Comparisons Beta

[Ondine_Kilker]

Beta Disclaimer: This documentation mentions features that are currently beta. AppDynamics makes no warranties regarding these beta features, including performance, quality, or availability, and reserves the right to change the features at any time before making them generally available as well as never making them generally available. Any buying decisions should be made based on features and products that are currently generally available.

The Comparisons feature is designed to allow you to compare performance between multiple release versions of a service implementation deployed within a single application tier, as defined by version tags. Start by tagging your application deployments to capture and compare different performance metrics for comparison groups. See Get Started with the Comparisons Feature.

A comparison group is comprised of all containers within the selected tier with a specific tag or label, for example, app.kubernetes.io /version. Once deployments are tagged, and data is captured, you can choose to display performance metadata from two or more comparison groups. In the beta release, Comparisons is available on a per account/tenant basis.

With Comparisons you can:

• Compare multiple concurrent software release versions for a tier or service on one screen.
  
• See one or more comparisons groups and their performance superimposed on three key performance metrics tracked by AppDynamics: Calls Per Minute (Load), Average Response Time (ms) and Errors Per Minute.
• Interact with time-series data. For example, hover over a set of data points on the time-series graph to get specific values.
• Breakdown the performance of individual nodes by timeframe and comparison group.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Get Started with the Comparisons Features
  • Attach the Necessary Version Label as a Tag to Your Docker Containers in a Kubernetes Installation
  • Create a Role to Access the Comparisons Feature
  • Assign Users to the Comparisons Tool User Role
• Comparisons UI Overview
• Use the Comparisons Feature
• Administer the Comparisons Tool
• Troubleshooting
• Known Issues

Prerequisites

To use the Comparisons feature, ensure your setup meets the following requirements.

Software Requirements

Comparison requires that you use:

• AppDynamics to monitor your Kubernetes cluster and the applications that are running in containers.
• A SaaS instance of an AppDynamics Controller, version 4.5.16 or later.
  
• An active APM Advanced license, see Advanced Edition - APM Any Language.

Using AppDynamics to test of evaluate typically involves verifying system requirements, preparing the host, and then performing the Controller installation.

AppDynamics Components

In beta, AppDynamics enables Comparisons for your account. If you cannot access the tool, submit an AppDynamics Support ticket to have the Comparisons feature property enabled for your account.

 

Server Visibility

Enable the AppDynamics Server Visibility module with Machine Agent version 4.3.3 or later.

 

Docker Visibility

Follow the Monitoring Containers with Docker Visibility setup, and the workflow described in Using Docker Visibility with Kubernetes.

This document contains links to Kubernetes documentation. AppDynamics makes no representation as to the accuracy of Kubernetes documentation because Kubernetes controls its own documentation.

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Getting Started with the Comparisions Feature

To use Comparisons, perform the following steps:

1. Attach the Necessary Version Label as a Tag to your Docker Containers
2. Provide User Permission to Access the Comparisons Feature
3. Assign the Necessary Permissions to Grant User Access to the Comparisons Feature
4.  

Attach the Necessary Version Label as a Tag to Your Docker Containers in a Kubernetes Installation

To get started with the Comparisons feature, your AppDynamics-monitored containers must have the Kubernetes label app.kubernetes.io /version set with values indicating specific release versions (for example, 1.1). Kubernetes labels are known as tags in AppDynamics. A tag is a key-value pair that helps you visualize and manage Kubernetes objects. You may already be using tags or labels with your application. For the Comparisons beta release, the app.kubernetes.io/version tag must be used.

Syntax

app.kubernetes.io/version

Example

 AppDynamics|1.1

The Machine Agent picks up existing tags automatically without requiring a restart based on the default polling interval.

Note, the polling interval checking response time and status varies based on components. For example, the AppDynamics sim. machines.tags.k8s.polling interval setting defaults to a 60-second interval. In AWS, the default polling interval for tags is 6 hours.

Create Labels in Kubernetes

You need to create the version label for any Docker container you want to monitor. Follow these Kubernetes articles to learn more about creating labels:

• Labels and Selectors
• Configuration Best Practices: Using Labels
• Kubectl Reference doc: label

You can verify your tagged containers using the Kubernetes command-line or kubectl. 

Verify Tags in AppDynamics

Server Visibility discovers labels you have created, including app.kubernetes.io/version. Kubernetes labels are known as tags in AppDynamics.

To confirm that Kubernetes labels have been applied and reported as tags in AppDynamics:

1. Log in to the Controller.
   
   
2. Navigate to the Servers tab.
   
   
3. The Dashboard view appears. To identify servers that are running containers, select Servers > View Options, and check Running on Container. This adds another column to show you which servers are running in containers.
   Servers tab > View Options > Running on Container
   
   
4. Select a server. In this example, we selected apmqe-docker-09.
   Servers tab > List
   
5. Click the Containers tab.
   Servers > Dashboard > click Containers tab
   
   
6. In the Containers view, double-click the Container Name that you want to verify.
   Servers tab > Containers view > click Container Name
   
7. The Container Detail > Overview window appears. Under Tags > Tag Name, locate and verify the tag AppDynamics|Version, and the corresponding Tag Values.
   Container Detail > Overview window. Under Tags > Tag Name > AppDynamics|Version tag and corresponding Tag Values.
   

