analytics platform. You can capture data from HTTP requests, method invocations,

custom fields, or information points. You can also apply filters and transformations to the captured

data. Once you have configured a data collector, you can use it to enrich the transaction analytics

data with business context and enable advanced queries and visualizations

https://docs.appdynamics.com/accounts/en/cisco-appdynamics-saas-deployment-usermanagement/manage-custom-roles-for-cisco-appdynamics/transaction-analytics-permissions

Two types of information that can be shared without an AppDynamics login are Flow Map and

Custom Dashboards. Flow Map is a graphical representation of the application topology, showing the

interactions between the tiers, nodes, backends, and remote services. Custom Dashboards are user-

defined views of the application performance data, metrics, and events. You can share these types of

information by generating a shareable link from the Controller UI, which can be accessed by anyone

who has the link, without requiring a login12 Reference: 1: Share a Flow Map 2: Share a Custom

Dashboard

According to the Tiers and Nodes document1, establishing standards for naming applications, tiers,

and nodes can help you identify and organize the components of your monitored environment, as

well as troubleshoot performance issues and health rule violations. Some of the statements about

establishing naming conventions are true:

Application Tier and Node values can be configured in the application agent startup script: This is

true for Java agents, as you can pass values to the agent that will be used as the application, tier, and

node name for the system. For example, you can use the -Dappdynamics.agent.applicationName, -

Dappdynamics.agent.tierName, and -Dappdynamics.agent.nodeName properties to specify the

names in the JVM startup script2.

Node names must be unique across the entire business application: This is true, as node names are

used to identify the individual instances of the application components that are monitored by

AppDynamics. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the data collection

and reporting. Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures uniqueness and clarity

for each node1.

Application Tier and Node values can be configured in the controller-info.xml file: This is true for Java

agents, as you can also configure the names in the controller-info.xml file, which is located in the

/conf directory. The controller-info.xml file contains the properties that define the

agent identity and connection to the Controller. You can use the , ,

and elements to specify the names in the file2.

Some of the statements about establishing naming conventions are false:

Nodes that reside on different Tiers and different machines (hosts) can have duplicate Node names:

This is false, as node names must be unique across the entire business application, regardless of the

tier or the host they belong to. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the

data collection and reporting. Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures

uniqueness and clarity for each node1.

Nodes that reside on the same Tier but on different machines (hosts) can have duplicate Node

names: This is also false, as node names must be unique across the entire business application,

regardless of the tier or the host they belong to. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion

and errors in the data collection and reporting. Therefore, you should use a naming convention that

ensures uniqueness and clarity for each node1.

Reference:

Tiers and Nodes

Name Business Applications, Tiers, and Nodes

Capacity planning is the process of estimating and allocating the resources needed to meet the

current and future demands of an application. For a regionally partitioned application, where

different users and organizations are assigned to different databases based on their location, capacity

planning requires that the administrator monitors the number of users and orgs mapped to each

database and ensures that they do not exceed the available resources.

According to the AppDynamics Analytics - AppDynamics, one way to meet this requirement is to

schedule an analytics query to check and report on the result periodically. An analytics query is a

SQL-like query that allows you to analyze and visualize the data collected by AppDynamics, such as

business transactions, logs, metrics, events, and custom data. You can use analytics queries to create

dashboards, widgets, reports, and alerts that provide insights into the performance and behavior of

your applications and their components.

To schedule an analytics query to check and report on the number of users and orgs mapped to a

database, the administrator can follow these steps:

Go to Analytics > Search.

Select the data source that contains the user and org information, such as Business Transactions,

Logs, or Custom Data.

Enter the query that counts the number of users and orgs for each database, such as SELECT

database, COUNT(DISTINCT user), COUNT(DISTINCT org) FROM data_source GROUP BY database.

Click the Save button and enter a name and description for the query.

Click the Schedule button and select the frequency, time range, and recipients for the query

execution and report delivery.

Click Save.

Therefore, A (Schedule an analytics query to check and report on the result periodically) is the

correct answer. Reference:

AppDynamics Analytics - AppDynamics

Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification

Analytics Queries - AppDynamics

An exception in AppDynamics is a code-level event that indicates a problem or abnormality in the

execution of a business transaction. AppDynamics captures and presents information on exceptions

in the monitored environment, and allows you to configure the rules and criteria for detecting and

reporting exceptions.

According to the Errors and Exceptions - AppDynamics, the following two types of events would be

marked as an exception in AppDynamics:

A custom-configured error method and error message: This is a type of event that you can define as

an exception based on a specific method and message that indicate an error condition in your

application code. You can configure the error detection rules to mark a business transaction as an

error and capture the exception information when such a method and message are encountered. For

example, you can configure a rule to mark a business transaction as an error and capture the

exception when the method com.example.MyClass.myMethod returns the message Invalid input.

Any message that is logged with a severity of Error or Fatal: This is a type of event that AppDynamics

automatically detects as an exception based on the log messages that are generated by your

application code. AppDynamics scans the log messages for the keywords Error or Fatal, and marks

the business transaction as an error and captures the exception information when such a message is

found. For example, AppDynamics will mark a business transaction as an error and capture the

exception when the log message contains Error: Null pointer exception.

Therefore, B (a custom-configured error method and error message) and C (any message that is

logged with a severity of Error or Fatal) are two types of events that would be marked as an

exception in AppDynamics. Reference:

Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification

Errors and Exceptions - AppDynamics

Error Detection - AppDynamics