Server Tagging

Use Server Tagging to query, filter, and compare related servers using custom metadata. You can tag related servers based on OS, location, tier, owner, or any other relevant criteria. Server tags provide additional context to server metrics.

For example, you may want to specify deployment-version tags to the servers in a specific cluster, and then use those tags to identify anomalies in server metrics during a new deployment. 

Server Tagging requires a Server Visibility license. Server Tagging is currently available for Linux, Windows, and Solaris. 

Server Visibility can import the tags (described in the table) automatically.

View Servers by Tag in the Controller UI

To view filter servers by tag in the Servers list, select Filters and add the criteria you want for the tag filter. If you specify multiple criteria, the filter performs an AND search (for criteria with different keys) and an OR search (for criteria with the same key). This example shows the tag criteria filters for all servers with:

1. A Tier tag that equals ECommWeb OR ECommInventory, AND
2. An OS Architecture tag that equals x86_64.

Define and View Tags for a Server

You can specify custom tags as a set of key-value strings in the Agent config directory. Each Agent can support up to 50 tags by default.

Follow these suggested best practices to define server tags:

If an Agent is deployed in Amazon Web Services, the Agent can auto-detect and import tags defined in AWS. The Controller also auto-assigns a set of default tags to each server.
The primary use case for custom tags is to specify information that is not already specified in AWS and auto-assigned tags. Before you specify custom tags in the Agent config directory, you should review the current set of tags. Access the Server Dashboard and view the Tags pane at the bottom of the page:

Be careful not to define duplicate tags in the YML file.

Import Tags from Amazon Web Services

Detailed information about Amazon Web Services is outside the scope of AppDynamics documentation.

Before Server Visibility can import tags from AWS, you must set up IAM roles:

Configuration Options for Server Tagging

To edit these settings, log in to the Controller administration console using the root user password. See Access the Administration Console.

Configuration Options for Docker Tags

You can configure the Machine Agent to collect different types of tags. By default, all tags are collected. To turn off tag collection, set dockerTagsEnabled to "false".

1. Edit the <machine_agent_home>/extensions/DockerMonitoring/DockerMonitoringConfig.yml file.

2. Under the containerMonitoringConfig section, set dockerTagsEnabled: "false"

   # WARNING: Before making any changes to this file read the following section carefully
   # 
   # After editing the file, make sure the file follows the yml syntax. Common issues include
   # - Using tabs instead of spaces
   # - File encoding should be UTF-8
   #
   # The safest way to edit this file is to copy paste the examples provided and make the
   # necessary changes using a plain text editor instead of a WYSIWYG editor.
   #
   
   # samplingInterval indicates how often to gather metric data. Units in milliseconds.
   samplingInterval: 30000
   
   containerMonitoringConfig:
       # containerProcessSelectorRegex defines regular expression to evaluate the processes in
       # each running container to be monitored by the machine agent. The regular expression is
       # compared against each process full command line within running
       # If the pattern matches, then the machine agent start monitoring it.
       containerProcessSelectorRegex: ".*[ ]-Dappdynamics.*"
       dockerTagsEnabled: "false" 

   CODE

Configuration Options for AWS Tags

You can configure the Machine Agent to collect different types of tags. By default, all tags are collected. To turn off tag collection, set awsTagsEnabled to "false".

1. Edit the <machine_agent_home>/extensions/ServerMonitoring/conf/ServerMonitoring.yml file.

2. Set awsTagsEnabled: "false" 


   //ServerMonitoring.yml
   # WARNING: Before making any changes to this file read the following section carefully
   # 
   # After editing the file, make sure the file follows the yml syntax. Common issues include
   # - Using tabs instead of spaces
   # - File encoding should be UTF-8
   #
   # The safest way to edit this file is to copy paste the examples provided and make the
   # necessary changes using a plain text editor instead of a WYSIWYG editor.
   #
   awsTagsEnabled: "false"
   # samplingInterval indicates how often to gather metric data. Units in milliseconds.
   samplingInterval: 30000
   ...

   CODE

Configuration Options for Kubernetes and OpenShift Tags

You can configure the Machine Agent to collect different types of tags. By default, all tags are collected. To turn off tag collection, set k8sTagsEnabled to "false".

1. Edit the <machine_agent_home>/extensions/ServerMonitoring/conf/ServerMonitoring.yml file.

2. Set k8sTagsEnabled: "false"


   //ServerMonitoring.yml
   # WARNING: Before making any changes to this file read the following section carefully
   # 
   # After editing the file, make sure the file follows the yml syntax. Common issues include
   # - Using tabs instead of spaces
   # - File encoding should be UTF-8
   #
   # The safest way to edit this file is to copy paste the examples provided and make the
   # necessary changes using a plain text editor instead of a WYSIWYG editor.
   #
   k8sTagsEnabled: "false"
   # samplingInterval indicates how often to gather metric data. Units in milliseconds.
   samplingInterval: 30000
   ...

   CODE