Cisco 500-425 Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator (CAAA) Exam Practice Test

The default length of time events can be viewed with full detail before being purged is 7 days, unless archived. Events are records of significant occurrences in the monitored environment, such as errors, exceptions, policy violations, health rule violations, and more. You can view the events in the Controller UI under Events > All Events. You can also archive the events to retain them for longer periods or export them to external systems1 References: 1: Events

According to the Transaction Thresholds document1, you can set static thresholds for individual business transactions by selecting Individual Transaction Thresholds from the Business Transaction Configuration window. You can then specify the values for Slow, Very Slow, and Stall thresholds for each business transaction. This way, you can customize the thresholds according to the SLA and the expected performance of the long-running transactions. Setting the default thresholds or adjusting the health rules would affect all the business transactions, not just the long-running ones. Therefore, the correct answer is C. References:

• Transaction Thresholds

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

To determine and configure the exit call to the database, you need to go to Configuration > Instrumentation > Backend Detection > Java. An exit call is a call from an application component to an external service or system, such as a database, a web service, a message queue, or a cache. A backend is a logical representation of an external service or system that receives exit calls from an application component. AppDynamics automatically detects and identifies common types of backends, such as JDBC, HTTP, JMS, and so on.

According to the Exit Point Detection Rules - AppDynamics, the following steps are required to determine and configure the exit call to the database:

• Go to Configuration > Instrumentation > Backend Detection > Java.
• Select the application and the tier that contains the exit call to the database.
• Click the Add button to create a new exit point detection rule.
• Enter a name and description for the rule.
• Select the type of exit call from the drop-down list, such as JDBC, HTTP, JMS, and so on.
• Specify the class and method that make the exit call to the database.
• Specify the match criteria for the exit call, such as the URL, the query, the host, the port, and so on.
• Click Save.

Therefore, C (Configuration > Instrumentation > Backend Detection > Java) is the correct answer. References:

• Exit Point Detection Rules - AppDynamics
• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Backends - AppDynamics

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

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

To examine the Java App agent logs on a host without login access, you can use the Controller UI to request the agent logs. This feature allows you to download the agent logs from the Controller UI without having to access the host machine. You can specify the log level, the time range, and the file size limit for the logs12 References: 1: Request Agent Logs 2: Java Agent Logging

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

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

A group can contain multiple roles, which means that the users in the group inherit the permissions of all the roles assigned to the group. For example, you can create a group that has both the Administrator and the Analytics Administrator roles, and the users in that group can perform both the administration and the analytics tasks1 References: 1: Roles and Permissions

According to the Time Range Comparisons document1, you can use the Compare Time Range feature in Dash Studio to compare two time periods on a widget. However, this feature also means that the widget may not use the global time range set for the entire dashboard by default. Instead, the widget may use its own time range (denoted as T1) and a second time range (denoted as T2) for comparison. Therefore, if the customer changes the time range using the time picker, the data on the widget may not change accordingly, unless they also update the widget’s time range settings. Tofix this problem, the customer can either disable the Compare Time Range feature or adjust the widget’s time range to match the global time range. References:

• Time Range Comparisons

When you assign users to a group in AppDynamics, you can manage their permissions and access levels more easily. A group is a collection of users who share the same roles and privileges. A role is a set of permissions that define what actions a user can perform on the Controller UI or the Events Service.

According to the System Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager - User Management, the following statement is true about assigning users to a group:

• When you add a role to a group, every user in the group is assigned that role: This means that the users in the group inherit the permissions of the role that you add to the group. For example, if you add the Administrator role to a group, then all the users in that group can perform administrative tasks on the Controller UI or the Events Service.

The other statements are false because:

• When you assign a user to a group, they can only have the roles assigned to that group: This is not true because a user can belong to multiple groups and have multiple roles. For example, a user can be in both the Administrator and the Operator groups and have the permissions of both roles.
• You can list all users in a group that are logged into AppDynamics: This is not true because there is no such feature in AppDynamics that allows you to see thelogin status of the users in a group. You can only see the list of users and groups in the User Management page of the Controller UI or the Events Service.
• When the user logs in they can log in with the group credentials: This is not true because a user cannot log in with the group credentials. A user can only log in with their own username and password. The group credentials are not used for authentication, but for authorization.

Therefore, D (When you add a role to a group, every user in the group is assigned that role) is the correct answer. References:

• System Configuration Guide for Cisco Unified Communications Manager - User Management
• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• User Management - AppDynamics

Health rules are the criteria that AppDynamics uses to evaluate the performance and availability of your applications and their components. Health rules can trigger alerts and actions when the conditions are violated or cleared. Events are the occurrences that AppDynamics records when something significant happens in your monitored environment, such as a health rule violation, a policy execution, a deployment, or a custom event.

