500-430 Exam Dumps - Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer

The AppDynamics Controller Admin Console lets you configure certain global settings for the Controller, such as metric retention periods, UI notification triggers, tenancy mode, and accounts in multi-tenancy mode1. Two of the settings that an administrator can configure from the AppDynamics Controller Admin Console are:

• License allocation: This setting allows you to view and manage the license usage and availability for your Controller. You can see the total number of licenses, the number of licenses in use, the number of licenses available, and the license expiration date for each agent type. You can also allocate licenses to specific applications or accounts, and set license limits and alerts2.
• Retention periods: This setting allows you to specify how long the Controller retains the metric data and the event data for your monitored applications. You can configure the retention periods for different types of data, such as minute-level metrics, hour-level metrics, day-level metrics, transaction snapshots, and events. You can also configure the data purge schedule and the data backup schedule3.

References: Access the Administration Console, License Rules, Data Retention

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the minimum recommended number of nodes for a redundant Events Service is three ©. The Events Service is a distributed database that stores and processes the analytics data collected by the AppDynamics platform. The Events Service cluster consists of multiple nodes that share the data load and provide fault tolerance and high availability. The minimum number of nodes for a functional Events Service cluster is one, but this is not recommended for production environments, as it does not provide any redundancy or resilience. The minimum number of nodes for a redundant Events Service cluster is three, as this allows the cluster to tolerate the failure of one node without losing any data or availability. The recommended number of nodes for a redundant Events Service cluster is five or more, as this provides better performance and scalability12.

The incorrect options are:

• 1 (A): This is not a valid option because a single-node Events Service cluster does not provide any redundancy or resilience. If the node fails, the cluster becomes unavailable and the data is lost. A single-node Events Service cluster is only suitable for testing or development purposes, not for production environments12.
• 2 (B): This is not a valid option because a two-node Events Service cluster does not provide sufficient redundancy or resilience. If one node fails, the cluster becomes unstable and may lose data or availability. A two-node Events Service cluster is not recommended for production environments12.
• 4 (D): This is not a valid option because a four-node Events Service cluster is not optimal for redundancy or resilience. A four-node Events Service cluster has an even number of nodes, which may cause a split-brain scenario, where the cluster is divided into two equal partitions that cannot communicate with each other. This may result in data inconsistency or unavailability. A four-node Events Service cluster can be improved by adding a fifth node to avoid the split-brain scenario12.

References:

• 1: Events Service Deployment - AppDynamics
• 2: Events Service Requirements - AppDynamics

AppDynamics recommends that you terminate SSL connections from agents at a reverse proxy or a load balancer in front of the Controller, rather than at the Controller itself. This improves the performance and scalability of the Controller by offloading the SSL processing to the proxy or load balancer. It also simplifies the configuration and management of SSL certificates and truststores. To enable this option, you need to configure the proxy or load balancer to accept SSL connections from agents and forward them to the Controller using HTTP. You also need to configure the agents to use SSL and point to the proxy or load balancer host and port. See Enable SSL for the Java Agent for an example. References: Agent-to-Controller Connections and Enable SSL and SSH for Database Agent Communications in the AppDynamics documentation.

A custom action is a type of Alert and Respond action that allows you to integrate AppDynamics notifications with your own alerting or ticketing system. You can create a custom action by writing an executable script and an XML file that describe how to pass information from AppDynamics to your system. A custom action can be triggered by a policy based on a health rule violation or an event. A custom action is available only on an on-premises Controller, because it requires access to the Controller file system and the ability to execute scripts on the Controller host machine. For a SaaS Controller, you can use HTTP request templates instead of custom actions to integrate with external systems. References: Build a Custom Action, Alert and Respond, Actions, Custom Actions

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the correct method to perform a NET Agent upgrade is to perform the agent upgrade on the application server host by running the MSI Installer Package12. This method will install updated agent files and maintain legacy configurations. You do not need to uninstall the old agent first when you upgrade from the NET Agent >= 3.9, except for patch releases. You need to stop IIS, instrumented Windows services, and instrumented standalone applications before running the MSI Installer Package. You also need to launch an elevated command prompt with full administrator privileges and specify youraccount access key for single-tenant Controller accounts. After the installation, you need to restart Windows services and standalone applications.

