Predefined Variables

This page describes the predefined variables that can be used in an HTTP request action. The value of the variable is substituted at the run-time in the context of the triggering events when the actual request is sent.

Form Variable Names

To form a predefined variable name, combine the eventList array with a top level object and a corresponding context field or multiple nested context fields. You can also use the top level object only to fetch any information.

All the variables are accessed through the eventList array.
The eventList array contains a single event for a health rule violation or an anomaly.

For example:

To get the ID of a health rule violation event, use ${eventList[0].event_id}
To get the name of the violating conditions of a health rule, use ${eventList[0].event_details.condition_details[0].name}
To get the details of the child entity type in a health rollup, use ${eventList[0].event_details.rollup_details.child_entities[0].child_entity_type}
To get the metric value that triggered the health rule violation, use ${eventList[0].event_details.condition_details[0].triggering_value}
To get the metric type that cause the anomaly, use ${eventList[0].anomaly_type}
To get the summary of the top object on which anomaly is detected, use ${eventList[0].rca_result.top_impact_object}
To get the value of an attribute of an entity, use ${entityAttrList[0].<attribute_name>}

The following tables provide top level object and various context field details:

Top Level Object
Second Level Context Field
Third Level Context Field
Fourth Level Context Field

Context Attributes

The following table provides a list of top level objects and corresponding details:

Top Level Object

Description

Event Type

Field Type

entity_id

Identifies the entity on which violation is detected.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

entity_type

Indicates the type of the entity on which violation is detected. The format is namespace:type.

For example, k8s:type.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

event_id

Identifies the event.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

event_type

Indicates the display name of different violation types. For example, VIOLATION_STARTED_WARNING, VIOLATION_STARTED_CRITICAL.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

violation_id

Identifies the violation incident.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

event_time

Indicates the timestamp of the violation incident. You can display the timestamp in date and time format, epoch format, or a valid custom format.

Use the following expression in the HTTP payload to display event_time in one of the formats:

Format	Expression	Output Example
Date and Time	`${eventList[0].event_time}`	`Sep 15 05:16:00 PDT 2023.`
Epoch	`$format.epochTime(eventList[0].event_time)`	`1694780160000`
A valid Custom format such as such as `yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss`	`$format.formattedTime('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss', $eventList[0].event_time)`	`2023-09-15 05:16:00`

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

long

violation_start_time

Indicates the start time of the violation incident. You can display the timestamp in date and time format, epoch format, or a valid custom format.

Use the following expression in the HTTP payload to display violation_start_time in one of the formats:

Format	Expression	Output Example
Date and Time	`${eventList[0].violation_start_time}`	`Sep 15 05:16:00 PDT 2023.`
Epoch	`$format.epochTime(eventList[0].violation_start_time)`	`1694780160000`
A valid Custom format such as such as `yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss`	`$format.formattedTime('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss', $eventList[0].violation_start_time)`	`2023-09-15 05:16:00`

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

long

violation_end_time

Indicates the end time of the violation incident. You can display the timestamp in date and time format, epoch format, or a valid custom format.

Use the following expression in the HTTP payload to display violation_end_time in one of the formats:

Format	Expression	Output Example
Date and Time	`${eventList[0].violation_end_time}`	`Sep 15 05:16:00 PDT 2023.`
Epoch	`$format.epochTime(eventList[0].violation_end_time)`	`1694780160000`
A valid Custom format such as such as `yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss`	`$format.formattedTime('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss', $eventList[0].violation_end_time)`	`2023-09-15 05:16:00`

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

long

violation_duration

Indicates the duration of violation incident. It is the difference between the current time and the start time of the incident.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

long

violation_severity

Indicates the severity of violation such as critical or warning.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

violation_status

Indicates whether the violation incident is open or close.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

violation_type

Indicates the type of MELT event for health rule or anomaly detection. For example,

alerting:healthrule.violation, troubleshooting.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

config_id

Identifies the health rule or the Anomaly Detection configuration.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

config_name

Indicates the display name for the health rule or the Anomaly Detection configuration.

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

event_details

Indicates the details of the violation based on a health rule.

Health Rule

complex
object event_details

model_sensitivity

Indicates the alert sensitivity levels of the anomaly detection model. These are the sensitivity levels:

TEST
LOW
MEDIUM
HIGH

Anomaly Detection

string

anomaly_type

Indicates the metric type that causes the anomaly. For example, Errors per minute (EPM) and Average Response time (ART).

Anomaly Detection

string

rca_result

Indicates result of the root cause analysis performed by the Anomaly Detection algorithm.

Anomaly Detection

object

entity_context_path

Provides direct navigation to the entity page in your application for a health rule violation. Therefore, you can view the context of the entity at the time of the violation.

You need to append the entity_context_path variable to your tenant's base URL.