According to the Health Rules - AppDynamics, the following two ways can help you see the current status of health rules and events of the business process:

• Set up a policy to send an email or text when a health rule status changes: This way, you can get notified in real time when a health rule condition is met or cleared, and take appropriate actions to resolve or prevent issues. You can configure policies to send emails, texts, or other notifications to specific recipients or groups, and include relevant information such as the health rule name, the affected entity, the severity level, and the time range.
• Create a dashboard with health and events widgets displayed: This way, you can visualize the health and performance of your applications and their components in a single view, and drill down to the details of each health rule or event. You can create custom dashboards with various widgets that show the health status, the event list, the event summary, the event correlation, and the event timeline of your applications and their components.

Therefore, A (Set up a policy to send an email or text when a health rule status changes) and D (Create a dashboard with health and events widgets displayed) are two ways that can help you see the current status of health rules and events of the business process. References:

• Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
• Health Rules - AppDynamics
• [Policies and Actions - AppDynamics]
• [Events - AppDynamics]
• [Custom Dashboards - AppDynamics]

Two types of information that can be shared without an AppDynamics login are Flow Map and Custom Dashboards. Flow Map is a graphical representation of the application topology, showing the interactions between the tiers, nodes, backends, and remote services. CustomDashboards are user-defined views of the application performance data, metrics, and events. You can share these types of information by generating a shareable link from the Controller UI, which can be accessed by anyone who has the link, without requiring a login12 References: 1: Share a Flow Map 2: Share a Custom Dashboard

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO45X/Install+the+Database+Agent

To properly configure a database agent from a zip file, you need to provide the following minimum details:

• Controller Host: This is the hostname or IP address of the machine where the Controller is installed. You need to specify this so that the Database Agent can communicate with the Controller and send the collected data1
• Controller Port: This is the port number that the Controller listens on for incoming connections. You need to specify this so that the Database Agent can connect to the Controller using the correct protocol. The default ports are 8090 for HTTP and 8181 for HTTPS for on-premise Controllers, and 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS for SaaS Controllers1
• Account Access Key: This is the key that authenticates the Database Agent with the Controller. You need to specify this so that the Database Agent can register itself with the Controller and access the license. You can find the account access key in the Controller UI under Settings > License > Account1
• Account Name: This is the name of the account that the Database Agent belongs to. You need to specify this so that the Database Agent can associate itself with the correct application and user permissions. You can find the account name in the Controller UI under Settings > License > Account1

References: 1: Install the Database Agent

Health Rules are the rules that define the normal or expected behavior of your application, such as the response time, error rate, or CPU utilization of a business transaction, tier, node, or backend. You can create health rules to monitor the performance and availability of your application and its components. When a health rule is violated, it changes the status of the corresponding key performance indicator (KPI) from normal to warning or critical, depending on the severity of the violation. The status change is also represented as an event in the AppDynamics Controller UI, which can trigger alerts, policies, and actions. You can view the health rule events in the Events tab of the application dashboard, or in the Health tab of the entity dashboard.

https://developer.cisco.com/docs/appdynamics/health-rules/

https://university.appdynamics.com/certifications/associate-administrator

The main benefit of defining Database Collectors is that you can see which applications are calling a database and how they impact the database performance. Database Collectors enable the Database Agent to collect data from your database instances and database servers, such as metrics, queries, sessions, wait states, and more1 You can also link a database on the application flow maps to a database instance monitored by Database Visibility, which allows you to see the correlation between the application and the database2 References: 1: Add Database Collectors 2: [Link a Database on the Application Flow Map to a Database Instance Monitored by Database Visibility]

Server performance data is the information that AppDynamics collects and reports about the health and availability of the servers that host your applications and their components. Server performance data includes metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, network traffic, and so on. You can use server performance data to monitor and troubleshoot the performance issues of your servers and applications.

According to the Server Visibility - AppDynamics, the following two reasons are important for the engineer to view and analyze server performance data at this time:

• Visualizing application performance during normal operations helps identify when the application performance is abnormal: This means that by comparing the current server performance data with the historical or baseline data, you can detect any anomalies or deviations that may indicate a potential problem or degradation of your application performance. For example, you can use the Server Dashboard to see the current and historical trends of the server metrics, and use the Anomaly Detection feature to identify any outliers or unusual patterns.
• Graphs and charts collected at this time are useful for showing application owners the stability of their application: This means that by using the graphical and visual representations of the server performance data, you can communicate and demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of your application to the stakeholders and customers. For example, you can use the Server Health Report to generate a summary of the server health status, availability, and performance over a specified time period, and share it with the application owners.

Therefore, A (Visualizing application performance during normal operations helps identify when the application performance is abnormal) and B (Graphs and charts collected at this time are useful for showing application owners the stability of their application) are two important reasons for the engineer to view and analyze server performance data at this time. References:

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