Getting Started

You can try the AppDynamics Application Intelligence Platform by signing up for an account on www.appdynamics.com. After signing up, the next step is to set up the AppDynamics Controller. The Controller is where your application data is processed, stored, and viewed. 

Set Up Your Controller

After you sign up for an account in the AppDynamics portal, the portal presents a welcome page where you can start your trial. You have two options for hosting your Controller:

• The quickest way to get started is with a SaaS Controller. For this option, choose the Launch SaaS option. You will then receive an email from the AppDynamics Operations team with the URL and login details for your hosted Controller instance. After logging in, you can download agents and start instrumenting your applications, as described next. 
• For a Controller that you install and administer yourself, choose the Download on-premise option and follow the instructions for downloading the Controller installer. For more information about installing, see the Quick Install instructions for an installation overview, or Install the Controller for all the details. The Lite and Pro Editions page describes the terms of the AppDynamics Pro Trial and Lite editions and starting your trial.  

Instrument Applications

Once you set up the Controller, you can log in and have a look around the AppDynamics UI. Before you can see application data, however, you need to instrument your application environment with AppDynamics App Agents.

At first log in, the Controller UI opens to the Agent Download Wizard. To have the Controller start collecting performance data, follow the instructions in the wizard to download and install agents in your application environment. For more information, see Instrument Applications. 

After you've installed agents and restarted your applications, put your applications under load to have the dashboards and flow maps in the Controller UI start showing performance information.  

Configure Basic Controller Settings

Depending on the AppDynamics features you want to try, you may have a few additional setup steps to undertake. From the Home page in the Controller UI, follow the Settings links on the home page to configure a few initial basic settings for the Controller:

• Administration: Even if you are running a self-service trial of AppDynamics Pro, it's likely that you will want to add users to the Controller. You can also set up roles and groups to manage permissions in the Controller UI.
• Configure Email/SMS: For SaaS, the Controller is preconfigured to use a built-in SMTP server for email notifications of policy violations. For an on-premise Controller or if you want to set up SMS alerts, configure the settings on the Configure Email/SMS dialog.   
• View License: The license page shows details about your account in the Controller and lists the number of license units available to you. 

Learn about other administration in the Administer the Controller page.

Monitor Your Apps and Refine the Configuration

AppDynamics gives you a great deal of information about the performance of your applications right out of the box. But it also provides flexibility for refining and customizing the configuration to best suit your application, environment, or requirements. 

To learn about monitoring and how to refine how the Controller collects and presents information, see:  

• Monitor and Measure
• Configure Business Transaction Detection
• Set up policies 
• Validate Health Rules and error detection rules