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

When you have a custom dashboard that has only one widget, you can delete that widget by clicking the Delete Widget button on the widget properties panel. This will remove the widget from the dashboard, but it will not delete the dashboard itself. You can still view and edit the dashboard from the Controller UI or the Events Service.

According to the Create and Manage Custom Dashboards and Templates - AppDynamics, when you delete a widget from a custom dashboard, AppDynamics does not create a blank widget because empty dashboards are not allowed. Instead, it preserves the existing widgets on the dashboard and displays them in a single row.

Therefore, B (The widget is deleted, but an empty custom dashboard is maintained) is true. References:

• Create and Manage Custom Dashboards and Templates - AppDynamics
• How to bulk delete custom dashboards using API - Cisco … - AppDynamics
• Custom Dashboard Permissions - docs.appdynamics.com

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

The Mark Business Transaction as Error checkbox under Configuration > Instrumentation > Error Detection allows you to control whether a business transaction is reported as an error or not. If you clear this checkbox, the business transaction will not be marked as an error and will not affect the error count metrics.

According to the Error Detection: Mark Business Transaction as Error - AppDynamics, the following statements are true when you clear this checkbox:

• The transaction is included in Response Time metrics: This means that the transaction will still contribute to the response time metric, which measures the average time it takes for a request to be completed by AppDynamics. However, it will not affect other response time metrics, such as First Response Time or Average Time to First Byte.
• The transaction is added to error count metrics: This means that the transaction will still count towards the error count metric, which measures the number of transactions that have failed due to errors. However, it will not affect other error count metrics, such as Error Rate or Error Percentage.

Therefore, A (The transaction is included in Response Time metrics) and B (The transaction is added to error count metrics) are true. References:

• Error Detection: Mark Business Transaction as Error - AppDynamics
• Business Transaction - AppDynamics
• Error Detection - AppDynamics

The UniqueHostID agent property is recommended to be used when the machine agent is with multiple app agents on the same machine or when the machine agent is with an app agent on the same machine. This property allows you to specify a unique identifier for the host machine that overrides the default hostname resolution. This helps to avoid conflicts or confusion when multiple agents are running on the same host or when the hostname is not consistent across different agents1 References: 1: How are you able to associate the machine agent with application

An exception in AppDynamics is a code-level event that indicates a problem or abnormality in the execution of a business transaction. AppDynamics captures and presents information on exceptions in the monitored environment, and allows you to configure the rules and criteria for detecting and reporting exceptions.

According to the Errors and Exceptions - AppDynamics, the following two types of events would be marked as an exception in AppDynamics:

• A custom-configured error method and error message: This is a type of event that you can define as an exception based on a specific method and message that indicate an error condition in your application code. You can configure the error detection rules to mark a business transaction as an error and capture the exception information when such a method and message are encountered. For example, you can configure a rule to mark a business transaction as an error and capture the exception when the method com.example.MyClass.myMethod returns the message Invalid input.
• Any message that is logged with a severity of Error or Fatal: This is a type of event that AppDynamics automatically detects as an exception based on the log messages that are generated by your application code. AppDynamics scans the log messages for the keywords Error or Fatal, and marks the business transaction as an error and captures the exception information when such a message is found. For example, AppDynamics will mark a business transaction as an error and capture the exception when the log message contains Error: Null pointer exception.

Therefore, B (a custom-configured error method and error message) and C (any message that is logged with a severity of Error or Fatal) are two types of events that would be marked as an exception in AppDynamics. References:

• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Errors and Exceptions - AppDynamics
• Error Detection - AppDynamics

Metrics are the numerical values that AppDynamics collects and reports to measure the performance and availability of your applications and their components. You can use metrics to create custom dashboards that display the data that is relevant to your needs and interests.

According to the Metrics - AppDynamics, the following two places are where you would find metrics to be added to a custom dashboard:

• The JMX tab on the Node: This tab shows the Java Management Extensions (JMX) metrics that are exposed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) or the application server. JMX metrics provide information about the JVM memory, threads, garbage collection, and other aspects of the Java environment. You canadd JMX metrics to a custom dashboard by selecting them from the metric browser tree and dragging them to the dashboard canvas.
• The Metric Browser: This is a tool that allows you to browse, search, and view all the metrics that are available in AppDynamics. The metric browser shows the metrics in a hierarchical tree structure that reflects the logical organization of your applications and their components. You can add metrics to a custom dashboard by selecting them from the metric browser tree and dragging them to the dashboard canvas.

