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Dynatrace

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Dynatrace is a software intelligence platform that monitors and optimizes application performance, development and security, IT infrastructure, and user experience. The Dynatrace Software Intelligence Platform maps, and monitors applications, microservices, container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes, and IT infrastructure running in multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments, and provides automated problem remediation.

Nobl9 integration with Dynatrace allows users to fetch metric datapoints via metric v2 API with a one-minute resolution. Users can provide a custom selector (by providing value for the metricSelector parameter of the API).

Dynatrace parameters and supported features in Nobl9
General support:
Release channel: Stable, Beta
Connection method: Agent, Direct
Replay and SLI Analyzer: Historical data limit 28 days
Event logs: Supported
Query checker: Supported
Query parameters retrieval: Supported
Timestamp cache persistence: Supported
Query parameters:
Query interval: 1 min
Query delay: 2 min
Jitter: 15 sec
Timeout: 30 sec
Agent details and minimum required versions for supported features:
Plugin name: n9dynatrace
Query delay environment variable: DYNATRACE_QUERY_DELAY
Replay and SLI Analyzer: 0.66.0
Query parameters retrieval: 0.73.2
Timestamp cache persistence: 0.65.0
Additional notes:
Only metrics obtained with the metricSelector clause are supported
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caution

Dynatrace's metricSelector allows you to query for multiple metrics at once. Note that Nobl9 treats SLO data points as time series. Effectively, it means that Nobl9 rejects any datapoint with a timestamp already stored for a given SLO.

To avoid uncertainty, query for data points for only one metric.

Creating SLOs with Dynatrace​

Nobl9 Web​

Follow the instructions below to create your SLOs with Dynatrace in the UI:

  1. Navigate to Service Level Objectives.

  2. Click .

  3. In step 1 of the SLO wizard, select the Service the SLO will be associated with.

  4. In step 2, select Dynatrace as the Data Source for your SLO, then specify the Metric. You can choose either a Threshold Metric, where a single time series is evaluated against a threshold, or a Ratio Metric, which allows you to enter two time series to compare (for example, a count of good requests and total requests).

    1. Choose the Data Count Method for your ratio metric:
      • Non-incremental: counts incoming metric values one-by-one. So the resulting SLO graph is pike-shaped.
      • Incremental: counts the incoming metric values incrementally, adding every next value to previous values. It results in a constantly increasing SLO graph.

  5. Enter a Metric Selector, or Metric selector for good counter and Metric selector for total counter for the metric you selected.

    • Metric selector selects metrics for the query by their keys.
    • You can select up to 10 metrics for one query. metricSelector can be obtained from the Dynatrace v2 API. In the Custom chart area, select the Try it out button. Then, in the Data Explorer, select the Code tab.

    For more information and query samples, refer to the Creating Dynatrace SLOs with sloctl section below.

    SLI values for good and total
    When choosing the query for the ratio SLI (countMetrics), keep in mind that the values ​​resulting from that query for both good and total:
    • Must be positive.
    • While we recommend using integers, fractions are also acceptable.
      • If using fractions, we recommend them to be larger than 1e-4 = 0.0001.
    • Shouldn't be larger than 1e+20.

  6. In step 3, define a Time Window for the SLO.

  • Rolling time windows are better for tracking the recent user experience of a service.

  • Calendar-aligned windows are best suited for SLOs that are intended to map to business metrics measured on a calendar-aligned basis, such as every calendar month or every quarter.

  1. In step 4, specify the Error Budget Calculation Method and your Objective(s).

    • Occurrences method counts good attempts against the count of total attempts.
    • Time Slicesmethod measures how many good minutes were achieved (when a system operates within defined boundaries) during a time window.
    • You can define up to 12 objectives for an SLO.

    See the use case example and the SLO calculations guide for more information on the error budget calculation methods.

  2. In step 5, add the Display name, Name, and other settings for your SLO:

    • Create a composite SLO
    • Set notification on data, if this option is available for your data source.
      When activated, Nobl9 notifies you if your SLO hasn't received data or received incomplete data for more than 15 minutes.
    • Add alert policies, labels, and links, if required.
      You can add up to 20 links per SLO.

  3. Click Create SLO.

sloctl​

Sample Dynatrace threshold SLO
apiVersion: n9/v1alpha
kind: SLO
metadata:
  name: api-server-slo
  displayName: API Server SLO
  project: default
  labels:
    area:
      - latency
      - slow-check
    env:
      - prod
      - dev
    region:
      - us
      - eu
    team:
      - green
      - sales
  annotations:
    area: latency
    env: prod
    region: us
    team: sales
spec:
  description: Example Dynatrace SLO
  indicator:
    metricSource:
      name: dynatrace
      project: default
      kind: Agent
  budgetingMethod: Occurrences
  objectives:
    - displayName: Good response (200)
      value: 200
      name: ok
      target: 0.95
      rawMetric:
        query:
          dynatrace:
            metricSelector: >-
              builtin:service.response.server:filter(and(or(in("dt.entity.service",entitySelector("type(service),entityName.equals(~"APIServer~")"))))):splitBy("dt.entity.service"):sort(value(auto,descending)):limit(100)
      op: lte
      primary: true
  service: api-server
  timeWindows:
    - unit: Month
      count: 1
      isRolling: false
      calendar:
        startTime: 2022-12-01T00:00:00.000Z
        timeZone: UTC
  alertPolicies:
    - fast-burn-5x-for-last-10m
  attachments:
    - url: https://docs.nobl9.com
      displayName: Nobl9 Documentation
  anomalyConfig:
    noData:
      alertMethods:
        - name: slack-notification
          project: default

Metric specification from Dynatrace requires one field:

  • dynatrace.metricSelector – mandatory, string. You can try out your metricSelector in the Data Explorer tool. In the Custom chart area, click the Try it out button. Then, in the Data Explorer, select the Code tab:
Image 1: Data Explorer tool

Dynatrace metricSelector is a powerful instrument for specifying which metrics you want to read with the GET metric data points. By using metricSelector, you can transform the resulting set of data points. For more details, go to Metrics API - Metric Selector | Dynatrace documentation.

Querying the Dynatrace server​

Nobl9 calls the Dynatrace server every minute to retrieve the raw data.

For a more in-depth look, consult additional resources:
Get metric data pointsDynatrace docsMetrics API - metric selectorDynatrace docsMetrics API - get metricsDynatrace docsAgent metricsAgentCreating SLOs via TerraformTerraformCreating agents via TerraformTerraform
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