Related pages:

This page provides an overview of the options for creating an account and how to get started using your Cisco AppDynamics online Account Management Portal and Cisco AppDynamics.

As part of your deployment, the Cisco AppDynamics provides:

  • A Controller Tenant for data collection.
  • A Controller Tenant UI for data analysis.
  • An online Account Management Portal to manage your account, users, subscriptions, license usage, and role functionality. 

As a best practice, we recommend that you follow the Deployment Planning Guide and create a deployment plan for your environment and needs.

Create an Account

Your first step to working with Cisco AppDynamics is to create a SaaS account to fit your data security needs, application workflow, and business environment. Reviewing the Deployment Planning Guide will help you strategize.

Cisco AppDynamics has implemented restrictions and will not enter into any negotiation with, or seek to solicit any interest from, any third party in relation to the sale or use of the Cisco AppDynamics products or software or any part thereof, whether directly or indirectly with any country or region subject to an embargo including but not limited to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Crimea. 


Choose an account type and deployment option. There is no limit to the number of users you can create with either option. See Cisco AppDynamics Trial.

The default trial configuration is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) deployment hosted by Cisco AppDynamics. 

  1. Follow this Start Free Trial link.
  2. Enter your information and create a secure password.

    1. The email and password you enter will be your login throughout your Cisco AppDynamics trial experience. Therefore, it is essential that you use a valid email address.

      You can skip the form and chat with a live expert by using the online chat feature.

  3. Agree to the terms and click Get Started.
  4. Click Launch Cisco AppDynamics.

The Deployment Planning Guide will help you determine how to set up your account to best suit your business. An Cisco AppDynamics customer account manager will work with your organization to determine the proper configuration.

Every user account must be created with a valid email. The email entered at account creation will be the user's login ID throughout their Cisco AppDynamics experience.
Cisco AppDynamics will provide you with a hosted Controller Tenant. You will receive an email with URL information and login instructions.

Cisco AppDynamics does not support user or agent requests that originate from any URL other than the Controller Tenant URL provided at registration or otherwise edited by Cisco AppDynamics. Due to system security improvements, requests from custom URLs will be rejected and may cause a service disruption.

If a custom URL is required, we recommend that you create a forward proxy in your environment.

Once Cisco AppDynamics provides a hosted Controller Tenant, you will:

  1. Choose and install agents.
  2. Add users through the Controller Tenant UI. 
  3. Configure Email/SMS settings to enable notifications on a preconfigured SMTP server.

Gain System Access

After you complete registration and create an account, you will have access to your Account Management Portal for online account administration and, if you opted for a SaaS deployment, access to your hosted Controller Tenant platform.

Online Account Administration

The Account Management Portal provides a secure online area where administrators can:

  • Manage the company account and personal profile separately.
  • Administer users, groups, subscriptions, and roles.
  • Configure an Identity Provider (IdP). 
  • See a company overview of account details, subscription information, open support tickets, and active resource projects. 
  • Launch available Cisco AppDynamics Controller Tenants.
  • Download agents, platforms, and product updates. 

Your account type will determine the services available in the Account Management Portal. See Account Administration.

  1. Access the Welcome email sent to the address you used to create your account.
  2. Click Get Started. 
  3. Follow the instructions.

Controller Tenant UI

An Cisco AppDynamics Controller Tenant is fundamental to every deployment. Integrated agents collect data from a monitored environment and send it to the Controller Tenant. The Controller Tenant UI is where you can view, understand, and analyze that data.

How you access your Controller Tenant depends on your deployment. Your account will include a subscription license for each product you purchased during registration. A subscription can have one or more modules and you can have multiple subscriptions, each one having a distinct lifecycle.

Choose your deployment configuration.

When you complete registration with your valid email, the Cisco AppDynamics Operations team will use that address to send your SaaS URL and access details.

  1. Click the SaaS URL provided in the email.
  2. Enter the Account Name given in the email.
  3. Click Login to access your new web-based Controller Tenant UI.
  4. Navigate to Getting Started > Getting Started Wizard.
  5. Select an agent from the Application list.
  6. Follow the steps to install an agent. See Install Agents.

When you complete registration with your valid email, the Cisco AppDynamics Operations team will use that address to send information about the components you need to start instrumenting your application and access your Cisco AppDynamics SaaS account.

The first person to access the Controller Tenant UI must be the same person that initially registered with Cisco AppDynamics. This user can access the system and create a system administrator to delegate managerial capabilities if needed.

  1. Follow the URL provided to log in to your web-based Controller Tenant UI.
  2. Enter the Account Name and User Name given in the email.
  3. Create a secure password by clicking Forgot Password to have a password reset link sent to the registered email.
  4. Click Login.
  5. Navigate to Getting Started > Getting Started Wizard.
  6. Select an agent from the Application list.
  7. Follow the steps to install an agent. See Install Agents.

Cisco AppDynamics does not support user or agent requests that originate from any URL other than the Controller Tenant URL provided at registration or otherwise edited by Cisco AppDynamics. Due to system security improvements, requests from custom URLs will be rejected and may cause a service disruption.

If a custom URL is required, we recommend that you create a forward proxy in your environment.

Install Application Agents

An Cisco AppDynamics deployment consists of multiple application agents to monitor different components in your environment. For installing most types of agents, you can use the Getting Started Wizard in the Controller Tenant UI.

Log in to the Controller Tenant UI and navigate to Applications > Create an Application > Create an Application using the Getting Started Wizard. Follow the instructions in the Wizard to install agents in your application environment.

Review the Install App Server Agents documentation for instructions and guidance. Cisco AppDynamics provides an Agent Installer that simplifies the agent installation process and streamlines the deployment of the Java and Machine Agents.

Connect Agents to the Controller Tenant

The Getting Started Wizard automatically configures settings for connecting agents to the Controller Tenant. If you manually download agents, you must configure the Controller Tenant connections. You may need to adjust the configuration of network components, such as firewalls or proxies, to permit traffic from the agent to the Controller Tenant. The connection is unidirectional, meaning that agents always initiate the connections to the Controller Tenant.

This graphic shows the connections agents use to reach the platform. 

SaaS Platform

Continue with Your Cisco AppDynamics Deployment

Best Practice

We recommend that you follow the Deployment Planning Guide and create a deployment plan for your environment and needs.

You can start using Cisco AppDynamics immediately without instrumentation and configuration. Then, at a later date, you can optimize the configuration to make the best use of Cisco AppDynamics for your environment and requirements. After you install agents and restart your applications, Cisco AppDynamics automatically builds an environment of your application. You can see the model in the dashboards and flow maps view of the Controller Tenant UI. The Controller Tenant monitors your application workload, uses machine learning to determine what is normal for your environment, and applies sensible defaults for detecting abnormal activity and application errors.

The timeline in the Deployment Planning Guide outlines a typical start to your Cisco AppDynamics journey.   

Telemetry

Cisco AppDynamics may track and collect usage metrics and other data generated through your interaction with our software to improve our product and enhance your experience. 

Tutorials

Learn more about specific areas of the Cisco AppDynamics by following one of these tutorials: