AppDynamics Ansible Collection

The AppDynamics Ansible Collection installs and configures AppDynamics agents. All supported agents are downloaded from the download portal unto the Ansible control node automatically –– this makes it easy to acquire and upgrade agents declaratively.

Additionally, this AppDynamics Ansible Collection supports auto-instrumenation of JBoss(Wildfly) and Tomcat, on Linux only.

Refer to the role variables below for a description of available deployment options.

We built this AppDynamics Ansible collection to support (immutable) infrastructure as code deployment methodology; this means that the collection will NOT preserve any manual configuration changes on the target servers. In other words, the collection will overwrite any local or pre-existing configuration with the variables that are defined in the playbook. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you convert any custom agent configuration (this collection does not support) into an ansible role to ensure consistency of deployments and configurations across your estate.

Demo

Pro Tip: Right-Click the GIF and "Open in new Tab" or view on terminalizer

Requirements

Requires Ansible >=2.9.0
Supports most Debian and RHEL-based Linux distributions, and Windows.
Windows OS requires >= Powershell 5.0
Network/firewall access to download AppDynamics agents from https://download-files.appdynamics.com and https://download.appdynamics.com on the Ansible control node
jq is required on the Ansible control node. It is recommended that you install it manually (since it requires sudo access and it is a one time task), or run the install_jq.yaml playbook in the playbook folder. For example: ansible-playbook install_jq.yaml --ask-become-pass -e 'ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python'
lxml is required if you need to enable enhanced agent logging (e.g DEBUG, TRACE, etc). We recommend that you install it manaually on the Ansible control node using pip3 install lxml, or run the install_lxml.yaml playbook in the playbook folder.

Supported Agents

The agent binaries and the installation process for the Machine and DB agent depend on the OS type –– Windows or Linux. This AppDynamics collection abstracts the OS differences so you should only have to provide agent_type, without necessarily specifying your OS type.

Agent type	Description
`sun-java` or `java`	Agent to monitor Java applications running on JRE version 1.7 and less
`sun-java8` or `java8`	Agent to monitor Java applications running on JRE version 1.8 and above
`ibm-java`	Agent to monitor Java applications running on IBM JRE
`dotnet`	Agent to monitor Full .Net Framework application on Windows
`machine`	64 Bit Machine agent ZIP bundle with JRE. Windows and Linux
`db`	Agent to monitor Databases. Windows and Linux
`dotnetcore`	Agent to Monitor .NetCore applications on Linux

Installation

Install the AppDynamics Collection from Ansible Galaxy on your Ansible control node:

ansible-galaxy collection install appdynamics.agents

Playbooks

Example playbooks for each agent type is provided in the collections's playbooks folder.
You should either reference the example playbooks in the collection installation folder, or access the examples in the GitHub repository .

The var/playbooks/controller.yaml file is meant to contain constant variables such as enable_ssl, controller_port, etc. You may either include var/playbooks/controller.yaml in the playbook as shown in the java example below, or overwrite the variables in the playbooks - whatever works best for you.

Java agent

This role features:

java-agent installation for Windows/Linux

Example 1: Install java-agent without any apps instrumentation.

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.java
      vars:
        agent_version: 21.1.0
        agent_type: java8
        application_name: "IoT_API" # agent default application
        tier_name: "java_tier" # agent default tier

Example 2: Install java-agent with changing java startup script and performing restart

---
- hosts: single-java-host
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - import_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.java
        public: yes
      vars:
        agent_version: 21.1.0
        agent_type: java8
        application_name: "BIGFLY" # agent default application
        tier_name: "java_tier" # agent default tier
    - name: Edit startup script with new java startup variables
      lineinfile:
        path: /opt/application/startAll.sh
        # Line to Search/Match against
        regexp: '^(.*)(-jar.*$)'
        # Line to Replace with
        line: '\1 -javaagent:{{ java_agent_dest_folder_linux }}/javaagent.jar -Dappdynamics.agent.nodeName=application-1 \2'
        backup: yes
        backrefs: yes
        state: present
      notify: RestartingApp
    - name: Allow appuser write to appd logs folder
      user:
        name: appuser
        groups:
        - appdynamics
        append: yes
      become: yes
  handlers:
    - name: RestartingApp
      command: '/opt/application/stopAll.sh && /opt/application/startAll.sh'
      args: 
        chdir: '/opt/application/'

Instrument JBoss/Wildfly

This role features:

java-agent installation for Linux
instrumentation of Jboss/Wildfly
automatic applications restart (if systemd service is present)
java agent start verification

Example 1: Install java-agent and instrument one or more applications.