Create a Role to Access the Comparisons Feature

To enable the Comparisons feature for select users, you must be the account owner or have Administrator permission.

On the Controller, follow these steps to enable the Comparisons feature:

1. Log in to the Controller as a user with Administrator permissions.
2. Click the gear icon in the Controller menu.
3. Select Administration.
4. Select the Roles tab.
5. Click Create.
6. Enter a role name, for example Comparisons Tool User.
7. Enter Description (optional).
8. Select the Account tab.
9. Click + Add. All Account permissions are displayed.
10. Click the View Comparisons (BETA) checkbox. 
11. Click Done.

Assign Users to the Comparisons Tool User Role

Using the role you defined previously, for example, Comparisions Tool User do the following:

1. Go to the User and Groups with this Role tab.
2. Click + Add. 
3. Select which Users or Groups that you would like to grant this role.
4. Click Done.
5. Click Save. A security warning window will be displayed. The user must click Accept for the role to be saved. 
   A Saved Successfully message appears in the top right corner.
6. Refresh your browser to reflect the changes.

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Comparisons UI Overview

The Comparisons feature displays performance data for two or more comparison groups.

The Set Up Comparison section shows two dropdown menus:

• Compare data from tier
• Group by label

The Comparison Groups displays all versions of a tier grouped by the app.kubernetes.io/version label. For example:

• app.kubernetes.io/version 1.1

• app.kubernetes.io/version 1.2

The Performance Comparison section displays the tagged versions and shows three metrics:

• Load - Calls Per Minute
• Average Response Time (ms)
• Errors Per Minute

The Details card displays comparison group details in expandable rows. Comparison groups are shown in bold. The data in these rows roll up information from all nodes within the group.

Property Name	Description
Comparison Group (nodes)	A comparison group is a collection of entities stored as a single unique instance. For example, all nodes with a specific tag: version.
Container Name	The names of individual containers within comparison groups.
Total Calls (Load)	The total number of calls (Load) for the comparison group and its nodes.
Calls/Min (Load)	Calls per minute (Load) for the comparison group and its containers.
Avg RT (ms)	The response time-averaged over the time range in milliseconds.
Errors %	The percentage of errors per minute for the comparison group and its containers.
Errors/Min	Errors per minute for the comparison group and its containers.

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Use the Comparisons Feature

Access the Comparisons feature to compare performance between versions.

1. Log in to the desired Controller.
   
   

2. Navigate to the Applications tab.
   
   

3. Select the tier that you wish to compare. Right-click on the tier name, and select Comparisons (BETA).Applications tab > Comparisons Beta
   

   Or, from the left navigation pane of the Controller UI, under Applications, select Comparisons Tool (BETA). If you only see data for one tagged release, you need to tag another release for comparison. See the 'Attach the Version Label as a Tag to Your Docker Containers' section of this document. 
   Controller UI left navigation pane > Applications > Comparisons Tool (BETA)

4. In the upper-right corner, click the clock icon to select the time range. The time range value defaults to Last 1 Hour.
   
   

5. On the Set Up Comparison card:
   1. Select a tier in the Compare data from tier dropdown menu.
   2. Select a label in the Group by label dropdown menu.
      
      
6. On the Performance Comparison card, all available comparison groups in the active time range are selected by default. While there is no limit to how many concurrent groups can be displayed, for ease of use, it is recommended to only include two to four comparison groups at a time.
   
   
7. To view information about specific data points at areas of interest, position your cursor over the desired chart.

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Administer the Comparisons Tool

You can disable and delete the Comparisons feature from the AppDynamics Controller.  

Disable Comparisons

To disable the Comparisions feature, specify the scope:

• Disable Comparison Feature for a User or Group
• Disable Comparisons Feature
  
  

Disable Comparison Feature for a User or Group

To disable Comparisons feature for a user, remove the user from the role:

1. Log in to the Controller with the Administrator password.
2. Click the gear icon in the Controller menu.
3. Select Administration.
4. Click on the Roles tab.
5. Search for the role name, Comparisons Tool User.
6. Go to the User and Groups with this Role tab.
7. Select which users or groups that you would like to remove from this Comparisons Tool User role.
8. Click on the name of the user or group, and click Delete (using the trash icon).
9. Click Save.
10. Refresh your browser to reflect the changes.

 

Disable Comparisons Feature

To disable the View Comparisons (BETA) for your account submit an AppDynamics Support ticket.

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Troubleshooting

If tags are not showing up in AppDynamics, verify that you have tagged your deployment with the app.kubernetes.io/version tag. 

The View Comparisons feature does not currently work with the Cluster Agent.

Need additional help? Technical support is available through AppDynamics Support.

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Known Issues

Issue	Description
FMMUI-4	Grid is not calculating calls per minute correctly
FMMUI-7	Chart popovers persist too long
FMMUI-13	If the full time range of data isn't available the chart time sequence isn't the entire time range
FMMUI-36	Total calls count is smaller than single container call count
FMMUI-37	Chart popovers do not include complete strings for values
FMMUI-41	Charts look like bar graphs when the time range is set longer than 6 hours

BETA – NOT FOR EXTERNAL DISTRIBUTION – BETA