Data Collectors

Data collectors help you determine whether data that a transaction passed into an application is causing problems. When you configure data collectors, AppDynamics accesses information in application code arguments, return values, variables, as well as HTTP Request data such as headers and cookies, and displays this information in Call Drill Down panels. See Data Collectors.

You can configure these types of data collectors:

Method Invocation Data Collectors
HTTP Request Data Collectors

To access data collector configuration

1. In the left navigation panel, click Configure -> Instrumentation.

2. Click the Diagnostic Data Collectors tab.

Configuring Method Invocation Data Collectors

Configure custom method invocation data collectors to capture parameters, the return value, or the invoked object for a particular method. The captured data appears in the USER DATA tab of the snapshot viewer.

This procedure involves the following tasks:

Name the data collector
Describe the class and method that the data collector is based on
If the method is overloaded, add its parameters
Optionally restrict the scope of the data collector by adding match conditions
Describe the data to collect from the method and how to process it
Select the business transactions that use the data collector

To configure a method invocation data collector

1. In the left navigation pane, choose Configure > Instrumentation, then click the Diagnostic Data Collectors tab. (If you don't see the tab, click >> and then click Diagnostic Data Collectors.)

2. In the Method Invocation Data Collectors panel, click Add.

3. Enter a name for the data collector.

4. Check the Apply to new Business Transactions check box if you want to apply the collector to new transactions.

5. Specify the class name for the data collector by selecting the comparison to apply from the drop down menu and entering the fully qualified class name in the adjacent text field.

6. Enter the name of the method on which the data collector is based.

For Java:

For .NET:

7. If the method is overloaded:

a. Check the Is this Method Overloaded? check box.
b. For each method parameter, click Add Parameter to add the fully qualified class name for each parameter.

8. Optionally click Add Match Condition to specify match conditions for the source of the data collector and the operation to run on the source of the data. Use match conditions to restrict the data collector to method invocations or return values with certain values or to the invoked object.

If you are using a complex getter chain on the data, see

9. To specify the data items that this collector will collect from this method invocation, click Add in the Specify the Data to Collect from this Method Invocation panel. Repeat for each data item to be collected.

10. In the Data Collection screen, specify a name for the data, which kind of data to collect (parameter, return value, or invoked object), and, if necessary, which operation to use on it.

11. Click Save.

12. To create the data collector, click Create Method Invocation Data Collector.

13. In the Apply to Business Transactions window that appears, specify the business transactions to which this data collector will be applied by moving them from the Business Transactions NOT using this Data Collector list on the right to the Business Transactions using this Data Collector list on the left.

14. Click Save. The data collector is created.

In some environments, including JVM 1.5 and .NET, you must restart after changing the class name, method name, or method parameter settings. A popup will alert you if this is the case.

To see the output from a method invocation data collector

1. Access transaction snapshots for the business transactions on which this data collector is applied. See Transaction Snapshots.

2. Examine the USER DATA tab of the transaction snapshot.

Configuring HTTP Request Data Collectors

Configure custom HTTP data collectors to collect HTTP payload data for diagnosis in the transaction snapshot. The captured data appears in the SUMMARY, HTTP PARAMS and COOKIES tabs of the snapshot viewer.

To configure HTTP data collectors

In the left navigation pane, choose Configure > Instrumentation, then click the Diagnostic Data Collectors tab. (If you don't see the tab, click >> in the menu bar and then click Diagnostic Data Collectors.)
In the HTTP Request Data Collectors panel, click Add.
Enter a name for the data collector.
Check the Apply to new Business Transactions check box if you want to apply the collector to new transactions.
Click Add in the HTTP Parameters section to set the parameter values that you want to collect.
Click Add in the Cookies section to set the cookie values that you want to collect.
Configure the HTTP data collector to capture any of the following additional data:
- URL
- Session ID
- User Principal
- Session Keys
- Headers
Click Create HTTP Request Data Collector.
In the Apply to Business Transactions window that appears, specify the business transactions to which this data collector will be applied by moving them from the Business Transactions NOT using this Data Collector list on the right to the Business Transactions using this Data Collector list on the left.
Click Save. The data collector is created.

To use the HTTP content-length header to monitor the correlation between the size of response and overall throughput for an application

Configure the Content-Length in the Headers section.

The content length header appears in the HTTP Params section of the transaction snapshot.

To see the output from an HTTP data collector

Access transaction snapshots for the business transactions on which this data collector is applied. See Transaction Snapshots.
For URL, Session ID, or User Principal, examine the SUMMARY panel of the transaction snapshot.
For Parameters, Headers, or Session keys, examine the HTTP PARAMS panel of the transaction snapshot.
For Cookies, examine the COOKIES panel of the transaction snapshot.

Learn More

Data Collectors

Configure Data Collectors