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.java
        # use java role variables in the following instrumentation tasks when public: yes
        public: yes
      vars:
        agent_version: 21.1.0
        agent_type: java8

    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.instrument_jboss
      vars:
        # instrument jboss:
        application_name: "IoT_API2"
        tier_name: "Jboss"
        jboss_service: wildfly
        app_user: wildfly
        restart_app: yes
        jboss_config: /opt/wildfly/bin/standalone.sh

Example 2: To make sure all instrumented applications can have access to java-agent logs directory, this role creates appdynamics functional user/group to own java-agent directory and then assigns applications PID users to appdynamics group. In some cases, when application PID user is not local on linux host (i.e. from external source) it cannot be added to the appdynamics group. In such case you can let application user to own java-agent directory instead.

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.java
        # use java role variables in the following instrumentation tasks when public: yes
        public: yes
      vars:
        agent_version: 21.1.0
        agent_type: java8
        # single app mode: Can skip appdynamics user creation and own java-agent directory by app user (wildfly in this case)
        create_appdynamics_user: no
        agent_dir_permission:
          user:  wildfly
          group: wildfly
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.instrument_jboss
      vars:
        # instrument jboss:
        application_name: "IoT_API2"
        tier_name: "Jboss"
        jboss_service: wildfly
        app_user: wildfly
        restart_app: yes
        jboss_config: /opt/wildfly/bin/standalone.sh

JBoss Instrumentation Variables

Variable	Description	Required	Default
`app_user`	User that runs this application. It must be provided, so write permissions are given to the java-agent logs directory	Y	jboss
`jboss_service`	Systemd service that should be restarted if `restart_app` is set to 'yes'	N
`restart_app`	Set to 'yes' to automatically restart instrumented service	N	no
`backup`	Whether original config file should be backed up before any changes	N	False
`jboss_config`	Jboss/Wildfly config to instrument. Provide a path to jboss standalone.sh	Y	/opt/wildfly/bin/standalone.sh

Instrument Apache Tomcat

This role features:

java-agent installation for Linux
instrumentation of Apache Tomcat
automatic applications restart (if systemd service is present)
java agent start verification

Example 1: Install java-agent and instrument one or more applications.

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.java
        # use java role variables in the following instrumentation tasks when public: yes
        public: yes
      vars:
        agent_version: 21.1.0
        agent_type: java8

    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.instrument_tomcat
      vars:
      # instrument tomcat:
        tomcat_service: tomcat9
        application_name: "IoT_API22"
        tier_name: "Tomcat"
        app_user: tomcat
        restart_app: yes
        tomcat_config: /usr/share/tomcat9/bin/setenv.sh

Example 2: To make sure all instrumented applications can have access to java-agent logs directory, this role creates appdynamics functional user/group to own java-agent dir and then assigns applications PID users to appdynamics group. In some cases, when application PID user is not local on linux host (i.e. from external source) it cannot be added to the appdynamics group. In such case you can let application user to own java-agent directory instead.

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.java
        # use java role variables in the following instrumentation tasks when public: yes
        public: yes
      vars:
        agent_version: 21.1.0
        agent_type: java8
        # single app mode: Can skip appdynamics user creation and own java-agent directory by app user (tomcat in this case)
        create_appdynamics_user: no
        agent_dir_permission:
          user:  tomcat
          group: tomcat

    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.instrument_tomcat
      vars:
        # instrument tomcat:
        tomcat_service: tomcat9
        application_name: "IoT_API22"
        tier_name: "Tomcat"
        app_user: tomcat
        restart_app: yes
        tomcat_config: /usr/share/tomcat9/bin/setenv.sh

Tomcat Instrumentation Variables

Variable	Description	Required	Default
`app_user`	User that runs this application. It must be provided, so write permissions are given to the java-agent logs directory	Y	tomcat
`tomcat_service`	Systemd service that should be restated if `restart_app` is set to 'yes'	N
`add_service_override`	If enabled, adds systemd override file to explicitly allow write permissions to appdynamics java-agent dir. Required for tomcat9 installed on ubuntu20.04	N	yes
`restart_app`	Set to 'yes' to automatically restart instrumented service	N	no
`backup`	Whether original config file should be backed up before any changes	N	no
`tomcat_config`	Tomcat config to instrument. Choose which tomcat config file to modify. You should set full path to setenv.sh file, like <CATALINA_HOME>/bin/setenv.sh. Note that if Tomcat is installed with yum on RHEL distributions this file is not invoked by startup script. In that case, it can be set to `/etc/tomcat/conf.d/appdynamics.conf` instead.	Y

