500-425 Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator (CAAA) Questions and Answers

To create a user in the web user interface, you need to go to Settings > Groups and Roles > Create User. This option allows you to add a new user account and assign it to one or more groups. You can also specify the user’s name, email, password, and authentication method1 References: 1: Create Users

According to the Upgrade the Java Agent document1, one of the reasons to upgrade AppDynamics agents is to resolve agent issues, such as bugs, performance problems, or compatibility issues withthe Controller or the monitored application. Another reason to upgrade AppDynamics agents is to take advantage of new features, such as enhanced metrics, dashboards, alerts, or integrations, that are introduced in newer agent versions. Therefore, the correct answer is A and D. Database issues and application upgrade are not directly related to the agent upgrade, unless they affect the agent functionality or compatibility. References:

• Upgrade the Java Agent

A group can contain multiple roles, which means that the users in the group inherit the permissions of all the roles assigned to the group. For example, you can create a group that has both the Administrator and the Analytics Administrator roles, and the users in that group can perform both the administration and the analytics tasks1 References: 1: Roles and Permissions

Percentile metrics are a way to measure the distribution of response times for a Business Transaction. They show the value below which a certain percentage of measurements fall. For example, the 50th percentile metric shows the median response time, and the 99th percentile metric shows the worst-case response time for 99% of the transactions. To enable percentile metrics, you need to go to Configuration > Slow Transaction Thresholds and indicate 5 whole numbers between 1 and 99 as Percentiles to Collect. You can then view the percentile metrics in the Metric Browser under Business Transaction Performance > Business Transactions > > > Percentiles.

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO45X/Percentile+Metrics

On a custom dashboard, a non-administrator user can view the following types of information:

• The company logo: A custom dashboard can display the company logo in the upper left corner of the dashboard. This can help to brand the dashboard and make it more recognizable for the intended audience. The logo can be configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the dashboard settings1.
• The version of the AppDynamics Controller: A custom dashboard can display the version of the AppDynamics Controller in the upper right corner of the dashboard. This can help to identify the Controller that is hosting the dashboard and the features that are available. The version can be configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the dashboard settings1.
• A Timeseries graph: A custom dashboard can display a Timeseries graph widget that shows the trend of a metric over time. This can help to visualize the performance and behavior of the application, server, or database that is being monitored. A Timeseries graph can be configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the widget settings2.

A non-administrator user cannot view the following types of information on a custom dashboard:

• The current weather in Seattle: A custom dashboard cannot display the current weather in Seattle or any other location, as this is not a metric or data point that is reported by AppDynamics agents or the analytics platform. A custom dashboard can only display the data that is collected and stored by AppDynamics2.
• The number of AppDynamics licenses consumed: A custom dashboard cannot display the number of AppDynamics licenses consumed, as this is a Controller-level information that is only accessible by the Controller administrator. A custom dashboard can only display the data that is scoped by the dashboard owner’s permissions1 . https://docs.appdynamics.com/accounts/en/cisco-appdynamics-saas-deployment-user-management/manage-custom-roles-for-cisco-appdynamics/custom-dashboard-permissions

According to the Reports document1, the Report Type field determines what kind of information is captured in the report. There are different report types available, such as Application Health Report, Dashboard Report, Controller Audit Report, and so on. Each report type has different fields in the Report Data tab that can be customized. Therefore, to get the desired information in the report, you need to select the appropriate Report Type from the dropdown menu when creating a scheduled report. References:

• Reports

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

References: 1: Install the Database Agent

To alert the operations team that a cloud-based application has provisioned a new instance of a JVM, an administrator should create a policy trigger for Discovery > New Node Discovered. This policy trigger will fire an event when a new node is discovered by the AppDynamics Controller, either by auto-discovery or manual registration. The event will contain information such as the node name, tier name, application name, and agent type. The administrator can then configure an action to send an email, SMS, or custom notification to the operations team with the event details. Alternatively, the administrator can also use the built-in alerting feature of the cloud provider to notify the operations team of the new instance creation.

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO42/Alert+and+Respond

 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/appdynamics-essentials/dashboards-and-reports/custom-dashboards/create-and-manage-custom-dashboards-and-templates

The custom dashboard feature in AppDynamics allows you to display a specific set of metrics and data points on one screen. You can use custom dashboards to present selected metrics for a user who only needs a relatively narrow or focused view of the data. You can also share custom dashboards with other users and stakeholders.

