July 2020 Summaries

Dynatrace has announced the general availability of cross-environment dashboards, which allow users to combine monitoring artifacts from separate Dynatrace environments, including support for remote management zones. This advancement simplifies the process of reporting monitoring data by enabling visualization from multiple environments on a single dashboard, thereby avoiding the need to create multiple dashboards across different environments. The new functionality offers a streamlined setup via the Dynatrace web UI, where users can select environments for data retrieval with a single click. This enhancement provides a seamless experience for problem analysis across various environments, as it allows for deeper examination through remote-environment capabilities. Connecting to remote environments has been made easier, with interactive connections possible through the web UI and automation via API capabilities. However, remote-environment connections maintain user context and permissions within environment boundaries, necessitating the use of management zones for segmentation. While environment administrators configure these dashboards, regular users can still access and interact with them without restrictions, except for the World map dashboard tile, which does not support remote environments. Dynatrace aims to further enhance user permissions across environment boundaries and encourages feedback from users on deploying remote-environment dashboards effectively.

The Dynatrace Managed version 1.200 release introduced several new features and enhancements, including timestamped log files in UTC across all services, and expanded support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2, CentOS 8.2, and Suse Enterprise Linux 15.2. Enhancements in the Cluster Management Console now better display licenses for premium features and improved notifications, while synthetic monitoring has been optimized for performance with updates such as error code changes for browser monitors and conditional availability display. This release also addressed 26 resolved issues, including a vulnerability in ActiveGate, UI improvements, and better handling of session data. Additionally, the update improved metrics for infrastructure monitoring and introduced fixes across various components like the Cluster Management Console, Installer and Upgrade processes, and Session Replay. Notably, Docker container plugin metrics no longer contribute to Davis data unit consumption, and specific enhancements were made to prevent server log overflow and retain custom certificates during upgrades.

Dynatrace version 1.198 introduces significant enhancements in CPU analysis, enabling users to better understand and optimize CPU consumption over time within their workloads, particularly in cloud computing environments where cost efficiency is crucial. By offering a comprehensive view of CPU usage through various chart types and color coding, users can quickly identify CPU-intensive workloads and determine which optimizations will yield the highest cost savings. Dynatrace's OneAgent provides automated code-level insights for languages such as Java, .NET, Node.js, PHP, and Golang, without requiring changes to application code, allowing users to pinpoint CPU-intensive applications and optimize source code to reduce the CPU footprint. The platform's improved filter bar and ability to analyze workloads by process or service facilitate a detailed examination of CPU usage, including insights into method hotspots, thread analysis, and memory allocation. The new features are automatically enabled in Dynatrace environments on version 1.198 and can be accessed via the CPU analysis view, with ongoing improvements to diagnostic tools and workflows expected in future updates.

Federal agencies, historically reliant on long-standing IT systems, are now embracing digital transformation due to initiatives like the Cloud First and Modernizing Government Technology Act. Dynatrace has responded by launching Dynatrace for Government, a platform that has achieved FedRAMP moderate impact level authorization, ensuring secure, advanced observability and AI-assistance tailored for federal needs. This platform enables federal agencies to automate operations, release digital services swiftly, and enhance constituent outcomes while maintaining compliance with federal standards like FIPS 140-2 and NIST 800-53. With features such as continuous automation, AI-driven security intelligence, and cross-team collaboration, Dynatrace aims to reduce manual work, optimize user experiences, and enhance business analytics. The rapid achievement of FedRAMP authorization highlights Dynatrace's agile development practices and commitment to providing a secure, efficient solution for government IT modernization.

Dynatrace's OneAgent version 1.197 release notes, published on July 28, 2020, highlight several new features, enhancements, and resolved issues. Notably, the release includes the general availability of Windows services availability monitoring, aimed at improving infrastructure visibility. The notes also detail future changes in technology support, specifying that upcoming versions will phase out support for certain OpenTelemetry versions for Go and various operating systems by specified dates. Additionally, the update resolves a total of 23 issues across different components such as Java, .NET, cluster, infrastructure monitoring, and PHP, among others. Specific fixes include addressing a Java JVM hotspot reporting error and .NET module deadlock situation, improving OneAgent code handling on read-only file systems, and enhancing the performance of the visually complete module for JavaScript. Furthermore, the document lists past technology and operating systems support changes, outlining technologies and systems no longer supported as of certain 2025 dates, and mentions specific fixes for OneAgent on mobile and JavaScript platforms.

Dynatrace version 1.198 introduces auto-adaptive baselines for both built-in and custom metrics, enhancing root cause analysis and alerting by dynamically adjusting to changing metric behaviors over time, thus reducing false-positive alerts. Unlike static thresholds, these baselines learn and adapt based on historical data, making them particularly effective in dynamic cloud environments where manual analysis is not feasible. Auto-adaptive baselines extend beyond application performance metrics to include infrastructure and cloud metrics, offering a more comprehensive monitoring strategy. The system uses a sliding evaluation window and signal fluctuations to fine-tune alert sensitivity and integrates seamlessly with the Dynatrace environment, requiring no additional licenses. This development allows users to leverage AI-powered analysis more effectively, providing deeper insights into metric fluctuations and enhancing the reliability of monitoring systems.