The incorrect options are:

• Perform the agent upgrade on a remote server host by using the AppDynamics Controller REST API. (B) This is not a valid method for upgrading the NET Agent, because the AppDynamics Controller REST API does not provide any endpoint for agent installation or upgrade. The REST API is mainly used for retrieving or updating configuration data, metrics, events, snapshots, and other information from the Controller3.
• Perform the agent upgrade on the application server host by running the Agent Configuration Utility. © This is not a valid method for upgrading the NET Agent, because the Agent Configuration Utility is a tool for modifying the agent configuration after installation, not for installing or upgrading the agent. The Agent Configuration Utility allows you to change the Controller connection settings, the agent logging level, the proxy settings, and other advanced options4.
• Perform the agent upgrade via the AppDynamics Controller UI. (D) This is not a valid method for upgrading the NET Agent, because the AppDynamics Controller UI does not provide any feature for agent installation or upgrade. The Controller UI is mainly used for monitoring, analyzing, and troubleshooting the performance of the applications, business transactions, tiers, nodes, and other entities that are instrumented by the agents5.

References:

• 1: Upgrade the .NET Agent for Windows - AppDynamics
• 2: Release Upgrade Checklist for .NET Agents - AppDynamics
• 3: REST API - AppDynamics
• 4: Configure the .NET Agent - AppDynamics
• 5: AppDynamics Application Performance Monitoring Platform - AppDynamics

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the two reasons that would require an administrator to install the Events Service cluster manually are:

• Security concerns with passwordless SSH (B): This is a valid reason because the automated installation of the Events Service cluster requires passwordless SSH access to the target hosts. Passwordless SSH allows the Enterprise Console to execute commands on the remote hosts without prompting for a password. However, some organizations may have security policies that prohibit passwordless SSH access, as it may pose a risk of unauthorized access or malicious attacks. In such cases, the administrator can install the Events Service cluster manually, by following the steps described in the Manual Installation of the Events Service Cluster document1.
• Security requirements to install using a non-root user account ©: This is a valid reason because the automated installation of the Events Service cluster requires root privileges on the target hosts. Root privileges allow the Enterprise Console to create directories, change permissions, and install packages on the remote hosts. However, some organizations may have security policies that restrict root access, as it may pose a risk of accidental or intentional damage to the system. In such cases, the administrator can install the Events Service cluster manually, by following the steps described in the Manual Installation of the Events Service Cluster document1. The administrator can use a non-root user account that has sudo privileges to perform the manual installation.

The incorrect options are:

• Installation on SUSE Linux (A): This is not a valid reason for manual installation, because the automated installation of the Events Service cluster supports SUSE Linux as one of the compatible operating systems. The Enterprise Console can install the Events Service cluster on SUSE Linux hosts using the automated installation process, as long as the hosts meet the prerequisites described in the Events Service Requirements document2.
• Installation on Windows (D): This is not a valid reason for manual installation, because the Events Service cluster does not support Windows as an operating system. The Events Service cluster can only run on Linux hosts, as it is based on Apache Cassandra, which is a Linux-based distributed database. The Events Service cluster cannot be installed on Windows hosts, either manually or automatically2.

References:

• 1: Manual Installation of the Events Service Cluster - AppDynamics
• 2: Events Service Requirements - AppDynamics

Custom correlation is needed when the default detection mechanisms of AppDynamics are not capable of auto-correlating transactions across tiers or across parent-child threads in complex multithreaded applications. Custom correlation enables the user to configure AppDynamics to propagate a unique correlation key by using the extension points of the distributed protocol or by decorating the payload. Among the four options, a custom TCP concurrent server is the most likely to require the implementation of custom correlation, as it is an unsupported framework and protocol that may not have easily-defined method calls or payload objects to configure as exit points or entry points. The other options, such as SOAP, JMS, and WCF, are supported by AppDynamics and can be automatically correlated by the agents without the need for custom configuration. References: Custom Correlation for Java Applications and Configure Custom Correlation for .NET Applications in the AppDynamics community.

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the recommended way to add capacity to the Events Service cluster is to add nodes running on machines with identical hardware matching the existing nodes12. This will increase the data storage, replication, and redundancy of the cluster, as well as the processing power for queries. The Events Service cluster is horizontally scalable, so nodes can be added as your data storage requirements grow32. The Events Service must run on dedicated machines with identical directory structures, user account profiles, and hardware profiles1. For heap space allocation, AppDynamics recommends allocating half of the available RAM to the Events Service process, with a minimum of 7 GB up to 31 GB1. Solid-state drives (SSD) can significantly outperform hard disk drives (HDD), and are therefore recommended for production deployments1.

