Splunk AppDynamics Reviews

Deep dive monitoring: It automatically instruments slow performing code components. It facilitates deep-dive component monitoring through deep on-demand diagnostics.

Creation of dashboards and reports: It provides creation of reports by adding standard graph and widgets. It stores all metrics into a database that can be used to drive analytics.

Business transaction tracing: It is very good in usability and tool navigation. The navigation is oriented towards business transactions which makes it extreme user friendly. The end user can navigate from business transactions and quickly navigate to the performance issues in those transactions.

Simple architecture: Agents and a centralised console.

It helps client in finding the detailed errors and exactly which user is facing the same.

It does not support network monitoring, which should be included.

I have used it for six months.

It requires a huge amount of disk memory because of which I was unable to install it earlier on the machine.

Technical support is 5/10.

I have used CA Wily and Dynatrace. Both are good, but this is better in providing solutions.

I have implemented it through a vendor team.

It takes far less time to implement than any other APM tools. The ease of using the tool further reduces the overall implementation time.

It is an excellent product for application performance monitoring.

No visibility from application code-level failures: It used to take a lot of effort, but after we implemented this solution, we can easily determine the root cause of issues.

Code-level deep dive analysis and automated application flow service models: Companies maintaining strict compliance such as PCI, etc., can easily use AppDynamics without any restrictions, because it has a completely web-based interface and there is no client.

Use of BCI (Byte Code Instrumentation) is also a key feature that helps AppDynamics to fetch maximum information via Java agents without consuming a lot resources on the application servers.

In the current version of AppDynamics, there is a correlated section, where we can see all servers’ performance along with application performance, but network performance is missing. Including network monitoring would provide an end-to-end correlated view of all factors in a single console view.

One to three years.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

Technical support is excellent.

Our Customers previously used APM solutions like DynaTrace, TMART, New Relic, etc.

Initial setup was straightforward. Just install the agent; it will discover all of the relationships and communicate with each and every component of the running application.

We evaluated almost all other similar products, as per the Gartner report. AppDynamics is the best fit as an Application Performance Management solution.

Just go for it.

• Business Transaction Tracking
• HTTP Header values
• Introspecting slow and error transaction at different tier levels
• Analytics helps to group business calls based on vendor by using HTTP values

• Finds the bugs in dev and test environments before they escape into staging/prod
• Helps to pinpoint where the issue is by application tier
• Identify performance bottlenecks
• Group business calls (API) by vendor
• The above key points mentioned have helped the DevOps team work more effectively and reduce the turnaround time between releases
• Reduced the debug time

The primary feature we are looking for is tracking async calls because most of our API are async calls. We cannot view HTTP data.

We require a seamless way to upgrade the controller and .NET agents.

The plugins available are tedious to use and not robust, e.g. URL monitoring.

The application(controller) is very heavy on hardware. This increases our cloud cost.

It should be more intuitive and provide better metrics when drilling down in the UI.

1. Instrumenting Async method calls:
   For example, let's say we have Async Rest API call written in C#.net with this method - public async long Multiply (int x, inty). Now this call may take 5-15 seconds for REST Response. In AppDynamcis we have an option to instruement a specific method by providing the method definition and its parameters passed and returned values. We can define as variable data collectors to do this, and this is available with the drill down of the call stack. The data collector or variables should show the value which doesn't, and we also tried the diagnostic mode where we can introduce a delay. Though AppDynamics say there are settings to enable tracking of Async calls, but I think it's more inclined and friendly for POJO(Java) calls than POCO(dotnet) calls.
   
2. HTTP Data Collector for Async calls:
   In the above example, if we like to see the HTTP data collectors then there is an option to view the HTTP header variables and custom variables. However, there is no way to see the JSON request and Response data in AppDynamics. I can view this in IE or Chrome using developer tools on the client but not within AppDynamics. I'm not sure if this feature is available in EUM which we haven't procured yet. Also, I don't rule out possibility I might have over looked something and missed it, but I really tried to get this working. Also, the AppDynamics team failed to assist to get this working.
   
3. Plug-in's tried:(SQL monitoring and URL monitoring)
   There was a requirement where we wanted to query our database directly and display certain values (integer) in the AppDynamics UI for monitoring, say, a number of active sessions or database locks etc. Though AppDynamics doesn't provide an out of the box solution, the plug-in's available on Git-Hub which are claimed to be stable aren't working either. Ultimately, we succeed in writing custom VBS files which leverages database machine agent service provided by the tool. With this tool we dump the data to metrics file and manage to integrate. This was very good experience to get our hands around and customize few things which not found in the community of AppDynamics.

This also goes with URL monitoring script provided by community in Git-Hub and also Plug-In repositories on the AppDynamics site. This plug-in is a little tedious to configure because of the YAML file, and only supports HTTP 200 is alive i.e ping request to PORT 80. There's no script for login automation. Again we managed to write custom scripts here for logging using VBS.

