AppDynamics for Mendix Cloud

Last modified: February 7, 2024

1 Introduction

AppDynamics is a monitoring and analysis tool for cloud applications. It is a SaaS-based data analytics platform that provides monitoring for servers, databases, tools, and services. You can use AppDynamics for additional monitoring for your apps running on Mendix Cloud.

This document explains how to configure your Mendix Cloud app to send data to AppDynamics.

For more information on the data you can send to AppDynamics, see Monitoring Your Mendix Apps with an APM Tool.

2 Prerequisites

To use AppDynamics and send data to AppDynamics from your Mendix app, you need the following:

  • Access to a cloud- or self-hosted AppDynamics controller
  • The following information about AppDynamics
    • The account name and access key for your AppDynamics account
    • The hostname or IP address of your AppDynamics controller
  • A licensed Mendix app of which you are the Technical Contact

3 Connecting Your Node to AppDynamics

To send your runtime information to AppDynamics, you must set it up using environment variables in the Developer Portal.

  1. Go to the Environments page of your app in the Developer Portal.

  2. Click Details on the environment you wish to monitor with AppDynamics.

  3. Switch to the Runtime tab.

  4. Add the following Custom Environment Variables.

    Variable Description Default
    APPDYNAMICS_MACHINE_AGENT_ENABLED Set to true to enable metrics specific to Mendix. If this is not set, or set to false, AppDynamics will only receive the general AppDynamics metrics provided by the AppDynamics Java Agent. false
    APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_PORT The HTTP (or HTTPS) port of the AppDynamics Controller. This is the port used to access the AppDynamics browser-based user interface. If APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_SSL_ENABLED is set to true, specify the HTTPS port of the Controller; otherwise, specify the HTTP port. 443
    APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_SSL_ENABLED Set to true if the agent should use SSL (HTTPS) to connect to the controller. true
    APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_HOST_NAME The hostname or the IP address of the AppDynamics Controller without the scheme (protocol). This is the same host that you use to access the AppDynamics browser-based user interface. Example values are 192.168.1.22 or myhost or myhost.example.com.
    For an on-premises Controller, use the value for Application Server Host Name that was configured when the Controller was installed. For the AppDynamics SaaS Controller service, see the welcome email from AppDynamics.
    APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_APPLICATION_NAME A unique name to identify all the metrics coming from your app. Mendix recommends using the app name.
    APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_NAME The name of your AppDynamics account. This can be found in the License section of your AppDynamics Controller dashboard.
    APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY The secret key used to authenticate your AppDynamics account.
    APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_NODE_NAME This is how you will identify which node the metrics are coming from. The value of the CF_INSTANCE_ID variable will be appended to the node name. For example, if APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_NODE_NAME is set to node and the node has multiple instances, the AppDynamics agent will be configured as node-0, node-1, … for the different instances. "node"
    APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_TIER_NAME This allows you to classify different environments of your app. Mendix recommends using the Environment ID to distinguish between Test, Acceptance, and Production environments. You can find this on the General tab of the Environment Details page of your app environment. Environment ID of the app

    For more information on Nodes and Tiers in AppDynamics, see the Overview of Application Monitoring in the AppDynamics documentation.

  5. Return to the Environments page for your app and Deploy or Transport your app into the selected environment.

4 Multi-instance metrics

You can view metrics for multiple instances of an application on the AppDynamics Controller.

  • To see combined metrics values for all the instances together, use the Metric Browser (by default tier name = environment ID) and navigate to Application Infrastructure Performance/<tier name>/Custom Metrics/Mx Runtime Statistics.
  • AppDynamics Nodes are associated with Mendix application instances. To observe metrics for specific instance (node), navigate in Metric Browser to Application Infrastructure Performance/<tier name>/Individual Nodes/<node name>/Custom Metrics/Mx Runtime Statistics.

5 Additional Information

5.1 AppDynamics Default Values

Mendix provides default values for most of the AppDynamics environment variables. However, the following variables cannot be defaulted. If any of the following environment variables are set for your app, you must provide all of them:

  • APPDYNAMICS_CONTROLLER_HOST_NAME
  • APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_NAME
  • APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_ACCOUNT_ACCESS_KEY

5.2 Tagging AppDynamics Metrics

Mendix does not send additional tags to AppDynamics to indicate Resource, Microflow, or Activity names. It is also not possible to add custom tags to the metrics you send to AppDynamics.

5.3 AppDynamics Issues

If you have any issues related to accessing AppDynamics, contact their support on the AppDynamics Support page. You need an AppDynamics account to request support.

6 Read More