Important Cisco 500-430 CAPI Exam Questions

Answer: A, E

Explanation:

The AppDynamics standalone Machine Agent is a Java program that runs on a host machine and collects hardware and infrastructure metrics, such as CPU, memory, disk, and network usage. The Machine Agent can also perform additional functions, such as:

Acting as a forwarder for analytics events: The Machine Agent can be configured to forward business transaction, log, browser, mobile, and synthetic events from the application agents to the AppDynamics Events Service, which is a distributed, scalable data store for analytics data. The Machine Agent can also forward custom events from the SDK or API to the Events Service.This allows you to use the AppDynamics Analytics features, such as dashboards, queries, funnels, and metrics, to analyze the performance and behavior of your applications and users12.

Starting an HTTP listener for custom metrics: The Machine Agent can be configured to start an HTTP listener that can receive custom metrics from external sources, such as scripts, tools, or other applications. The Machine Agent can then report these custom metrics to the AppDynamics Controller, where you can view them in the Metric Browser or use them in health rules, policies, or dashboards.This allows you to monitor any aspect of your system that is not covered by the default Machine Agent metrics34.

The other statements are false because:

B) The Machine Agent cannot send SNMP alerts. The Machine Agent can only receive SNMP traps from external sources and report them as events to the AppDynamics Controller.The AppDynamics Controller can send SNMP alerts to external systems based on health rule violations or events, but this is not a function of the Machine Agent5.

C) The Machine Agent cannot communicate with multiple AppDynamics Controllers. The Machine Agent can only communicate with one Controller at a time, which is specified in the controller-info.xml file in the agent configuration directory. If you want to monitor the same host machine with multiple Controllers, you need to install multiple Machine Agents on the same machine, each with a different Controller configuration and port number .

D) The Machine Agent cannot restart itself if it goes down. The Machine Agent does not have a built-in mechanism to automatically restart itself in case of a failure or a crash. You need to use an external tool or script to monitor the Machine Agent process and restart it if necessary. Alternatively, you can use the AppDynamics Agent Installer to deploy the Machine Agent as a service, which can be configured to restart automatically on failure .

Answer: B, C

Explanation:

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, the two valid ways to confirm that the upgraded Java Agent is running successfully are:

Verify that the node within the Controller UI indicates the app agent is reporting. (B) This is a valid way because the Controller UI is a web-based application that allows users to monitor and manage the performance of the applications, tiers, nodes, and other entities that are instrumented by the AppDynamics agents. The Controller UI displays the status of the nodes within each tier, and indicates whether the app agent is reporting or not. If the app agent is reporting, the node icon is green and shows the agent version. If the app agent is not reporting, the node icon is gray and shows the last time the agent reported. The user can also hover over the node icon to see more details, such as the agent type, the agent version, the agent runtime directory, and the agent properties file.The user can verify that the upgraded Java Agent is running successfully by checking that the node icon is green and shows the latest agent version12.

Verify the Java Agent Version metric for that node in the Metric Browser. This is a valid way because the Metric Browser is a feature of the Controller UI that allows users to view and analyze the metrics collected by the AppDynamics agents. The Metric Browser displays the metrics in a hierarchical tree structure, where each node represents a metric category, a metric name, or a metric value. The user can expand or collapse the nodes, and select or deselect the metrics to view them in a chart. The user can also apply filters, time ranges, baselines, and other options to customize the chart. The user can verify that the upgraded Java Agent is running successfully by navigating to the Java Agent Version metric for that node in the Metric Browser. The Java Agent Version metric shows the version number of the Java Agent that is running on the node.The user can compare the metric value with the expected agent version, and check that the metric is updated after the upgrade34.

The incorrect options are:

Verify that the application log contains a message indicating success. (A) This is not a valid way because the application log does not contain any message indicating the success of the Java Agent upgrade. The application log is a file that records the events and messages that occur in the application server, such as the startup, shutdown, errors, warnings, and debug information. The application log does not record the events and messages that occur in the Java Agent, such as the installation, upgrade, configuration, or reporting. The Java Agent has its own log file, which is located in the /logs directory, and which contains the messages indicating the success or failure of the Java Agent upgrade .

