Differences Between Multi- and Single-Tenant Mode

You can configure an on-premise AppDynamics Controller for single-tenancy or multi-tenancy modes. You choose the initial tenancy mode for the Controller at installation time. As indicated in the installer, you can switch the tenancy mode from single- to multi-tenant mode after installation. Switching from multi- to single-tenant mode, however, is not supported. 

The differences between the modes are:

In multi-tenant mode

• You can create multiple accounts (tenants) in the Controller. 
• Each account will have its own set of users and Applications. 
• The Controller login page includes an additional field where users need to choose an account to log in to. 
• Essentially, multi-tenant mode allows you to partition users and access to application data in a logical, secure way. 

In single-tenant mode

• There is only one account (tenant) in the Controller system. 
• All users and applications are part of this single built-in account, so all users have access to all monitored Applications in this mode.
• The account is not exposed to users in the Controller UI. The account field in the log in page is omitted for single tenant mode.
• AppDynamics recommends single-tenant mode for most installations.

Switching from Single- to Multi-Tenant Mode

In addition to the steps below, to switch the tenancy mode you need to modify the configuration of any deployed app agent or machine agent that connects to this Controller. The agents must specify the accounts with which they are associated in the multi-tenant Controller. See Next Steps below for more information.

A Controller license does not enforce or distinguish a particular tenancy mode for the Controller, but the total number of licensed agents for all accounts cannot exceed the number of agents for which you are licensed.  

To switch from single- to multi-tenant mode

1. Log in to the AppDynamics Administration Console, as described in Access the Administration Console. 

2. Click Controller Settings.

3. Set the value for the multitenant.controller property to "true". 

   Switching from multi-tenancy to single-tenancy is not supported.

4. Save the settings.
5. Log out and refresh your browser.

You can now create accounts for the multi-tenant Controller, as described next. 

Accounts for Multi-Tenant Mode

In multi-tenant mode you create accounts from the Admin Console interface.

To create accounts in multi-tenant mode

1. Log in to the AppDynamics Administration Console, as described in Access the Administration Console.  

2. Click Accounts. 

3. If you are switching from single- to multi-tenant mode, you will see the default accounts used for single-tenant mode. This window also provides information on the number of licenses provisioned for the agents in your environment.
4. Click Add (the + icon).
5. Provide the details about the Account. 
   Users will log into the AppDynamics UI using this Account Name.
6. Create credentials for the Controller administrator.
   The user with administrator privileges can then create users for that Account. For details see Configure Users.
7. Click Create account.

You should now reconfigure any deployed agents to associate them with the new account.

Next Steps

If there are existing app agents and machine agents deployed for this Controller, you will need to update their configuration settings to associate the agents with one of the accounts you created.

For details see App Agent for Java Configuration Properties, .NET Agent Configuration Properties, and Standalone Machine Agent Configuration Properties.

Learn More

• Controller Users
• App Agent for Java Configuration Properties
• .NET Agent Configuration Properties
• Standalone Machine Agent Configuration Properties
• Install the Java Agent
• Install the .NET Agent
• Install the Standalone Machine Agent