incoming calls not showing on tier dashboard

[Kenny_Yu]

We are running 4.04. On my app tier's default dashboard, on the Flow Map or Grid views, the incoming calls don't show, while the load and response time charts appears as expected and show the total incoming traffic. Outgoing alls are displayed. Therefore, to see what is hitting the app, I need to go to the Transaction Snapshot to look at [sampled transactions], which shows URLs and other details.

On another tier, the incoming calls do show up on the dashboard. What makes the difference? I am interested in the stats by URL that comes with incoming calls.

[CommunityUser]

Kyu,

It sounds like you're getting the overall volume of traffic that you expect, but that it's not being split out into separate business transactions in a way that you'd like to see them (let me know if I'm reading your post wrong). If that's the case, you have to modify AppD's default methods of splitting the transactions out. Basically, AppD has no way of knowing how your BTs are optimally organized, so it makes reasonable assumptions and then leaves it to you to tweak them if what it guesses aren't ideal.

So, you need to learn how to configure the AppD to diffferentiate them. Here are some resources to help you learn to do that:

Here's a good video that we made on the subject:

https://vimeo.com/109482819

Here's some good formal documentation:

https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRO40/Configure+Business+Transaction+Detection

Let us know if this addresses your need or if you're looking for something else.

Thanks,

-Brad

[Kenny_Yu]

Brad,

Thanks for the quick reply. But not talking abput BT, which I think is configured at the app level. I am at a tier and looking at the load. A snapshot imageis attached (appD-noincoming). The grid view only has outgoing traffic, NO incoming, although the load chart at the bottom show traffic and I know, as well as shown under "trasaction snapshots", there is incoming traffic with URL to this tier.

So I am not concerned about organizing BTs. On another tier in the same app, the incoming traffic does show up (appD-incoming).

Best.

Kenny

[CommunityUser]

Kenny,

Thanks for clarifying. Unfortunately, I don't see an attachment called AppD-noincoming.png, just AppD-incoming.png attached twice :-). Lets try it again!

Thanks,

-Brad

[Kenny_Yu]

I hope AppD-noincoming.png got in this time. Thanks.

[CommunityUser]

A few follow up questions:

-Is this C3-APP tier the application's front end or does it get its traffic from another monitored tier? A screen shot of the flow map would be helpful.

-What type of entry points is it using (servlets, web services, etc)?

-To clarify, what you ultimately want is metrics by url hitting this tier -response time, load, errors, correct? login.htm vs search.htm, etc.

Thanks,

-Brad

[Kenny_Yu]

Answers inline.

-Is this C3-APP tier the application's front end or does it get its traffic from another monitored tier? A screen shot of the flow map would be helpful. 

A: It both accepts direct traffic and provids web server to another monitored tier. But neither of the traffic shows as incoming. See Prod-noincoming.png. A flowmap is also attached.

-What type of entry points is it using (servlets, web services, etc)?

A: A mix of browser traffic and servlet-based webservices. I can see the traffic in txnSnapshots.png, attached.

-To clarify, what you ultimately want is metrics by url hitting this tier -response time, load, errors, correct? login.htm vs search.htm, etc.

A: Yes. Right now, there are data in the charts for load and response time. But with nothing in grid view for incoming, I can't tell what the load is for. 

[CommunityUser]

OK, that's a bit clearer, thanks. The fact that you're not seeing "incoming" in grid view for that C3-APP tier is normal. If this tier is the first monitored tier in the transactions that touch it (which it is for at least all the BTs in the snapshots you shared in your screen shot -see the tier column to reveal the entry tier), traffic coming in from the outside world won't be called "incoming" in the grid.

So, back to my original suggestion, the way to break down the traffuc by urls and get separate sets of metrics for each is to configure your BTs to match the urls. Right now you appear to be using the default servlet setting of basing BTs on only the first two segents of the url ie www.appdynamics.com/1/2. This is making some of your urls that are distinct get grouped up and counted as one BT.

That video and those docs I linked to above will show you how to make it so that the BTs and the URLs are the same (or however you want to organize them).

Hope that helps,

-Brad

[Kenny_Yu]

Brad,

Thanks for the answer. One question remains though: if the grid view has no incoming http traffic, what composes the values in the 'Load' chart at the bottom? Where can I find the decomposition of that total load?

[CommunityUser]

Kenny,

The breakdown of the total load can be found under the "Business Transactions" tab on the left navigation bar. You should see a table containing all the BTs and a Calls per Minute metric for each of them. Those Calls per Minute metrics should add up to the total load seen at the bottom of the application flow map.

If the organiztion of the traffic isn't how you'd like it, again, you can reorganize it using the Transaction Detection settings for that tier under Configuration menu (most clients do tweak the default settings to some degree). But either way, the sum of the Calls per Minute numbers under the BT table and the flow map's load graph should be equal for any given minute. So all the load is both accounted for and broken down by transaction type (BT) for traffic analysis -which seems to be what you (and everyone using the tool) want.

Even if the grid view did show that incoming traffic from the outside world (which, it won't) it still wouldn't break that traffic down to the level of granularity that you want. BTs are the correct mechanism for this task. Most of the product's core monitoring and troubleshooting functionality is based on having well-defined BTs.

Don't worry about the grid view for the purpose of understanding front end load, it's not meant for that purpose.

Hope that helps,

-Brad