There seems to be a certain disconnect between the AppDynamics development and support teams. Maybe because this is a developer intensive engineering tool and support guys need to understand the framework of .NET or a Java ecosystem and applications that cut across various design architectures. This could be a gap which AppDynamics needs to bridge.

I have used this solution for one year.

The controller slows down with Windows platforms.

Sometimes the MySQL process of the AppDynamics controller takes lot of memory and the controller hangs, despite configuring it as per requirement.

Since the application is agent driven (client side), if we need to upgrade the .NET agents on 100 servers, then we need to visit 100 servers to upgrade or deploy them.

The technical capabilities of people sitting in technical support is questionable. The reason being this is an engineering tool for application instrumentation both for .NET and Java. We have asked queries and also raised some issues. For most of the issues, especially regarding tracking async for .NET API, we never received a solution. Also, some configuration issues where primitive in nature but not resolved immediately.

The technical documentation contradicts technical support.

We started using version 3.8 of the tool, and since then, I don't see many changes on the support side.

No, we didn’t use anything in the past for application monitoring. This was the best out there in the market as per evaluation by market research. The tool was a good fit when we did a POC.

Initial setup was complex.

Setting up configuration to track the metrics is little tedious.

Understanding the metrics numbers is little confusing as they contradict, e.g. The number of API calls displayed on the main screen is different than on the analytics screen.

A normal user would find it difficult to understand and read the metrics, because too much drill down is necessary, and the numbers are difficult to interpret and relate to the problem.

Implementation was done in house. The tool is configuration intensive. A good development and operations team need to know the application dynamics to configure this application.

Since it’s high on budget, it’s recommended to buy a developer license and play around with this tool in a dev environment and then procure for production.

I don't think premium vendor support is required for setup and configuration.

We haven’t reached the stage where we calculate ROI, as we are in the early stages of onboarding customers. We can probably gauge this once we have a sizable number of customers on board, which will take time. Measuring ROI will be calculated by using the API call tracking by customer and also the turnaround time (time saving) in the early stages of development cycle.

The pricing is way too high, especially with the analytics feature and end-user monitoring.

They have separate licensing offerings for development and production.

The best option is to get into an engagement for a few months before procuring this tool.

This is purely an application instrumentation and monitoring tool with good features for business analytics.

It is probably more integrated and works well with Java application, as some features for .NET don't work.

Host the AppDynamics controller on a Linux machine with a medium or high profile. A Windows server machine would show symptoms of disliking it within 2 to 3 weeks of setup.

It is not comparable with infrastructure tools. The plug-in available to track infrastructure-related activities are not stable and not robust.

We like the ability to drill down into the method level to identify where the real issue is, as other tools just show the slowness at the transaction level only. We also like its database monitoring which gives almost everything to us for identifying any performance issues with the database. It is certainly not a legacy monitoring tool to monitor the database, it should be looked at as a database performance monitoring tool.

We are still in the POC phase and are trying to implement it by adopting some of the best practices. I am sure if and when it is fully implemented, developers will love this tool as their life will be easier.

AppDynamics should add more features to identify in case if there is some thread waiting for something. We are keenly looking for this feature. We would like to see the traffic on F5 load balancers in the flow map which make the entry points in an application, Currently only custom exit points can be created for non-instrumented nodes. Also if AppDynamics are trying to be only a monitoring tool, then they really need to add lot of stuff to the infrastructure monitoring and heavy correlation features are required to identify the real issues within and outside of business app. We can't blame the code for slowness of the overall application every time, as the network and servers are all equally important. Other tools like HP BSM provide great features to map everything in a service map.

This tool is very easy to implement and setup when compared to other tools. Agent installations and instrumentation are also extremely easy.

It's very easy to scale when compared to other tools.

We have compared this product to Bluestripe APM. We like its mapping of the business application mapping which shows how each tier of the application talk to another ones and also to the backend-like database, MQ, external interfaces, etc. It’s a very easy to understand tool which could be easily understood by a newbie also.

One piece of advice I would like to give others is that you need to first identify how you want to map your business application in the AppDynamics flow map. If there are multiple pieces in an application talking to each other, then best practice is to put everything together in one business application to see how those pieces talk to each other. Secondly, you need to identify the most important business transactions that you would like to monitor. Just include those and exclude everything else, as this way you can reduce the traffic and the amount of noise. Troubleshooting is easy when only key transactions are being monitored and not everything.

It provides great tools for monitoring and managing all the different environments of Dev, QA, and Prod with different needs but from a common interface.

It's very light and monitoring overhead is minimal.

And because it's also a SaaS-based application, it can be accessed by all team members from anywhere at any time.

Now application monitoring has become much easier.

Transaction identification and locking it for monitoring is much easier now, with lots of flexibility to change things on the run.

AppDynamics can identify and segregate unique transactions based on parameters, URL, data value, etc., which makes things very easy and organized.

