avodaq Data Snapshot Service (aDSS)

avodaq Data Snapshot Service (aDSS) addresses the Data Retention limitations of Dynatrace by enabling easy export and long-term storage of monitored data (including session replay), allowing for both manual and automated analysis of historical data to produce technical and business insights. It also provides easy access to the data Dynatrace collects (including dashboards), exposing data in an easy to consume format (CSV).

Outline

• Deployment Options and Prerequisites
  • Deployment Options
  • Prerequisites
• Features
• Initial Setup
  • Setting up a new account
  • Setting up storage settings
  • Setting up Dynatrace UI login credentials
  • Setting up a Dynatrace environment

Deployment Options and Prerequisites

aDSS is offered as a managed service. In other words, avodaq will interact with the aDSS software to provide all the above-mentioned services.

Deployment Options

In terms of where the aDSS software will be run, avodaq offers two options:

1. SaaS: aDSS will be run from avodaq's own servers. This requires that avodaq is able to access your Dynatrace environment from outside your network.

2. On-Premises: aDSS will be run within your network. This is suitable for Dynatrace Managed instances that are not accessible from the Internet.

Prerequisites

In order to utilize all of the functions of aDSS, you will need to provide the following prerequisites (note the different requirements for SaaS and On-Premises):

1. avodaq must be able to access your Dynatrace environment (to make API calls and access the UI).

2. The following credentials will be required (Note: if requested, you may input these fields on your own):

   1. Dedicated aDSS User: For snapshots which access the Dynatrace UI, we will need the username and password of a dedicated user.
      1. WARNING: The aDSS uses the username and password to log in. To avoid exposing sensitive information, please provide a dedicated user and password which can access the environment but does not have admin rights to change environment settings.
      2. Alternatively, you can provide access to a specialist from avodaq, who will use his/her credentials (only for SaaS).
   2. API Token: Please generate an API Token in Dynatrace with the following permissions:
      
      
   3. S3 Bucket: Please provide the following credentials for a dedicated S3 Bucket (for storage of snapshot data):
      1. Bucket Name
      2. AWS Region (e.g. ap-southeast-1)
      3. Access Key ID
      4. Secret Key

3. For aDSS On-Premises:

   1. You must provide a Virtual Machine on which avodaq can install the aDSS. This Virtual Machine must meet the following requirements:
      1. The Virtual Machine must be able to make calls to the Dynatrace Managed instance.
      2. The Virtual Machine must meet the following hardware requirements:
         1. 4 vCPU
         2. 8GB RAM
         3. 50 GB Disk Space
   2. You must provide a logical volume/ NAS to store extracted data and mount it to the Virtual Machine. The volume requirements are as follows:
      1. 256 gb of Disk Space
      2. Be able to resize volume as storage requirement grows
   3. If all the prerequisites are met, avodaq will provide the installation of the aDSS.

Configuration Process

If all the prerequisites are met, avodaq will configure the aDSS according to your monitoring and reporting requirements.

avodaq will also be in communication with you to ensure that you derive as much value from aDSS as possible.

Features

Introduction

avodaq Data Snapshot Service (aDSS) captures the following data from Dynatrace as snapshots:

1. Dashboards
2. Performance Metrics
3. User Queries
4. Session Data & Replays
5. Batch Snapshots
6. Problem Tickets

1. Dashboard Snapshot - Retain Visualised Data

Configure aDSS to capture any custom dashboard created on your own Dynatrace tenant as an image, allowing you to leverage Dynatraces powerful dashboarding capabilities for your own reports.

2. Data Snapshot - Backup and Export

Pull performance metrics from Dynatrace and store them indefinitely.

3. User Query Snapshot - Slice and Dice

Store custom USQL Query datasets and export them as PDF reports or as CSV data which can be integrated with your Business Intelligence tool of choice (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau).

4. Session Replay Snapshot - Session Data Beyond 35 Days

Store data from a user session indefinitely, including the visual session replay.

5. Batch Snapshot - Schedules

Set routines to automatically export data from Dynatrace (e.g. every hour, day, week, month).

6. Problem Card Snapshot - Incident Data

Automated export and storage of contextualized data pertaining to problem tickets.

7. SRE Reports Snapshot

🚧 This section is being updated to include steps for the SRE reports.

Initial Setup

• Setting up a new account
• Setting up storage settings
• Setting up Dynatrace UI login credentials
• Setting up a Dynatrace environment

Setting up a new account

1. When you first enter, you will be greeted with the login page of avodaq Data Snapshot Service (aDSS). To register for an account, click on "Register".

   

2. Fill up the cells with the relevant information.

   

3. Click "Save".

4. Log in to your registered account to begin using the Snapshot service. When logging in for the first time, you will be brought to the storage settings page to set up your AWS S3 Bucket.

Setting up storage settings

1. Update the storage settings with AWS S3 bucket information and save them. Refer to the AWS documentation for more information on how to set up an S3 bucket.

   

2. To update storage settings after initial setup, click on "Snapshot Settings".

   

3. Click on "Storage Settings" and update your storage settings accordingly.

   

Setting up Dynatrace UI Login Credentials

1. After logging in, click on "Snapshot Settings".

   

2. Click on "Dynatrace UI Login Credentials".

   

3. Click on "Add New Dynatrace UI Login Credentials".

   

4. Fill in the form with your Dynatrace UI login credentials.

   Note: These credentials are the email and password to log into the Dynatrace UI, not aDSS. The user with the email provided must be able to access the UI of th environments which you wish to monitor.

   

5. Click "Save".

Setting up a Dynatrace environment

1. On the home page, click the "Snapshot Settings" button.

   

2. Click on "Dynatrace Environments".

   

3. Click on "Add New Dynatrace Environment".

   

4. Fill up the form with the relevant information.

   • Environment Name - Your own custom name to identify your environment in the aDSS.
   • Environment URL - The link to your environment. See Dynatrace documentation:
     • For Dynatrace SaaS: https://{your-environment-id}.live.dynatrace.com
     • For Dynatrace Managed: https://{your-domain}/e/{your-environment-id}
   • API Token - The API Token with the permissions mentioned in Prerequisites above. See this guide for information on how to create the API token.

5. Click on "Save".

   

6. After saving, your Dynatrace environment should appear in the Dynatrace environment list.