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Deploying AppDynamics Java Agents with Cisco Intersight Service for Terraform

Contents

    Use Case

    Pre-requisites

    Intersight Target configuration for AppDynamics and on prem entities

    Setting up TFCB Workspaces

    Retrieve Java agent artifacts using AppDynamics Controller ZFI API's leveraging TFCB

    Deploy a Java application stack and instrument with Java agent leveraging TFCB

    Generate Application Load

    View Application Insights in AppDynamics and Intersight

Use Case

  • As a DevOps and App developer, use IST (Intersight Service for Terraform) to instrument your Java Apps with AppDynamics Java agents

  • As DevOps and App Developer, use Intersight and AppDynamics to get app and infrastructure insights for Full Stack Observability

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Pre-requisites

  1. The VM template that you provision in Step 5 below will have a user "cisco/Cisco123" provisioned. Terraform scripts will use this user credentials to remotely run installation scripts in the VM.

  2. Sign up for a user account on Intersight.com. You will need Premier license as well as IWO license to complete this use case.

  3. Sign up for a TFCB (Terraform for Cloud Business) at https://app.terraform.io/. Log in and generate the User API Key. You will need this when you create the TF Cloud Target in Intersight.

  4. You will need access to a vSphere infrastructure with backend compute and storage provisioned

Intersight Target configuration for AppDynamics and on prem entities

You will log into your Intersight account and create the following targets. Please refer to Intersight docs for details on how to create these Targets:

Assist

vSphere

AppDynamics

TFC Cloud

TFC Cloud Agent - When you claim the TF Cloud Agent, please make sure you have the following added to your Managed Hosts. This is in addition to other local subnets you may have that hosts your kubernetes cluster like the IPPool that you may configure for your k8s addressing:
NO_PROXY URL's listed:

        github-releases.githubusercontent.com

        github.com

        app.terraform.io

        registry.terraform.io

        releases.hashicorp.com

        archivist.terraform.io

Setting up TFCB Workspaces

  1. If you are leveraging CiscoDevNet organization in app.terraform,io, please go to Step 3. Else go to Step 2.

  2. If you have your own TFCB organization and would like to use that, you will have to change the terraform configuration to account for this. Please clone the following repos and create your own corresponding GIT repos. Look for CiscoDevNet org references in the TF files and replace with your own organization:

     Clone following repos:

 https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/appd_globalvar.git

 https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/appd_appstack.git


 With CiscoDevNet TFCB org:

 data "terraform_remote_state" "global" {

     backend = "remote"

     config = {

         organization = "CiscoDevNet"

         workspaces = {

         name = var.globalwsname

         }

     }

 }

 With your own TFCB org:

 data "terraform_remote_state" "global" {

     backend = "remote"

     config = {

         organization = "Lab14"

         workspaces = {

         name = var.globalwsname

         }

     }

 }

You will set up the following workspaces in TFCB and link to your newly created VCS repos. You will set the execution mode as noted below. Also, please use the workspace names provided since there may be dependencies defined around it:

appd_globalvar -> <your_repo_appd_globalvar.git> -> Execution mode as Remote

appd_appstack -> <your_repo_appd_appstack.git> -> Execution mode as Agent

Go to Step 4.

  1. You will set up the following workspaces in TFCB and link to the VCS repos specified. You will set the execution mode as noted below. Also, please use the workspace names provided since there are dependencies defined around it:

    appd_globalvar -> https://github.com/prathjan/appd_globalvar.git -> Execution mode as Remote

    appd_appstack -> https://github.com/prathjan/appd_appstack.git -> Execution mode as Agent

Go to Step 4.

  1. You will open the workspace "appd_globalvar" in TFCB and add the following variables specific to your AppDynamics environment. This workspace connects to the AppDynamics Controller specified her and downloads the commmands to instrument the Java applications:

    appname = "Supercar-Trader". This is the application name in your AppDynamics Console.

    accesskey = "XXXXXX". This is your AppDynamics Access Key for API client access.

    zerover="21.6.0.232". This is the Zero agent version that you would like to instrument with.

    infraver="21.5.0.1784". This is the Infra agent version that you would like to instrument with.

    machinever="21.6.0.3155". This is the Machine agent version that you would like to instrument with.

    ibmver="21.6.0.32801". This is the IBM Java agent version that you would like to instrument with.

    javaver="21.5.0.32605". This is the Sun Java agent version that you would like to instrument with.

    url="https://devnet.saas.appdynamics.com". This is the URL of your AppDynamics Controller.

    clientid="YYYYYY". This is the API client ID to access your AppDynamics Controller.

    clientsecret="ZZZZZZ". This is the API client secret to access your AppDynamics Controller.