According to the [Custom Dashboards - AppDynamics], some of the advantages of the custom dashboard feature are:

• It makes drill down across tiers seamless: You can use the grid layout type to create a flexible layout that is easy to rearrange on the canvas. The grid layout also scales in size when viewed on mobile devices. You can also use the absolute layout type to control width and height and the exact placement of widgets on the canvas.
• It monitors metrics of interest: You can add widgets from various categories, such as application, server, database, performance, events, and so on. You can also customize the widget properties panel to configure the widget settings, such as title, description, color scheme, time range, auto-refresh interval, and so on.
• It schedules dashboard as a report: You can export your custom dashboard as a PDF or HTML report that you can send by email or save as a file. You can also schedule your custom dashboard to run periodically using cron expressions.

Therefore, A (It makes drill down across tiers seamless), C (It monitors metrics of interest), and E (It schedules dashboard as a report) are three advantages of the custom dashboard feature. References:

• [Custom Dashboards - AppDynamics]
• [Create and Manage Custom Dashboards and Templates - AppDynamics]
• Custom Dashboard Permissions - docs.appdynamics.com

One possible reason why Java APM agents used in a production environment are consistently found to be disabled while no development environments exhibit this behavior is that the production agents are running out of heap memory and crashing. This can happen if the production agents are monitoring a high volume of business transactions, metrics, or snapshots, and the default heap size is not sufficient to handle the load. To resolve this issue, you can enable the heap-storage-monitor-enabled setting on the agent, which allows the agent to monitor its own heap usage and automatically reduce the amount of data it collects when the heap usage reaches a certain threshold. This can help to prevent the agent from running out of memory and crashing. You can also adjust the heap-storage-monitor-threshold setting to specify the percentage of heap usage that triggers the data reduction1. Alternatively, you can also increase the heap space for the agent by using the -Xmx option in the agent startup script, but this may require more resources from the host machine2.

The other options are not valid solutions to resolve this issue. Enabling agent auto-restart in the controller UI will not prevent the agent from crashing due to heap exhaustion, but only restart the agent after it crashes. This may cause data loss and performance degradation3. Decreasing the worker thread count will not affect the heap usage of the agent, but only limit the number of concurrent tasks that the agent can execute. This may reduce the agent throughput and responsiveness.

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRMY22/Java+Agent

https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/23.x/latest/en/application-security-monitoring/cisco-secure-application-requirements

Before creating a new database collector, you need to perform the following actions:

• Verify the database connection details. You need to provide the host, port, database name, and credentials for the database that you want to monitor. You also need to select the database type and the collector type1
• Create a database user and set user permissions. You need to create a database user with the minimum required permissions to access the database and run the queries that the Database Agent needs. You can use the scripts provided by AppDynamics to create the user and grant the permissions2

References: 1: Add Database Collectors 2: Database Permissions

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification document1, one of the topics covered in the exam is “Monitor agent performance and connectivity”. To do this, you need to ensure that the application agent can communicate with the controller, which may require SSL configuration if the controller is using SSL2. You also need to check that there are enough licenses available on the controller for the application agent to register and report data3. If the agent is using the wrong application name or does not have enough memory, it may not start at all or may crash, which are different problems from not being able to connect to the controller. References:

• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Configure SSL for the Controller and the App Server Agent
• License Rules and Restrictions

When troubleshooting an application using AppDynamics, the fastest way to narrow down a code problem with a specific business transaction is to follow this order:

• Review Application Dashboard: This is the first step to get an overview of the health and performance of your application and its components. You can see the key metrics, such as response time, throughput, error rate, and load, for each tier, node, and business transaction. You can also see the health rule violations, events, and alerts that indicate any issues or anomalies in your application.
• Check transaction scorecard: This is the second step to drill down to the details of a specific business transaction that you want to troubleshoot. You can see the transaction scorecard by clicking on the business transaction name on the application dashboard. The transaction scorecard shows the metrics, such as average response time, calls per minute, errors per minute, and slow calls, for the selected business transaction. You can also see the breakdown of the response time by tier, node, and remote service, and the distribution of the response time by percentile.
• Check transaction snapshots for problems: This is the third step to identify the root cause of the code problem for the selected business transaction. You can see the transaction snapshots by clicking on the View Snapshots button on the transaction scorecard. Transaction snapshots are the detailed records of the execution of a business transaction, including the call graph, the exit calls, the errors, the exceptions, the logs, the HTTP parameters, the cookies, the session attributes, and the custom data. You can use the transaction snapshots to analyze the code execution, the database queries, the web service calls, the message queues, the errors, and the exceptions that affect the performance of the business transaction.

Therefore, A (Review Application Dashboard > Check transaction scorecard > Check Transactions snapshots for problems) is the correct answer. References:

• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Troubleshoot Business Transactions - AppDynamics
• Business Transaction - AppDynamics
• Transaction Snapshots - AppDynamics

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. References:

• AppDynamics Analytics - AppDynamics
• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Analytics Queries - AppDynamics