For example, https://your-appd-cloud-url.com/${eventList[0].entity_context_path}

Anomaly Detection
Health Rule

string

The following table provides a list of second level context fields and corresponding details for the rca_result variable:

Second Level Context Fields - `rca_result`	Description	Event Type	Field Type
`top_impact_object`	Indicates the deviating metrics and summary information of top-impacted object on which anomaly is generated.	Anomaly Detection	object
`suspected_object_summaries`	Indicates the deviating metrics and summary information of the root cause objects.	Anomaly Detection	array
`list_of_suspected_cause_paths`	Indicates the path of the suspected cause of the anomaly.	Anomaly Detection	array

The following table provides a list of second level context fields and corresponding details for the event_details variable:

Second Level Context Fields - event_details

Description

Event Type

Field Type

condition_details

Indicates the details of health rule violation. The details are available only for metric condition.

Health Rule

array of condition_details

rollup_details

Indicates the details of the rollup entities for the health rule violation.

Health Rule

complex

object rollup_details

The following table provides a list of third level context fields and corresponding details for the rollup_details variable:

Third Level Context Fields - `rollup_details`	Description	Event Type	Field Type
`child_entities`	Identifies the correlated incident and child entity.	Health Rule	array of `rollup_result_details`
`violation_count`	Indicates the count of the violating child entities.	Health Rule	long

The following table provides a list of fourth level context fields and corresponding details for the condition_details variable:

Fourth Level Context Fields - `condition_details`	Description	Event Type	Field Type
`name`	Indicates the display name of the condition.	Anomaly Detection Health Rule	string
`data_points`	Indicates the number of data points used to evaluate the condition.	Health Rule	string
`eval_win_size`	Indicates the health rule evaluation time frame over which the data used to evaluate the health rule is collected.	Health Rule	string
`result`	Indicates the status of the condition evaluation. It returns true (1), false (0), or unknown (-1).	Health Rule	integer
`baseline_mean`	Indicates the difference between the baseline and the mean value.	Health Rule	double
`baseline_std_dev`	Indicates the difference between the baseline and the standard deviation.	Health Rule	double
`violation_count`	Indicates the number of condition violations during the evaluation time frame.	Health Rule	string
`missing_data`	Indicates the number of missing data points in the evaluation time frame.	Health Rule	string
`expression`	Indicates the mathematical expression used to evaluate the metric performance.	Health Rule	string
`expression_value`	Indicates the value present in the left side of the expression.	Health Rule	string
`threshold_value`	Indicates the value present in the right side of the expression.	Health Rule	string
`threshold_type`	Indicates the type of threshold (static or baseline).	Health Rule	string
`triggering_value`	Indicates the exact value of the metric that triggered the violation	Health Rule	double

The following table provides a list of fourth level context fields and corresponding details for the rollup_result_details variable:

Fourth Level Context Fields - `rollup_result_details`	Description	Event Type	Field Type
`child_entity_id`	Identifies the evaluation child entity.	Health Rule	string
`child_entity_type`	Indicates the evaluation child entity type name with namespace.	Health Rule	string
`correlated_violation_id`	Indicates the violation ID of the child entity that caused the rollup rule violation.	Health Rule	string

Attribute Value of an Entity

To get the value of an attribute of an entity, use ${entityAttrList[0].<attribute_name>}.

You can get the values of only the attributes with names that contain dot (.), underscore (_), alphabets, and digits. If any attributes have colon ( : ) and hyphen ( - ) in their names, the value can not be fetched. For example, healthrule:0d3019af-6f5d-4d64-966d-e865836885fa.

For example:

To get the value of attribute k8s_pod_name, use ${entityAttrList[0].k8s_pod_name}.
To get the value of the attribute service.name, use ${entityAttrList[0].service_name}.

If the value of an attribute is dynamic, for example, health.status, you will not get the latest value of the attribute.
You can use the Query Builder to fetch the attribute names of your entities.
If any attributes have dot ( . ) in their names, replace the dots (.) with underscore (_). For example, use service_name for the attribute service.name.

Samples

HTTP request examples for the most recent triggering events:

Slack Event Sample

URL:

In your Slack app, you get the Incoming Webhook that looks like the following URL:

https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

CODE

Payload:

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*New ${eventList[0].violation_severity} Alert from AppDynamics Cloud:* ${eventList[0].config_name}\n"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "fields": [
        {
          "type": "mrkdwn",
          "text": "*Entity Type:*\n${eventList[0].entity_type}"
        },
        {
          "type": "mrkdwn",
          "text": "*When:*\n${eventList[0].event_time}"
        },
        {
          "type": "mrkdwn",
          "text": "*Entity Id:*\n${eventList[0].entity_id}"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "section",
      "text": {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*Violating Conditions*\n"
      }
    },
    #if(${eventList[0].event_details})
	    #foreach( $condition in ${eventList[0].event_details.condition_details} )
	      {
	        "type": "section",
	        "text": {
	          "type": "mrkdwn",
	          "text": "\n${condition.expression}"
	        }           
	      },
	      #end   
    #end
    {
      "type": "actions",
      "elements": [
        {
          "type": "button",
          "text": {
            "type": "plain_text",
            "emoji": true,
            "text": "Check in AppD Cloud"
          },
          "style": "danger",
          "value": "click_me_123",
          "url": "https://your-appd-cloud-url.com${eventList[0].entity_context_path}"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "divider"
    }
  ]
}

CODE

If you are unable to fetch a variable, include the variable within the if condition. For information about the if condition, see the Apache Velocity documentation.
For information on how to configure incoming webhooks in Slack, see the Slack documentation.