.NET agent

In the playbook below, the parameters are initialised directly in the yaml file rather than including them from var/playbooks/controller.yaml

Example 1: Install .net agent and instrument standalone applications.

---
- hosts: windows
  tasks:
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.dotnet
      vars:
        agent_version: 20.8.0
        agent_type: dotnet
        application_name: 'IoT_API'
        # Your controller details
        controller_account_access_key: "123456" # Please add this to your Vault
        controller_global_analytics_account_name: "customer1_GUID" # Please add this to your Vault
        controller_host_name: "fieldlab.saas.appdynamics.com"
        controller_account_name: "customer1" # Please add this to your Vault
        enable_ssl: "true"
        controller_port: "443"
        enable_proxy: "true"  #use quotes please
        proxy_host: "10.0.1.3"
        proxy_port: "80"
        monitor_all_IIS_apps: "false"  # Enable automatic instrumentation of all IIS applications
        runtime_reinstrumentation: "true" # Runtime reinstrumentation works for .NET Framework 4.5.2 and greater.
        # Define standalone executive applications to monitor
        standalone_applications:
          - tier: login
            executable: login.exe
          - tier: tmw
            executable: tmw.exe
            command-line: "-x"
          - tier: mso
            executable: mso.exe

.NET agent specific variables

Variable	Description	Required	Default
`monitor_all_IIS_apps`	Enable automatic instrumentation of all IIS applications	N	no
`runtime_reinstrumentation`	Runtime re-instrumentation works for .NET Framework 4.5.2 and greater. Note: Make sure you test this first in a non-production environment	N	no
`dotnet_machine_agent`	YAML map that describes dotnet machine agent settings. See roles/dotnet/defaults/main.yml for the example	N
`standalone_applications`	List of standalone services to be instrumented with the .NET agent. See roles/dotnet/defaults/main.yml for the example	N
`logFileFolderAccessPermissions`	The list of users who require write access to log directory of the agent (i.e. user who runs IIS). See roles/dotnet/defaults/main.yml for the example	N
`restart_app`	Set to 'yes' to automatically restart IIS	N	no

.NET core agent for linux

In the playbook below, the parameters for communicating with controller included from vars/controller.yaml

Example 1: Install .net core agent on linux host and change environment variables for application to start app with .net core agent

---
- hosts: netcore_lin
  tasks:
    - name: Include variables for the controller settings
      include_vars: vars/controller.yaml
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.dotnetcore
        public: yes
      vars:
        # Define Agent Type and Version
        agent_version: 21.5.0
        agent_type: dotnetcore
        # The applicationName
        application_name: "BIGCOMPANY"
        tier_name: "dotnet" 
        # Directory permissions for agent. These can be set at host level in the invertory as well
        agent_dir_permission:  #defaults to root:root if not specified
          user:  "centos" # This user must pre-exist. It is recommended to use the PID owner of your netcore app
          group: "centos" # This group must pre-exist
    - name: Change application startup script
      blockinfile: 
        path: /opt/Gateway/StartGatewayApi.sh 
        backup: yes
        insertbefore: BOF
        marker: "# {mark} appd instrumentation"
        block: |
            export APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_APPLICATION_NAME="BIGCOMPANY"
            export APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_TIER_NAME="dotnet-gateweay"
            export APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_REUSE_NODE_NAME=true
            export APPDYNAMICS_AGENT_REUSE_NODE_NAME_PREFIX="dotnet-gw"
            export CORECLR_PROFILER={57e1aa68-2229-41aa-9931-a6e93bbc64d8}
            export CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING=1
            export CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH={{ dotnet_core_agent_dest_folder_linux }}/libappdprofiler.so
      notify: RestartingApp
  handlers:
    - name: RestartingApp
      shell: '{{ item }}'
      args: 
        chdir: '/opt/Gateway/'
      with_items:
        - '/opt/Gateway/StopGatewayApi.sh '
        - '/opt/Gateway/StartGatewayApi.sh '

