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AppDynamics Events Bundle v1.1

Description

The AppDynamics Events bundle enables you to automatically send custom events to AppDynamics applications from an ExtraHop Discover appliance. By integrating ExtraHop's wire data visibility with AppDynamics' alert and respond system, you can configure custom actions including notifications, diagnostics, remediation, and HTTP requests.

This bundle includes two triggers that create AppDynamics custom events, a dashboard that shows information about the bundle activity, and example alerts that are configured to generate a custom event. The bundle also includes a setup dashboard with instructions about how to configure the Discover appliance to create events.

AppDynamics custom events sent from the Discover appliance: AppDynamics events screenshot

Dashboard in the Discover appliance displaying the events sent to AppDynamics: Events in the ExtraHop dashboard

Bundle Contents

  • (2) Triggers
    • AppDynamics Events Trigger
    • AppDynamics New Devices
  • (2) Dashboards
    • AppDynamics - Setup
    • AppDynamics - Custom Events and New Devices
  • (6) Alerts
    • CIFS Server Error Ratio
    • DNS Error Ratio
    • Kerberos Error Ratio
    • LDAP Error Ratio
    • Network Connection Error Ratio

Requirements

You must have administrator privileges on your Discover appliance to configure an Open Data Stream target.

Installation Instructions

Install the bundle

  1. Download the bundle on this page.
  2. Log into the ExtraHop Web UI and complete the following procedures, which are available in the ExtraHop Web UI Guide.

Configure AppDynamics

You must have a user login with the Account Owner role on your AppDynamics appliance to configure policies and actions based on custom events sent from your Discover appliance. To create an AppDynamics user for your Discover appliance, complete the following steps:

  1. Log into your AppDynamics controller with administrator privileges.
  2. Click the Settings icon in the top right corner and select Administration.
  3. In the center of the page, click Create New.
  4. Specify the following settings:
    • Username: extrahop
    • Name: extrahop
    • Email: Specify an email address to associate with the account
    • New Password and Repeat New Password: Specify a password. You will need this password later when you configure the Discover appliance.
  5. Under Roles, select Account Owner (Default).
  6. Click Save.

Configure the Discover Appliance

Create an Open Data Stream

You must configure an Open Data Stream (ODS) on your Discover appliance before you can send custom events to your AppDynamics applications.

  1. Log into the Admin UI of your Discover appliance.
  2. In the System Configuration section, click Open Data Streams.
  3. Click Add Target.
  4. Specify the following settings:
    • Target type: HTTP
    • Name: If this target is the first HTTP ODS you have created on the appliance, leave the default value. Otherwise, type appdynamics as the ODS name.
    • Host: The hostname or IP address of your AppDynamics Controller instance.
    • Port: 443
    • Type: HTTPS
    • Authentication: Basic
    • User: Specify valid AppDynamics REST API authentication credentials for your AppDynamics Controller instance. For more information, see the AppDynamics documentation.
    • Password: Specify the password you configured for the extrahop user on your AppDynamics appliance.
  5. Click Test to verify that the settings you specified are correct. Resolve any errors before saving the configuration.
  6. Click Save.
Configure the AppDynamics trigger

You must configure default trigger settings before enabling the AppDynamics triggers.

  1. Log into the ExtraHop Web UI on your Discover appliance.
  2. Click the System Settings icon .
  3. Click Triggers > AppDynamics Events Trigger.
  4. Click the Editor tab.
  5. Under User Modifiable Variables, specify the following settings:
    • appId: The name or ID of the AppDynamics application that you want to send events to. This setting can be overridden per alert by specifying the application_id parameter in the alert description.
    • defaultSeverity: The severity level you want to assign to custom events. This setting can be overridden per alert by specifying the severity parameter in the alert description.
  6. Click Save and Close.
  7. Select the checkbox next to the AppDynamics trigger and click Enable.
Configure Alerts

You must select which alerts will create AppDynamics custom events by placing a flag in the alert description.

  1. Log into the ExtraHop Web UI on your Discover appliance.
  2. Click the System Settings icon .
  3. Click Alerts.
  4. Click an alert that you would like to configure for AppDynamics custom events.
  5. Click the Description tab and append the following AppDynamics flag (described below) to the description field.
  6. You can configure settings for custom events by specifying an AppDynamics settings in the flag. For example, the following flag creates events on an AppDynamics application called SampleApp with the severity level set to warn: %%appdynamics:application_id=SampleApp,severity=warn%%
  7. You can configure the following settings in the flag:
    • application_id: The ID or name of the AppD application you want this alert to be sent to. You can configure the default value for this setting in the AppDynamics trigger.
    • severity: The severity level of the event, which can be info, warn, or error. You can configure the default value for this setting in the AppDynamics trigger.
    • customeventtype: (Optional) A category for the event. You can filter custom events by category in the alert and respond system when creating policies.
    • comment: (Optional) A comment to display on the event's comments tab.
  8. Click OK.

Note: You can also configure the bundle to create an event whenever ExtraHop detects a new device. These events are enabled by modifying the AppDynamics New Devices trigger, not by modifying an alert.

(Optional) Configure Device Discovery Events

To create an event whenever ExtraHop discovers a new device, you must configure and enable the new devices trigger.

  1. Log into the Web UI on your Discover appliance.
  2. Click the System Settings icon .
  3. Click Triggers.
  4. Click AppDynamics New Devices.
  5. Click the Editor tab.
  6. Under User Modifiable Variables, specify the following settings:
    • appId: The name or ID of the AppDynamics application that you want to send events to.
    • includeDevLink: Specify true to add a link from each AppDynamics event to the new device page in the ExtraHop Discover appliance.
  7. Click Save and Close.
  8. Select the checkbox next to the AppDynamics New Devices and click Enable.

Next Steps

Set up notifications or run custom actions based on the custom events that the Discover appliance sends to your AppDynamics applications. For more information, see the Alert and Respond section in the AppDynamics documentation.

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