Free Practice Questions for Cisco 500-425 Exam

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

According to the Tiers and Nodes document1, establishing standards for naming applications, tiers, and nodes can help you identify and organize the components of your monitored environment, as well as troubleshoot performance issues and health rule violations. Some of the statements about establishing naming conventions are true:

Application Tier and Node values can be configured in the application agent startup script: This is true for Java agents, as you can pass values to the agent that will be used as the application, tier, and node name for the system. For example, you can use the -Dappdynamics.agent.applicationName, -Dappdynamics.agent.tierName, and -Dappdynamics.agent.nodeName properties to specify the names in the JVM startup script2.

Node names must be unique across the entire business application: This is true, as node names are used to identify the individual instances of the application components that are monitored by AppDynamics. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the data collection and reporting. Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures uniqueness and clarity for each node1.

Application Tier and Node values can be configured in the controller-info.xml file: This is true for Java agents, as you can also configure the names in the controller-info.xml file, which is located in the /conf directory. The controller-info.xml file contains the properties that define the agent identity and connection to the Controller. You can use the , , and elements to specify the names in the file2.

Some of the statements about establishing naming conventions are false:

Nodes that reside on different Tiers and different machines (hosts) can have duplicate Node names: This is false, as node names must be unique across the entire business application, regardless of the tier or the host they belong to. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the data collection and reporting. Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures uniqueness and clarity for each node1.

Nodes that reside on the same Tier but on different machines (hosts) can have duplicate Node names: This is also false, as node names must be unique across the entire business application, regardless of the tier or the host they belong to. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the data collection and reporting. Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures uniqueness and clarity for each node1.

References:

Tiers and Nodes

Name Business Applications, Tiers, and Nodes

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 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

On a custom dashboard, a non-administrator user can view the following types of information:

The company logo: A custom dashboard can display the company logo in the upper left corner of the dashboard. This can help to brand the dashboard and make it more recognizable for the intended audience. The logo can be configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the dashboard settings1.

The version of the AppDynamics Controller: A custom dashboard can display the version of the AppDynamics Controller in the upper right corner of the dashboard. This can help to identify the Controller that is hosting the dashboard and the features that are available. The version can be configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the dashboard settings1.

A Timeseries graph: A custom dashboard can display a Timeseries graph widget that shows the trend of a metric over time. This can help to visualize the performance and behavior of the application, server, or database that is being monitored. A Timeseries graph can be configured by the dashboard owner or administrator from the widget settings2.

A non-administrator user cannot view the following types of information on a custom dashboard:

The current weather in Seattle: A custom dashboard cannot display the current weather in Seattle or any other location, as this is not a metric or data point that is reported by AppDynamics agents or the analytics platform. A custom dashboard can only display the data that is collected and stored by AppDynamics2.

The number of AppDynamics licenses consumed: A custom dashboard cannot display the number of AppDynamics licenses consumed, as this is a Controller-level information that is only accessible by the Controller administrator. A custom dashboard can only display the data that is scoped by the dashboard owner’s permissions1 . https://docs.appdynamics.com/accounts/en/cisco-appdynamics-saas-deployment-user-management/manage-custom-roles-for-cisco-appdynamics/custom-dashboard-permissions

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

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

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 confirm that the agent is communicating properly to the controller, you can use the following methods:

Check if data is being written to the agent log in /logs. This indicates that the agent is able to send metrics and events to the controller. You can also look for any errors or warnings in the log file that might indicate a connection issue1

Select Application > Tiers and Nodes > Look for the Node. This shows you the list of nodes that are registered with the controller and their status. You can see if the node is up or down, the agent version, the last reported time, and the machine name2

References: 1: Troubleshoot Agent Connectivity 2