DB agent

Example 1: Install database agent on linux host

---
- hosts: linux
  tasks:
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.db
      vars:
        agent_version: 20.9.0
        agent_type: db
        controller_account_access_key: "b0248ceb-c954-4a37-97b5-207e90418cb4" # Please add this to your Vault
        controller_host_name: "ansible-20100nosshcont-bum4wzwa.appd-cx.com" # Your AppDynamics controller
        controller_account_name: "customer1" # Please add this to your Vault
        enable_ssl: "false"
        controller_port: "8090"
        db_agent_name: "ProdDBAgent"

DB agent specific variables

Variable	Description
`db_agent_name`	Name assigned to the agent, typically used to allow one Database Agent to act as a backup to another one
`install_jre`	Set this parameter to false if the JRE should not be installed together with the DB agent. Note: to install java on windows, you need to run the install-roles.yml playbook first, which adds a galaxy role (lean_delivery.java) to you local playbook folder

Machine agent

Example 1: Install machine agent on hosts. Agents communicate with controller with proxy.

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - include_role:
        name: appdynamics.agents.machine
      vars:
        # Define Agent Type and Version
        agent_version: 20.9.0
        agent_type: machine
        machine_hierarchy: "AppName|Owners|Environment|" # Make sure it ends with a |
        sim_enabled: "true"
        # Analytics settings
        analytics_event_endpoint: "https://fra-ana-api.saas.appdynamics.com:443"
        enable_analytics_agent: "true"
        # Your controller details
        controller_account_access_key: "123key" # Please add this to your Vault
        controller_host_name: "fieldlab.saas.appdynamics.com" # Your AppDynamics controller
        controller_account_name: "customer1" # Please add this to your Vault
        enable_ssl: "false"
        controller_port: "8090"
        controller_global_analytics_account_name: 'customer1_e52eb4e7-25d2-41c4-a5bc-9685502317f2' # Please add this to your Vault
        # config properties docs - https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/latest/Machine+Agent+Configuration+Properties
        # Can be used to configure the proxy for the agent
        java_system_properties: "-Dappdynamics.http.proxyHost=10.0.4.2 -Dappdynamics.http.proxyPort=9090" # mind the space between each property

MA Enhanced logger

The logger role allows you to change the agent log level for already deployed agents (either one agent type at a time or multiple types, depending on the value of the agents_to_set_loggers_for list.

The init_and_validate_agent_variables should be false when using the logger role after the agents are already deployed, to skip unnecessary common role processing.

Machine agent specific variables

Variable	Description
`java_system_properties`	can be used to configure proxy setting for agents
`analytics_event_endpoint`	Your Events Service URL
`enable_analytics_agent`	Indicate if analytics agent should be enabled in the Machine agent
`sim_enabled`	Enable server infrastructure monitoring
`controller_global_analytics` `_account_name`	This is the global account name of the controller

Logger

The logger role allows you to change the agent log level for already deployed agents (either one agent type at a time or multiple types, depending on the value of the agents_to_set_loggers_for list.

The init_and_validate_agent_variables should be false when using the logger role after the agents are already deployed, to skip unnecessary common role processing.

- hosts: all
  tasks:
      - include_role:
          name: appdynamics.agents.logger
        vars:
          init_and_validate_agent_variables: false # skip agent type variable init and validation
          agents_to_set_loggers_for: ['db', 'java', 'machine']
          agent_log_level: "info"
          agent_loggers: ['com.appdynamics', 'com', 'com.singularity', 'com.singularity.BusinessTransactions', 'com.singularity.ee.agent.dbagent.collector.server.connection.wmi.NativeClient']

Common role variables

Check Agent Type/Roles for specific variable support.