The incorrect options are:

• Add a new Events Service cluster to share the load. (A) This is not recommended because it will create additional complexity and overhead for managing multiple clusters and routing data and queries to the appropriate cluster. It will also require more license units to enable analytics on multiple clusters.
• Add more storage to the master nodes of the cluster. © This is not recommended because it will not increase the data replication and redundancy of the cluster, nor the processing power for queries. It will also create an imbalance in the cluster, as the master nodes will have more storage than the worker nodes, which may affect the performance and stability of the cluster.
• Add more storage to as many of the existing nodes as possible. (D) This is not recommended because it will not increase the data replication and redundancy of the cluster, nor the processing power for queries. It will also create an imbalance in the cluster, as some nodes will have more storage than others, which may affect the performance and stability of the cluster.

References:

• 1: Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (500-430)
• 2: Events Service Requirements - AppDynamics
• 3: Events Service Deployment - AppDynamics
• 4: Events Service Deployment - AppDynamics

 According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the method to import an existing keypair to manage the Controller SSL certificate without using the Enterprise Console UI is to add the keypair to the keystore.jks using a third-party tool (A). The keystore.jks file is the default keystore for the Controller that contains the private keys and certificates for the secure communication on port 8181. If the administrator already has a custom keypair that is signed by a third-party Certificate Authority (CA) or an internal CA, they can use a third-party tool, such as KeyStore Explorer or OpenSSL, to import the keypair into the keystore.jks file. The administrator should also import the root or intermediate certificates of the CA into the cacerts.jks file, which is the default truststore for the Controller. The administrator should use the keytool utility, which is bundled with the Controller installation, to import the certificates into the cacerts.jks file. The administrator should also update the password for the keystore.jks and cacerts.jks files, and restart the Controller to apply the changes12.

The incorrect options are:

• Re-run the Controller installer and specify the new keypair. (B) This is not a valid method because the Controller installer does not allow the administrator to specify a custom keypair for the Controller SSL certificate. The Controller installer only allows the administrator to specify the Controller host name, port, account name, access key, and database settings. The Controller installer does not modify the keystore.jks or cacerts.jks files, and does not import any custom keypair or certificate into the Controller keystore or truststore3.
• Upload a new keystore.jks file through the Controller UI. © This is not a valid method because the Controller UI does not provide any feature to upload a new keystore.jks file for the Controller SSL certificate. The Controller UI only allows the administrator to view and edit the Controller settings, such as the license, the security, the email, the analytics, and the EUM. The Controller UI does not access or modify the keystore.jks or cacerts.jks files, and does not import any custom keypair or certificate into the Controller keystore or truststore4.
• Upload the keypair from within the Controller UI. (D) This is not a valid method because the Controller UI does not provide any feature to upload a custom keypair for the Controller SSL certificate. The Controller UI only allows the administrator to view and edit the Controller settings, such as the license, the security, the email, the analytics, and the EUM. The Controller UI does not access or modify the keystore.jks or cacerts.jks files, and does not import any custom keypair or certificate into the Controller keystore or truststore4.

References:

• 1: Controller SSL and Certificates - AppDynamics
• 2: How do I resolve SSL certificate validation errors in the .NET Agent? - AppDynamics
• 3: Install the Controller - AppDynamics
• 4: Controller Settings - AppDynamics

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, when updating the Database Agent, you need to follow these steps12:

• Stop the agent as described for your specific installation in Start and Stop the Database Agent.
• Make a copy of the existing agent directory, . Backing up allows you to revert to the previous agent installation if you need to. You can also copy over the controller-info.xml configuration file to the new installation to ensure the agent configuration is maintained.
• Install the Database Agent as described for your specific installation in Administer the Database Agent.
• Copy the \conf\controller-info.xml file to the new installation directory, \conf. To ensure the agent configuration is maintained, copy the \conf\controller-info.xml file to the new installation directory, \conf.
• Start the new agent. See Start and Stop the Database Agent.
• Verify the Database Agent Installation. See Verify the Database Agent Installation.

Therefore, the correct statements are:

• The Database Agent must be stopped and restarted during the upgrade. (A)
• Controller-info.xml is the only file that needs to be migrated from the previous agent to the new agent. (D)

The incorrect statements are:

• If the agent is moved to a new location during the upgrade, the AppDynamics Controller must be reconfigured to reference the new location of the agent. (B) This is not true because the controller-info.xml file contains the information about the Controller host, port, account name, access key, and SSL settings. As long as this file is copied to the new agent location, the Controller does not need to be reconfigured.
• All data collectors created from the previous agent must be migrated to the new agent. © This is not true because the data collectors are configured on the Controller UI, not on the agent. The agent collects the metrics from the databases and sends them to the Controller. The data collectors do not need to be migrated to the new agent.
• After the Database Agent is upgraded, the AppDynamics Controller must be restarted. (E) This is not true because the Controller does not depend on the agent version. The agent and the Controller are compatible as long as they meet the Agent and Controller Compatibility requirements.