Dynatrace OneAgent is a powerful tool for full-stack monitoring, but it cannot be installed on all device types, such as network devices, storage devices, or outdated operating systems. In these cases, custom devices can be created in Dynatrace to send data using an API or ActiveGate extension, or a simple synthetic monitor can suffice for tasks like checking if an SQL database is active or if a DNS server is operational. The Dynatrace Platform Extension Services team offers solutions for non-web-based protocols, including ping and DNS lookups, through the ActiveGate extension framework and Third-party Synthetic API, with open-source implementations available on GitHub for easy integration. As of Dynatrace version 1.198, an Early Adopter program provides a streamlined process for integrating extensions, allowing users to create and visualize synthetic monitors, link data to Dynatrace applications, and build dashboards. For those needing assistance, the Platform Extension Services team is available to help, and a free 15-day trial of Dynatrace is offered without requiring a credit card.

In this text, the author discusses the implementation of a consolidated API, termed an "API Multiplexer," to efficiently manage and access multiple Dynatrace environments within a large global setup. This solution addresses the challenge of consolidating API endpoints from numerous Dynatrace environments into a single entry-point, facilitating seamless API access without the need for individual token management across tenants. The API Multiplexer employs a fan-out/fan-in approach to distribute API calls across multiple tenants, execute them in parallel, and return aggregated results, enhancing performance and scalability. The implementation, built using Go for its concurrency capabilities, includes services such as TenantManager for token management and TenantCache for storing tenant information, enabling efficient and filtered access to specific tenant data. The solution mitigates potential overload on the Dynatrace API by limiting parallel requests, ensuring robustness and high performance, which allows the author to visualize problem statuses across environments and explore further integrations and analytics.

Following a complete refresh and relaunch of their website, a stakeholder closely monitored its performance, finding that despite some initial concerns, the overall digital experience remained positive across various regions, including China. The stakeholder noted a minor spike in response time, which was quickly resolved, and identified a brief period of increased JavaScript errors due to a transition from HTTP to HTTPS, which the development team swiftly addressed. Using the business dashboard and Dynatrace, they reviewed the issues, observed no server or network problems, and confirmed that all previously logged alerts were closed, allowing them to proceed with confidence for the day's events.

Autonomous Cloud Enablement (ACE) and Keptn are pivotal in automating delivery and operations for Dynatrace customers by integrating with existing DevOps tools, reducing manual tasks, and enhancing efficiency. Keptn, an open-source project now part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, offers an event-driven autonomous cloud control plane that automates key processes such as quality gates, performance feedback, and remediation through its integration with the Dynatrace API. This integration facilitates the automation of up to 90% of manual build approval tasks and supports performance and scalability evaluations, contributing to a reduction in Mean Time to Innovation (MTTI) and Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR). Keptn's architecture allows for seamless integration with various monitoring platforms and CI/CD tools, enabling users to modernize their pipelines progressively. By automating delivery and operations, Keptn enhances the usability of the Dynatrace platform, enabling organizations to adopt autonomous cloud practices more effectively and efficiently.

Dynatrace offers a robust solution for managing complex cloud-based or hybrid IT environments, allowing for seamless handling of thousands of connected systems through automation and API integration. Reinhard Weber shares his experience in managing a global setup of Dynatrace Managed Clusters with over 5,000 individual environments in a hybrid deployment scenario, emphasizing the need for automation in operational tasks to cope with large-scale setups. By utilizing system configuration management tools, such as Puppet, Weber developed an "Autonomous Dynatrace Setup" that automates the creation of Dynatrace environments and the deployment of OneAgent, significantly reducing the need for human intervention. This approach involves leveraging Dynatrace APIs to manage environments, deploy agents, and create necessary user groups and permissions, demonstrating how automation can effectively streamline and maintain large monitoring systems in real time. The series, starting with autonomous roll-out, promises to delve into further architectural concepts and solutions to maintain and scale such extensive setups.

Technology professionals should engage with marketing efforts, as campaigns can significantly impact system performance, often causing unexpected traffic spikes that may be mistaken for issues like bot attacks. Understanding and utilizing UTM parameters can bridge the gap between IT and marketing by providing insights into traffic sources and campaign effectiveness. By capturing these parameters using tools like Dynatrace's Real User Monitoring (RUM) and server-side request attributes, IT teams can better analyze campaign traffic and collaborate effectively with marketing teams. While server-side capturing has limitations, such as missing CDN-handled traffic and lacking user session context, leveraging Dynatrace's capabilities can enhance cross-departmental collaboration, reduce miscommunications, and improve overall system management during marketing campaigns.