Therefore, C (the JMX tab on the Node) and D (the Metric Browser) are two places where you would find metrics to be added to a custom dashboard. References:

• Metrics - AppDynamics
• Custom Dashboards - AppDynamics
• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification

The Policy Test Bench gives administrators the ability to test and debug policy execution. It allows you to simulate events and see how the policies and actions respond to them. You can also view the policy execution logs and troubleshoot any issues1 References: 1: Policy Test Bench

Infrastructure monitoring is the feature in AppDynamics that allows you to monitor and troubleshoot the health and availability of the servers that host your applications and their components. Infrastructure monitoring includes metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, network traffic, and so on. You can use infrastructure monitoring to detect and resolve the problems that affect the performance and reliability of your servers and applications.

According to the Server Visibility - AppDynamics, the following kind of problem is detected with infrastructure monitoring:

• Process level problems: These are the problems that occur at the process level of the server, such as high CPU consumption, memory leaks, excessive disk I/O, or network congestion. You can use infrastructure monitoring to identify the processes that are consuming the most resources, and drill down to the details of each process, such as the command line, the environment variables, the open files, the threads, and the sockets. You can also use infrastructure monitoring to correlate the process level problems with the application performance problems, such as slow response time, high error rate, or low throughput.

Therefore, E (process level problems) is the correct answer. References:

• Server Visibility - AppDynamics
• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Server Monitoring - AppDynamics

Database Visibility provides metrics on the performance of your database and helps troubleshoot performance-related issues. Database Visibility consists of four main components: Database Agent, Collector, Controller, and Events Service (on-premises only). The Database Agent is a standalone Java program that collects performance metrics about your database instances and database servers. The Collector is the process that runs within the Database Agent to collect performance metrics about your database instances and database servers. The Controller is the central interface where you can see all your database instances and database server performance metrics. The Events Service stores high volumes of metric data.

According to the Overview of Database Visibility, the following types of information are sent to the Controller:

• Database-level metrics, such as the number of queries processed and other database statistics
• Names and attributes of all sessions, clients, queries, and other objects on the monitored system

The following types of information are sent to the Events Service:

• Time that each query spends at each wait state
• Individual query statistics for databases that support it
• Information about individual execution plans in databases that support it

Therefore, B (Average Number of Slow Connections) and C (Top Leaked Connections) are two stats that are available in Database Visibility. References:

• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Overview of Database Visibility - AppDynamics
• Database Visibility - AppDynamics

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 Widgets document1, there are various types of widgets that can be used to create visual representations of data in custom dashboards and war rooms. Some of the widget types are:

• Flow Map: A flow map widget displays the flow of traffic between different entities, such as applications, tiers, nodes, backends, and so on. You can customize the flow map to show different metrics, filters, and drill-down options.
• iFrame: An iFrame widget allows you to embed an external web page or another dashboard within a custom dashboard. You can specify the URL, height, and width of the iFrame widget.
• Health List: A health list widget displays the health status of different entities, such as applications, tiers, nodes, business transactions, and so on. You can customize the health list to show different metrics, filters, and drill-down options.

Therefore, the correct answer is A, B, and C. Snapshot and Funnel Analysts are not widget types, but features or tools that can be accessed from other widgets or dashboards. References:

• Widgets

To manage Controller security settings, you would need to grant the Security Administrator role to an existing user. The Security Administrator role is a built-in role that allows the user to access and modify the security settings of the Controller, such as encryption, certificates, authentication, authorization, and audit1. The Security Administrator role also inherits the permissions of the Credentials Administrator role, which allows the user to manage the credentials for the Controller and the agents2. The other roles listed do not have the permission to manage Controller security settings. The Administrator role can perform most administrative tasks, but not security-related ones2. The Analytics Administrator role can manage the analytics platform and data, but not theController security3. The Account Owner role can manage the account settings and licenses, but not the Controller security4

https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/21.x/21.1/en/application-monitoring/install-app-server-agents/agent-to-controller-connections

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

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

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