PagerDuty Events API V2 Sample

URL:

https://events.pagerduty.com/v2/enqueue

CODE

Payload:

{
  "payload": {
    "summary": "${eventList[0].event_type} on ${eventList[0].config_name}",
    "source": "AppDynamics Cloud",
    "severity": "${eventList[0].violation_severity.toLowerCase()}",
    "component": "${eventList[0].entity_type}",
    "custom_details": {
      "Event Name": "${eventList[0].event_type}",
      "Event ID": "${eventList[0].event_id}",
      "Entity Type": "${eventList[0].entity_type}",
      "Event Time": "${eventList[0].event_time}",
      "Entity ID": "${eventList[0].entity_id}"
    }
  },
  "routing_key": "<your integration key>",
  "dedup_key": "${eventList[0].violation_id}",
  "event_action": "trigger",
  "client": "AppDynamics Cloud",
  "client_url": "https://your-appd-cloud-url.com${eventList[0].entity_context_path}"
}

CODE

The integration key (routing key) is available on the PagerDuty Events API V2 integration page.

For information on how to send an event to PagerDuty, see the PagerDuty documentation.

ServiceNow Event Sample

URL:

https://<instance_name>.service-now.com/api/global/em/jsonv2

CODE

Authentication:

Use the Basic authentication option and enter your username and password.

Payload:

{
  "records": [
    {
      "source": "AppDynamics Cloud",
      "event_class": "your-controller",
      "resource": "${eventList[0].entity_id}",
      "node": "${eventList[0].entity_id}",
      "metric_name": "${eventList[0].config_name}",
      "type": "${eventList[0].event_type}",
      "message_key": "${eventList[0].violation_id}",
      "description": "*New ${eventList[0].violation_severity} Alert from AppDynamics Cloud:* ${eventList[0].config_name}. Check https://your-appd-cloud-url.com${eventList[0].entity_context_path}",
      #if( ${eventList[0].violation_severity} == "CRITICAL" )
      "severity": "1"
      #elseif( ${eventList[0].violation_severity} == "WARNING"  )
      "severity": "2"
      #else
      "severity": "0"
      #end   
    }
  ]
}

CODE

For information on how to send an event to ServiceNow, see the ServiceNow documentation.

OpsGenie Event Sample

URL:

https://api.opsgenie.com/v2/alerts

CODE

Custom Headers:

Key: Authorization
Value: GenieKey <your_API_key>

Payload:

{
  "source": "AppDynamics Cloud",
  "message": "${eventList[0].event_type} on ${eventList[0].config_name}",
  "alias": "${eventList[0].violation_id}",
  "description": "${eventList[0].event_type} on ${eventList[0].config_name}",
  "entity": "${eventList[0].entity_type}:${eventList[0].entity_id}",
  #if( ${eventList[0].violation_severity} == "CRITICAL" )
  "priority": "P1",
  #elseif( ${eventList[0].violation_severity} == "WARNING"  )
  "priority": "P3",
  #else
  "priority": "P5",
  #end
  "details": {
    "Event Name": "${eventList[0].event_type}",
    "Event ID": "${eventList[0].event_id}",
    "Entity Type": "${eventList[0].entity_type}",
    "Event Time": "${eventList[0].event_time}",
    "Entity ID": "${eventList[0].entity_id}",
    "Link": "https://your-appd-cloud-url.com${eventList[0].entity_context_path}"
  }
}

CODE

For information on how to create alerts in OpsGenie, see the OpsGenie documentation.

Webex

URL:

https://webexapis.com/v1/webhooks/incoming/<incoming_webhook_url>

CODE

Payload:

{"markdown": "   \n- - -  \n**${eventList[0].violation_severity}** Alert from Cisco CNAO: **${eventList[0].config_name}**   \n- - -  \n**Details**  \n _Event Type:_ ${eventList[0].event_type}  \n_Entity Type:_ ${eventList[0].entity_type}  \n_Entity Id:_ ${eventList[0].entity_id}  \n_Event Time:_ ${eventList[0].event_time}\n**Violation Details** #if(${eventList[0].event_details}) #foreach( $condition in ${eventList[0].event_details.condition_details} ) \n$esc.java(${condition.expression}) #end #end \n_Link:_[Click here](${appdURL}${eventList[0].entity_context_path})\n- - -  \n" }

CODE

If you are unable to fetch a variable, include the variable within the if condition. For information about the if condition, see the Apache Velocity documentation.
For information on how to configure incoming webhooks in Webex, see the Webex documentation.