    A sample configuration would be as follows:

    alt text

    Please also set this workspace to share its data with other workspaces in the organization by enabling Settings->General Settings->Share State Globally.

  2. You will open the workspace "appd_appstack" and add the following variables:

vsphere_server = "10.88.168.24". This is the vSphere server IP.

datacenter = "Piso14-Lab". This is your on prem datacenter which will host your application.

resource_pool = "ccmsuite". This is the resource pool to be used for VM provisioning.

datastore_name = "CCPHXM4". This is the data store to be used for VM provisioning.

network_name = "vm-network-6". This is the network interface to be used for VM provisining.

template_name = "ubuntu-tmp". This is the template to be used for VM provisioning.

vm_folder = "terraform". This is the folder in vSphere for VM hosting.

vm_prefix = "terraform-". This is the prefix to be used for VM provisioning.

vm_domain = "lab14.lc". This is the vSphere domanin for VM provisioning.

vm_cpu = 2. This is the CPU profile for the VM.

vm_count = 1. This is the number of VM's to be provisioned.

root_password = "XXXX". This is the root password for vSphere access.

vsphere_user = "administrator@vsphere.local". This is the user name for vSphere access.

vsphere_password = "YYYYY". This is the user passsword for vSphere access.

vm_memory = 4096 . This is the memory for the VM.

A sample configuration would be as follows:

alt text

Retrieve Java agent artifacts using AppDynamics Controller ZFI API's leveraging TFCB

The TFCB workspace, appd_globalvar, automates the process of calling AppDynamics Controller API's to retrieve the Java agent artifacts. To initiate this, you will execute the workspace "appd_globalvar" in TFCB. A successful Run should show the output as follows:

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You now have the AppDynamics ZFI API outputs for the download and install commands for the Java agent instrumentation to be used in subsequent steps.

Leverage TFCB to deploy a Java application stack and instrument with Java agent

You will open the TFCB workspace, "appd_appstack".
Verify that this workspace uses the Terraform Cloud Agent provisioned on your on prem infrastructure.
You will execute this workspace in TFCB. A successful Run should show the output as follows.

alt text

Executing this workspace installs a sample Java AppStack based on Tomcat with the AppDynamics Java agent instrumentation. The instrumentation of the AppDynamics ZeroAgent will automatically instrument any Java application that is deployed on Tomcat as well without the need for any manual instrumentation. We will take a look at a sample Java application deployment and auto instrumentation in the next step.

Make a note of the VM IP and open the Tomcat Manager Console for a sample Java Application deployment which will automatically instrument it with the AppDynamics Java agent:

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Deploy a Java application stack and instrument with Java agent leveraging TFCB

You will now deploy a sample Java application on Tomcat and restart Tomcat so AppDynamic Zero Agent can instrument the app with the Java agent.
Use:

 /Supercar-Trader

 file://opt/appdynamics/DevNet-Labs/applications/Supercar-Trader/Supercar-Trader.war

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ssh cisco@

Cisco123

Execute: sudo systemctl restart apache-tomcat-7.service

Generate Application Load

To see the application insights in AppDynamics Console, you should initiate some load on the deployed services so the Java agent installed can send the application performance metrics back to the AppDynamics Controller:

ssh cisco@

Cisco123

Execute: /opt/appdynamics/DevNet-Labs/applications/Load-Generator/phantomjs/start_load.sh

View Application Insights in AppDynamics and Intersight

You will now log into AppDynamics console and examine the insights for the Java Application that you just deployed:

alt text

You will log into Intersight and view Full Stack Observability from Java services to Infrastructure conponents:

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De-provisioning

You can decommision all resources provisioned by queing a destroy plan in each workspace.

Destroy and remove from TFCB: appd_globalvar

Destroy and remove from TFCB: appd_appstack

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