Variable	Description	Agent Type/Roles
`agent_type`	AppDynamics agent type. java, machine, etc	All
`agent_version`	AppDynamics agent version. AppDynamics uses calendar versioning. For example, if a Java agent is released in November of 2020, its version will begin with 20.11.0. When the Java agent team releases again in the month of November, the new agent will be 20.11.1	All
`application_name`	The AppDynamics business application name, this variable is compulsory for all the `dotnet`, `java` and `dotnetcore` roles	All
`tier_name`	The AppDynamics tier name, this variable is compulsory for all the `dotnet`, `java` and `dotnetcore` roles	All
`node_name`	The AppDynamics node name for `dotnet`, `java` and `dotnetcore` roles	All
`controller_host_name`	The controller host name, do not include `http(s)`	All
`controller_account_name`	Controller account name	All
`controller_account_access_key`	Account or license rule access key. This should ideally be placed into your vault	All
`controller_account_name`	Account name	All
`controller_port`	The controller port	All
`enable_ssl`	Indicate if SSL is enabled in the controller or not	All
`agent_log_level`	set the log level for the agent. valid options are : info, trace, debug, warn, error, fatal, all and off. This setting is applied to all the loggers named in the `agent_loggers` list. Note: The log level, when used with the .NET agent, only applies to loggers that write to the agent log-file (as opposed to other files in the log directory)	Machine, DB, Java, .NET and Logger
`agent_loggers`	List of loggers to set the log level on. The logger names vary from agent to agent. The default is set to ['*', 'com.singularity','com']. Update this variable with loggers specific to the target agent as required (refer to the log4j files in the /conf/logging directory for more info).	Machine, DB, Java, .NET, Logger
`init_and_validate` `_agent_variables`	This variable controls whether the Common role initialisation (which sets download urls and controller parameters) needs to be run. When using the logger role in isolations (that is not as part of agent installation) the value should be false	Machine, DB, Java, .NET, Logger
`agents_to_set_loggers_for`	List of agents to apply the log-level changes to. for example to set the log level of all deployed agents to say "info". initialise the variable to ['db', 'java', 'machine', 'dotnet']. In contrast, to affect only the java agent, remove the unwanted entries from the list. Note: This variable should not be set when using the logger role as part of agent deployments. The `agent_type` variable will be used to determine how the log-level needs to be adjusted during the installation	Machine, DB, Java, .NET, Logger
`analytics_agent_host` `analytics_agent_port`	Defines where the application agents sends its analytics events. The default is localhost:9090	.NET-Core
`enable_proxy`	Set to "true" to apply agent proxy settings to the agent config. When set, the `proxy_host` and `proxy_port` variables also need to be assigned	.NET and .NET-Core, Java
`proxy_host` `proxy_port`	Host name/IP address and port number of the proxy to route agent data through.	.NET and .NET-Core, Java
`enable_proxy_authentication`	Set to "true" to apply proxy authentication details using `proxy_user` and `proxy_password` parameters.	.NET‑Core
`create_appdynamics_user`	Whether to create AppDynamics functional user on linux if missing	Java, DB, Machine
`appdynamics_user`	Appdynamics functional user name, default is 'appdynamics'	Java, DB, Machine
`agent_dir_permission.user` `agent_dir_permission.group`	user and group file permissions to assign to the java-agent/.net-core agent on linux. The user and group selected must already exist on the host if `create_appdynamics_user` is set to 'no'. For .NET-core, If the parameters are omitted the permissions will default to root	.NET-Core, Java

Contributing

Here are a few ways you can pitch in:

Report bugs or issues.
Fix bugs and submit pull requests.
Write, clarify or fix documentation.
Refactor code.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 83 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
build		build
docs		docs
meta		meta
molecule		molecule
playbooks		playbooks
roles		roles
tests/sanity		tests/sanity
.ansible-lint		.ansible-lint
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.travis.yml		.travis.yml
.yamllint		.yamllint
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
galaxy.yml		galaxy.yml
install_collection.sh		install_collection.sh

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AppDynamics Ansible Collection

Demo

Requirements

Supported Agents

Installation

Playbooks

Java agent

Instrument JBoss/Wildfly

JBoss Instrumentation Variables

Instrument Apache Tomcat

Tomcat Instrumentation Variables

.NET agent

.NET agent specific variables

.NET core agent for linux

DB agent

DB agent specific variables

Machine agent

MA Enhanced logger

Machine agent specific variables

Logger

Common role variables

Contributing

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AppDynamics Ansible Collection

Demo

Requirements

Supported Agents

Installation

Playbooks

Java agent

Instrument JBoss/Wildfly

JBoss Instrumentation Variables

Instrument Apache Tomcat

Tomcat Instrumentation Variables

.NET agent

.NET agent specific variables

.NET core agent for linux

DB agent

DB agent specific variables

Machine agent

MA Enhanced logger

Machine agent specific variables

Logger

Common role variables

Contributing

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