IIS / ASP.NET Lightswitch HTML Client requests not collected by AppDynamics

[CommunityUser]

Hello all,

I have a web application hosted on IIS 8 running on Windows Server 2012 implemented using Microsoft Lightswitch HTML Framework on Visual Studio 2013

I've installed the .NET AppDynamics Agent for IIS on the machine, no requests (except Login.aspx and LogOut.aspx) are recognized by AppDynamics.

Below are examples of network activity captured from Chrome Dev Tools that I was expecting also to visualize in AppDynamics Controller.

All HTTP requests that take place in the webapp are going to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc OR  http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/OLA_ViewData.svc but none of these, which represent the activity on the website, are captured.

(OLA_Data and OLA_ViewData are the two datasources defined in Visual Studio while developing the webapp)

Example of a POST request 

1. Request URL: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/$batch
2. Request Method: POST
   Request Headers
   POST /TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/$batch HTTP/1.1
   Host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   Connection: keep-alive
   Content-Length: 847
   Authorization: Basic dHJpcGFkbWluOnRyaXBhZG1pbg==
   Accept: multipart/mixed
   MaxDataServiceVersion: 3.0
   Origin: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
   DataServiceVersion: 1.0
   Content-Type: multipart/mixed;boundary=batch_1daa-72cd-62f2
   Referer: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/HTMLClient/
   Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch
   Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8,pt;q=0.6
   Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=2fyadpqr0mtyh2okjduxb2ec; TripManager=57AB95CA9E2A7213ACD03A1130A4A33C5DF1DFB250559A893100179379016DD208051F11FE331EE6997C9A2ECEF7B1D0015C16FEA1011569D01FB985A124739307CE4270F901149C9E051329E3C76D578458B11A3F63454488BD75B05EF9E54D8BD703A7A0E6E84C59EC6BED21E8A199846FC4EAB35589C964FFDE54B591EF9BFB199DF12C8466C7CC0295EABEAE48FF; msls-client-parameters=preferredLanguage=en-US
   Request Payload
   --batch_1daa-72cd-62f2
   Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=changeset_bbb4-26ca-ece0
   --changeset_bbb4-26ca-ece0
   Content-Type: application/http
   Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
   POST Runs HTTP/1.1
   Content-ID: 0
   DataServiceVersion: 3.0
   Accept: application/atomsvc+xml;q=0.8, application/json;odata=fullmetadata;q=0.7, application/json;q=0.5, */*;q=0.1
   Content-Type: application/json;odata=verbose MaxDataServiceVersion: 3.0 {"Trip_ID":522,"Odometer":500,"Location":{"__metadata":{"uri":"http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Locations(130)"}},"DockTime":"15:10","DepartTime":"16:00","ShipmentNo":"nv1","WorkType":{"__metadata":{"uri":"http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/WorkTypes(10)"}},"ArrivalTime":"15:10","LoadID":"nv1"}
   --changeset_bbb4-26ca-ece0--
   --batch_1daa-72cd-62f2--

Example of a GET request 

1. Request URL: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/TripsSearch()?$orderby=Trip_ID%20desc&$expand=Driver...
2. Request Method: GET
   

   Request Headers

   GET /TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/TripsSearch()?$orderby=Trip_ID%20desc&$expand=Driver/DriverGrade,Driver,Vehicle3,Vehicle2,Vehicle1,Vehicle4,Customer&$top=45 HTTP/1.1

   Accept: application/json;q=0.8, application/json;odata=fullmetadata;q=0.7, application/atomsvc+xml;q=0.5, */*;q=0.1

   Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch

   Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8,pt;q=0.6

   Authorization: Basic dHJpcGFkbWluOnRyaXBhZG1pbg==

   Connection: keep-alive

   Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=2fyadpqr0mtyh2okjduxb2ec; TripManager=59BCB34F334311579987F7BFBA0899CC5D1A9C8FE5459E1491D5F8CEE22EAEF3335D25BBEFC6EF66AB0AB79EA7D7F2780C3622CDF6DABDFF7EA97D0D29DA594498121710FCF282102B1B87AE9FC43909D9EC53B063296FAD16AEC2A09B4B6ECD57E574BBADE304C1F5482E172E26FEEB6AFEF115D6756C2A8A2090FAC8E8D48E68CCE51C4D9ED28B148A919EEACCCC7E; msls-client-parameters=preferredLanguage=en-US

   Host: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

   MaxDataServiceVersion: 3.0

   MinDataServiceVersion: 3.0

   Referer: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/HTMLClient/

   Query String Parameters
   

   $orderby: Trip_ID desc

   $expand: Driver/DriverGrade,Driver,Vehicle3,Vehicle2,Vehicle1,Vehicle4,Customer

   $top: 45

Other GET request URL examples

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/HTMLClient/OLA_Data.svc/WorkTypes?$filter=WorkType_ID%20eq%20null

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/TripManager/HTMLClient/OLA_Data.svc/Products?$filter=Product_ID%20eq%205

What suggestions do you have so that I can capture all HTTP requests that hit IIS?

