Configure and Administer Collectors

Use the Setup window to configure and administer your AppDynamics for Databases collectors.

The default Collector Administration window lists all configured collectors alphabetically. You can sort or filter the list using the controls above the table headings.

Reconfigure a Collector

After adding a collector, you can change its attributes if needed. 

1. On the Collector Administration window, click the Stop button for the collector you want to reconfigure and then click its name.
2. Change the collector attributes as required and then click Save Changes.

   For help changing the collector attributes, see Complete the Metric Collector Section.

Start and Stop a Collector

Each collector has a Start/Stop button that starts or stops the collector service/process. The collector service/process has a name such as: DBTuna Agent - CollectorType.

• For Windows installations: The Start/Stop  button controls the Windows service associated with the collector.
• For Linux installations: The Start/Stop  button controls the process associated with the collector.

View Collector Log Files

To display the log file, click the Log icon in the table row. The log file, in reverse order from the end of the log. The most recent logs are at the beginning of the log file.

Tip: If for some reason the collector does not start, then the first place to look is the collector log.

The log file resembles the following snapshot.

To refresh the log file contents, click Refresh. The Aggregation Interval you specified when configuring the collector, determines how often data is collected for the collector. There is one entry in the log file for every data collection. You may want to refresh the log file viewer if you have had the View Log File window open for longer than the collection interval.

To return to the Collector Administration window, click All Collectors.

You can find the log files in <Controller install directory>\Controller\logs.

Manage the Archive

AppDynamics for Databases stores historical performance information in a local MySQL database installed and configured during AppDynamics for Databases installation. The Archive Management window displays the total space used by the MySQL database, broken down by tables and indexes.

You can set data retention periods here. Data is purged from the repository on an hourly or daily schedule, and all data older than the retention period threshold is deleted.

The following describes the fields on the Archive Management window.

Data Retention Period: Specify the number of days to retain the archive of historical performance information for all monitored instances. The maximum data retention period is 999 days. If required, you can backup the MySQL database for long term or off-site storage. The data used by AppDynamics for Databases for its own purposes is retained in  <ApppD4DB install directory>\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.6\data\mysql.

Purge Interval: Click an entry in the list to specify how often you want to purge the archive, Every Day or Every Hour.

Starting At: Using the 23 hr clock, click to specify the hour and minute when the purge activity should begin.

Define and Assign Logical Groups of Collectors

AppDynamics for Databases lets you organize monitored instances into logical named groups. By default a new collector belongs to the "0default" group. 

In larger monitored environments you can quickly access an individual database by displaying collectors grouped in the Host menu. For example, this NetApp environment belongs to the Dev group:

Manage SQL Groups

You can apply logical names to individual, or groups of, SQL statements. See SQL Group Management (Oracle Only).

Change Wait State Descriptions

Wait states appear in the Database Wait States Report, Database Wait Report

On the Waits window you can change the descriptions of the waits for Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL), MySQL, and Oracle.

Map NetApp Volumes to Databases

Depending on your environment, you may need to map your database to your NetApp volume in order to see database activity when you drill down from the NetApp volume into the NetApp Activity window in AppDynamics for Databases.

The following example shows the database information that is available for a monitored NetApp volume which holds an Oracle database.

For the Oracle via NFS to NetApp environment, the correlation between the NetApp volume and the database is done automatically, but for others you will need to define the mapping on the Mappings window. Using the Mappings window, you can map NetApp volumes to databases via protocols such as fibre channel protocol (FCP), internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), and Common Internet File System (CIFS).