References:

• 1: Upgrade the Database Agent - AppDynamics
• 2: Release Upgrade Checklist for Database Agents - AppDynamics

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the two valid ways to confirm that the upgraded Java Agent is running successfully are:

• Verify that the node within the Controller UI indicates the app agent is reporting. (B) This is a valid way because the Controller UI is a web-based application that allows users to monitor and manage the performance of the applications, tiers, nodes, and other entities that are instrumented by the AppDynamics agents. The Controller UI displays the status of the nodes within each tier, and indicates whether the app agent is reporting or not. If the app agent is reporting, the node icon is green and shows the agent version. If the app agent is not reporting, the node icon is gray and shows the last time the agent reported. The user can also hover over the node icon to see more details, such as the agent type, the agent version,the agent runtime directory, and the agent properties file. The user can verify that the upgraded Java Agent is running successfully by checking that the node icon is green and shows the latest agent version12.
• Verify the Java Agent Version metric for that node in the Metric Browser. © This is a valid way because the Metric Browser is a feature of the Controller UI that allows users to view and analyze the metrics collected by the AppDynamics agents. The Metric Browser displays the metrics in a hierarchical tree structure, where each node represents a metric category, a metric name, or a metric value. The user can expand or collapse the nodes, and select or deselect the metrics to view them in a chart. The user can also apply filters, time ranges, baselines, and other options to customize the chart. The user can verify that the upgraded Java Agent is running successfully by navigating to the Java Agent Version metric for that node in the Metric Browser. The Java Agent Version metric shows the version number of the Java Agent that is running on the node. The user can compare the metric value with the expected agent version, and check that the metric is updated after the upgrade34.

The incorrect options are:

• Verify that the application log contains a message indicating success. (A) This is not a valid way because the application log does not contain any message indicating the success of the Java Agent upgrade. The application log is a file that records the events and messages that occur in the application server, such as the startup, shutdown, errors, warnings, and debug information. The application log does not record the events and messages that occur in the Java Agent, such as the installation, upgrade, configuration, or reporting. The Java Agent has its own log file, which is located in the /logs directory, and which contains the messages indicating the success or failure of the Java Agent upgrade .
• Verify that the Java Agent log contains a message indicating the agent started successfully. (D) This is not a valid way because the Java Agent log does not contain any message indicating the agent started successfully after the upgrade. The Java Agent log is a file that records the events and messages that occur in the Java Agent, such as the installation, upgrade, configuration, or reporting. The Java Agent log contains a message indicating the agent started successfully when the application server is started, not when the Java Agent is upgraded. The Java Agent log does not contain any message indicating the success or failure of the Java Agent upgrade. The Java Agent log is located in the /logs directory, and the message indicating the agent started successfully is “Agent Startup Complete” .

References:

• 1: Tiers and Nodes - AppDynamics
• 2: Tier Dashboard - AppDynamics
• 3: Metric Browser - AppDynamics
• 4: Java Agent Metrics - AppDynamics
• [5]: Java Agent Logs - AppDynamics
• [6]: Troubleshoot the Java Agent - AppDynamics

The AppDynamics REST API to retrieve metrics allows you to get values generated for metrics by specifying the path of the metric and the time frame for the data1. Some of the valid reasons to use this API are12:

• To archive 1-minute granularity data. The AppDynamics Controller stores metric data at different levels of granularity depending on the retention period. For example, it stores 1-minute granularity data for 8 days, 10-minute granularity data for 32 days, and 1-hour granularity data for 365 days. If you want to archive the 1-minute granularity data for longer than 8 days, you can use the API to retrieve and store the data in an external database or file system.
• To calculate a new metric based on two existing metrics. The AppDynamics Controller provides some built-in metrics such as average response time, calls per minute, errors per minute, etc. However, you may want to calculate a new metric that is not available in the Controller, such as the ratio of errors to calls, or the percentage of slow transactions. You can use the API to retrieve the values of the existing metrics and perform the calculation using your own logic or formula.
• To retrieve health rule violations. Health rules are the rules that define the performance and availability thresholds for your application components. When a health rule is violated, the AppDynamics Controller generates an event and optionally triggers a policy action. You can use the API to retrieve the list of health rule violations for a given application, time range, and severity level. This can help you monitor and troubleshoot the health of your application and take corrective actions if needed. References: Retrieve Metric Data, Health Rule API