Goal

This article shows how to integrate DynaTrace with the Denodo Platform, including the embedded Tomcat container and the VDP server.

DynaTrace Overview

DynaTrace is a public cloud-based application performance manager that can be used to monitor the availability and performance of many software applications. To enable monitoring of Denodo Platform and Solution Manager Dynatrace provides an agent which is called OneAgent.

The OneAgent is responsible for collecting all monitoring data within your monitored environment. A single OneAgent per host is required to collect all relevant monitoring data, even if your hosts are deployed within Docker containers, microservices architectures, or cloud-based infrastructure.

OneAgent installation

The steps to install DynaTrace OneAgent are available on the following page, depending on your platform: Dynatrace OneAgent. You will find different versions for Microsoft Windows, Linux, etc. for both 64 and 32-bit. In the following section, we will go through the configuration steps required to work with Denodo on-premise installation.

After registering in Dynatrace you will be redirected to the Dynatrace landing page.

From your DynaTrace Hub:

• Search “Java” and click Set up.

• Select the platform type where Denodo is installed and download the agent installation file.

• Decompress the archive and run the installer using the command listed at point 3 of the Dynatrace website.
• Virtual DataPort must be restarted once the OneAgent installation is complete. Finally proceed to the “Deployment status” window and check if your host is visible.

Monitoring

When you deploy OneAgent on a host, the host resources, processes, and logs will be monitored automatically. Additional application-specific metrics will be available when selecting a process. For instance, when monitoring a Java application the Garbage Collector statistics will be automatically available.

First of all, you should check if the monitoring is enabled for the host where OneAgent is installed:

• Search “Host Classic” from the left bar. Select your hostname.
• Click the three dots in the top right corner.
• Select “Host monitoring” and check if “Monitor this host” is enabled.

If the monitor is enabled you can go back to the Host / <your_hostname> window from the top navigation bar. You should see different host-related information (CPU, Memory, etc.) on the hosts that are being monitored.

To visualize Denodo metrics you can scroll down to the “Process analysis” section and select the “com.denodo.util.launcher.Launcher” process.

In the System Performance tab, you will notice different graphs on host resources where OneAgent has been deployed. In the JVM metrics tab, you will find Java-specific metrics such as Suspension, Heap memory, G1 young and old gen, etc.

Monitor Denodo-specific MBeans

The metrics that are available when selecting “com.denodo.util.launcher.Launcher” are Java-specific metrics. However additional information is provided by Denodo through the JMX interface. Dynatrace is able to import specific MBeans and show them as custom metrics.

• In Dynatrace, go to the menu on the left side of the screen, and search “Settings”. Under “Monitoring” > “Monitored technologies”, click select “Add new technology monitoring”.

• Select “Add JMX/PMI extension” and click “Use JMX/PMI extensions editor”.

• Define an extension name (e.g. “denodo_mbeans”).
• Select “Add metric source”. If this does not appear, ensure that the VDP server is running and Dynatrace OneAgent is installed and running.

• Under “Monitored technology”, select “Other” to monitor the VDP server. To monitor the Apache Tomcat associated with the VDP server, select “Apache Tomcat”.

• Then, in the suggested source, click the edit (pencil) icon.
• Confirm the hostname of the machine running the VDP server.
• Under “Process”, choose one of the available options. For example, “com.denodo.util.launcher.Launcher”.

• Click on Add metrics source > Add metric
• Choose domain: “com.denodo.vdb.management.mbeans” and Filter by “type”.
• After this, you should be able to see the available metrics: “DataSourceManagementInfo,MemoryManagementInfo,VDBServerManagementInfo”, etc.

You can select, for instance, an MBean with “type: VDBServerManagementInfo” and its the Attribute “ActiveConnections”.

Note: Dynatrace aggregates MBeans data over time, therefore you should avoid the aggregation sum unless you are looking for cumulative values.

You can set up multiple metrics, once you are done confirm them with the “Add Extension” button.

• To be able to see the new “Custom Extension” it has to be enabled for a single monitored host. Therefore, search and open the “Host Classic” page, select your host, and open the Settings using the three dots on the top right part of the screen.

In the General tab, you will see the Monitored technologies for this particular host. Search the custom extension you created in the previous steps (e.g. “denodo_mbeans”). Expand the row and select both “Use host configuration” and “Activate denodo_mbenas on this host”.

• You can now go back to the host monitoring page by selecting the hostname on the top navigation bar.

Select the process “com.denodo.util.launcher.Launcher” from the Process Analysis section and open the Further Details tab, close to the System Performance and JVM metrics. Finally switch to the “<your_extension_name> metrics” tab, for instance: “denodo_mbeans metrics”. Here all the MBeans that have been added through the extension will be shown.

• To view or modify a custom-developed extension, search “Settings” from the left bar, and go to  “Monitored technologies” > “Custom extensions”.

What we have seen so far is how to monitor a VDP server using JVM metrics and custom extensions to read Denodo MBeans. However, the same above process could be carried out similarly for the following components:

• Apache Tomcat
• Denodo Solution Manager
• SSL enabled VDP servers

Ingest Denodo Logs

You can configure Dynatrace to ingest Denodo logs to monitor Virtual DataPort errors as soon as they are logged inside /logs folder. For instance, this is the procedure to ingest vdp.log:

• Search “Host Classic” from the left lateral panel and open the app.
•  Select your host, click the 3 dots on the top left of the screen, and select “Settings”
• Under “Log Monitoring” > “Log ingest rules” click “Add rule” 

• Insert a name in the “Rule name” field, for instance “denodo_logs”. Make sure the “Include in storage option” is selected and click the “Add condition” button.
• As “Matcher attribute” select “Log source” and choose one or more absolute paths of Denodo log folders. Dynatrace automatically suggests the log file paths that are being written by Denodo but you can paste every log path you prefer. For instance:

• <DENODO_HOME>/logs/vdp/vdp.log
• <DENODO_HOME/resources/apache-tomcat/logs/catalina.#-#-#.log
• <DENODO_HOME>/logs/design-studio/design-studio-backend.log

• Click on “Save changes”.
• You can now go back to your Hosts/<hostname> page: in the “Logs” section you should now be able to see Denodo log entries. Since there might be other logs that are being ingested you can open the dedicated log querying page by clicking the arrow on the top right part of the logs graph (Go to logs).

• To filter only for Virtual DataPort files you can select the Main > dt.process.name > com.denodo.util.Launcher filter from the Available attributes and see the logs by selecting “Run query”.

References

JMX extensions

How to use Dynatrace

Log ingest & process