Thank you

[CommunityUser]

Hi Ihellyer,

Thank you for reaching out to us. It looks like the lightswitch framework uses WCF Data Services over the ODATA protocol in the middle tier (hosted in IIS). In order to monitor WCFDS, please add the following to your config.xml. You can find config.xml under

%ProgramData\AppDynamics\DotNetAgent\Config

Under the machine agent node

<machine-agent>

<instrumentor name="WCFDSEntryInstrumentor" enabled="true" /> 

</machine-agent>

After saving the config.xml please restart IIS(iisreset from an elevated command prompt)  and AppDynamics.Agent.Coordinator service (from services.msc).

Let us know if that helps.

Cheers

[CommunityUser]

Hello Amod Gupta,

I've added those configuration lines to config.xlm (and restarted IIS and AppDynamics service), but awhen I do that no events are displayed in the controller after multiple tests. Not even the Login.aspx and Logout.aspx.

Here's how my config.xml looks like after adding tohse lines:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<appdynamics-agent xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <controller host="<removed>.saas.appdynamics.com" port="443" ssl="true">
    <application name="IIS" />
    <account name="<removed>" password="<removed>" />
  </controller>
  <machine-agent>
    <instrumentor name="WCFDSEntryInstrumentor" enabled="true" />
  </machine-agent>
  <app-agents>
    <IIS>
      <automatic />
      <applications />
    </IIS>
  </app-agents>
</appdynamics-agent>

 I've tried it both with the Machine Agent running and not running - the result is the same.

Do you have any other suggestion?

Thank you

[CommunityUser]

Right after posting the previous message, decided to give a look at the log file and noticed that there was an error

2014-05-26 09:46:32.8711 3288 dllhost 1 3 Info ConfigurationLoader Reading configuration file: C:\ProgramData\AppDynamics\DotNetAgent\Config\config.xml
2014-05-26 09:46:33.1221 3288 dllhost 1 3 Error ConfigurationManager Error reading the configuration file: There is an error in XML document (8, 6).
The element 'machine-agent' has invalid child element 'instrumentor'. List of possible elements expected: 'node, perf-counters, tier, assembly-black-list, historical-nodes, instrumentation'.
2014-05-26 09:46:33.3622 3288 dllhost 1 3 Info ConfigurationManager Apps:

So I updated the config.xml file with

  <machine-agent>
    <instrumentation name="WCFDSEntryInstrumentor" enabled="true" />
  </machine-agent>

 But then got this error in the log file

2014-05-26 10:09:44.5094 284 dllhost 1 3 Info ConfigurationLoader Reading configuration file: C:\ProgramData\AppDynamics\DotNetAgent\Config\config.xml
2014-05-26 10:09:44.7674 284 dllhost 1 3 Error ConfigurationManager Error reading the configuration file: There is an error in XML document (8, 22).
The 'name' attribute is not declared.

How can I fix this error?

Thank you

[CommunityUser]

Ok, so after digging into AppDynamics documentation I now understand that the syntax must be as follows:

<machine-agent>
  <instrumentation>
    <instrumentor name="WCFDSEntryInstrumentor" enabled="true"/>
  </instrumentation>
</machine-agent>

Now I can see many more events in the controller 🙂

Thank you so much for your help Amod Gupta.

I have a new question though 🙂

I'd like to eliminate part of the Business Transaction name, and make some kind of rules to organize some of them together.

For example this is how the Business Transactions are listed in the Controller:

/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Activities

/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Products
/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Product_Deliveries

For these first type of transactions I can (and I have) simply rename them via the Controller interface, so that they are listed as List Activities, List Product and List Product_Deliveires respectively.

But there's a second group of transactions, that include parameters, but I'd like to have them all into their own type of transactions

/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Runs(Run_ID=1057,Trip
/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Runs(Run_ID=987,Trip
/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Runs(Run_ID=319,Trip

(These should be Edit Run)

/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Trips(Trip_ID=524)
/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Trips(Trip_ID=237)
/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Trips(Trip_ID=194)

(These should be Edit Trip)

How can I do that? Is there anywhere in the controller, or in config.xml where I can build rules or dynamically rename transactions?

Thank you again.

[CommunityUser]

Hi Ihellyer,

Glad to know that it solved your problem and all of your business transactions (BT) are showing up now.

As for your other question, have you tried setting up custom match rules (in the controller) for your BTs? You can find more infromation about them in our docs (links below)

http://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO13S/Configure+Business+Transaction+Detection#ConfigureBusines...

Take a look at the Custom Match Rules section. If you create a rule using part of your URI (/TripManager/OLA_Data.svc./TripManager/OLA_Data.svc/Runs) it should ignore the parameters that follow. Let me know how it goes also if you have any problems accessing the link above.

Thanks