The tool also has a nice feature for monitoring end-user experience. This provides us with browser-rendering and client-side info (OS, browser, network time, etc.). Getting all this information on a common platform has been of great value and use to us.

It could be integrated with more performance-testing tools for more intensive use.

6 months +

There is nothing very complex in the deployment, but we may face some connectivity and configuring issues. However, it all depends on the environment in which we install the tool (security policy, certificates required, etc). But all the issues have been one-time occurrences, and maintaining and upgrading it is quite simple once the certificates and the network requirements were identified.

No

No

Customer Service:

The customer service is quite good and prompt.

Technical Support:

9

The initial setup is very simple and not complex. It is quite straightforward, but we faced some initial issues with certificates, network, and firewall. The support team, however, is always available for setup and troubleshooting.

But for small and simple environments, it's quite simple. Just 3-4 steps.

This solution is worth the price, which is based on the number of servers you want to monitor. So if you want a good and complete monitoring solution, the cost is worth it.

Site Scope, Introscope, CEM and a few more. But AppDynamics met our dynamic and varied requirements.

Application Flow Map, Operational Dashboards, Transaction Scorecards, Exception details (stacktrace, sql queries, etc), it provides all the information required to engage the issue, Metric browser, Information Points, Correlation Analysis.

We can evaluate the performance of an application by doing a few clicks and find bottlenecks very easily. Automatic alerts on resource exhaustion for DB connection pools, HTTP app thread pools, discovering unexpected performance difference between identical applications instances. We have become more proactive rather than reactive.

Charting is cumbersome; inability to do decimal fraction arithmetic in expressions (for alerts), so everything has to be done in % rather than as natural fractions. Can’t get response time by host for an given host group without laboriously setting it up in the chart widget.

For seven months. We started with the controller hosted at AppDynamics servers, then we put the controller in an in-house virtualized environment and finally in a physical server in-house.

I didn't encounter any issues with deployment, stability or scalability.

Customer Service:

It’s good, they have really fast response times.

Technical Support:

Excellent in terms of commitment, response times and technical knowledge.

We haven't used any other solutions in past, this is the first APM solution we use for our Java based applications.

It was pretty much straightforward, we didn’t face any big problems when setting up AppDynamics.

We implemented through an In-house team.

Yes, I evaluated OPNET as well.

Scale the product properly within your system’s architecture to get better results in order to analyze your app's performance properly.

We've used AppDynamics to easily identify application slowdowns and rectify them on several occasions. It has also helped in our QA environment to analyze new releases and ensure they are not harming performance.

Stack trace of PHP calls through the application and timings of those calls.

One to three years.

None.

Just that we've run out of agents in our license :P :(

Customer Service: 10 out of 10, all our questions and issues have been addressed and resolved quickly.Technical Support: 10 out of 10, as above, all questions and issues have been addressed and resolved quickly.

No, AppDynamics was our first.

Very simple- install controller, install agents, configure agents, done.

In-house

Quicker turnaround on finding/resolving issues or improving performance, which leads to improved client experiences.

We investigated several other APM solutions prior to going with AppDynamics, specifically New Relic and dynaTrace.

Read up on documentation, and play around with the config settings, there is a vast wealth of information that can be retrieved if you know how to look for it.

Viewing JVM performance and the business transactions for latency and SLA.

It helps us to quickly pinpoint specific application problems related to memory and slow queries.

Yes, the custom dashboard. Making custom dashboards is really tedious. I wish there was just a drag and drop to slap things together quickly.

1 year

No. I've had some bugs where machines stop behaving correctly with the agents but a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had them joined under one product name and then I had changed the machine or put in a different one. A lot of these issues were probably self inflicted and not due to AppDynamics. Deployment has been pretty smooth.

None at all.

For what I'm doing it's been perfectly scalable to what I need.

Customer Service: Good. Initially with the sales engineer, we spoke about training but what ended up happened was that I needed to negotiate the price (which was fine) but what I missed was some of the hands on training. It's a complex product, and I could benefit from an online video, etc. because I didn't going through the formal training to learn the app. Some scenario driven walk thru's would be very helpful.Technical Support: It's been good. What I've needed to do is send them a whole pile of logs. It can be a pain digging them up but I understand why they need them to troubleshoot. You can't troubleshoot without them. I gather the logs, send them all on the ticket and I haven't had a problem with their response.

We weren't previously using another APM solution. We were only using a very basic Java profiler beforehand.

I was on my own, but it was fine. AppDynamics walked me through a few things because I had the free version installed on a different system and then we upgraded. They walked me through to make sure I had it set up correctly the first time. Deployment was easy.

With AppDynamics I'm really barely scratching surface with what it can do. I don't have any SLA metric configured or alerting. What I'm trying to do with AppDynamics is use it in such as way that it's a pulse on my app.

AppDynamics was the only product I evaluated in a production setting. All my previous APM use was in a development environment.

AppDynamics does exactly what it says it can do. It's well readable and easy to navigate. Configuration and changing things around is easy enough.