Verify that the Java Agent log contains a message indicating the agent started successfully. (D) This is not a valid way because the Java Agent log does not contain any message indicating the agent started successfully after the upgrade. The Java Agent log is a file that records the events and messages that occur in the Java Agent, such as the installation, upgrade, configuration, or reporting. The Java Agent log contains a message indicating the agent started successfully when the application server is started, not when the Java Agent is upgraded. The Java Agent log does not contain any message indicating the success or failure of the Java Agent upgrade. The Java Agent log is located in the /logs directory, and the message indicating the agent started successfully is ''Agent Startup Complete'' .

1: Tiers and Nodes - AppDynamics

2: Tier Dashboard - AppDynamics

3: Metric Browser - AppDynamics

4: Java Agent Metrics - AppDynamics

[5]: Java Agent Logs - AppDynamics

[6]: Troubleshoot the Java Agent - AppDynamics

Answer: A, D, F

Explanation:

To prepare a Linux environment for the installation of an AppDynamics Controller with a Large performance profile, which is suitable for monitoring up to 1000 agents, you need to perform the following steps:

Install libaio on the host machine if it does not already have it installed. This library facilitates asynchronous I/O operations on the system, which are required by the Controller. You can use the package manager of your Linux distribution to install libaio, such as yum or apt-get.For example, on CentOS, you can runyum install libaio1.

Verify the open file descriptor limit on the system. The file descriptor limit determines how many files a process can open at a time. The Controller requires a high file descriptor limit to handle the large number of connections and transactions. AppDynamics recommends setting the file descriptor limit to at least 65535 for the user account that runs the Controller.You can check the current file descriptor limit by runningulimit -nand modify it by editing the/etc/security/limits.conffile2.

Verify the process limit on the system. The process limit determines how many processes a user can run at a time. The Controller requires a high process limit to handle the large number of threads and subprocesses. AppDynamics recommends setting the process limit to at least 65535 for the user account that runs the Controller.You can check the current process limit by runningulimit -uand modify it by editing the/etc/security/limits.conffile2.

Other steps that are not required but recommended for the Controller installation are verifying the user account permissions, configuring the virus scanners, installing the netstat network utility, and setting the NUMA configuration2.You do not need to install MySQL or Java separately, as they are included in the Controller installation package3.Reference:Prepare Linux for the Controller,Install the Controller on Linux, andController System Requirementsin the AppDynamics documentation.

Answer: C, E

Explanation:

AppDynamics can collect sensitive data such as credit card numbers from various sources, such as SQL queries, error messages, HTTP headers, cookies, and so on. To protect this data from unauthorized access or exposure, an administrator should configure the user permissions for the following features:

SQL Bind Variables: This feature enables the agents to capture the values of the parameters that are passed to SQL queries. These values can contain sensitive data such as credit card numbers, passwords, or personal information. To prevent this data from being stored or displayed in the Controller UI, the administrator should disable the Capture SQL Bind Values permission for the users who do not need to see this data. Alternatively, the administrator can enable the Mask SQL Bind Values permission, which replaces the values with asterisks (*) in the UI.The administrator can also configure the agent properties to exclude or mask certain bind variables based on patterns or keywords1.

Diagnostic Data Collectors: This feature enables the agents to collect additional data from the application code, such as method arguments, return values, HTTP headers, cookies, and so on. These data can also contain sensitive information that should not be exposed to unauthorized users. To control the access to this data, the administrator should disable the View Diagnostic Data Collectors permission for the users who do not need to see this data.The administrator can also configure the agent properties to exclude or mask certain data collectors based on patterns or keywords2.

Other features that can collect sensitive data and require user permissions are Error Detection, Memory Monitoring, and Policies. However, these features are less likely to capture credit card numbers than SQL Bind Variables and Diagnostic Data Collectors. Therefore, the best answer is option C and E.Reference:Sensitive Data Collection and Security,SQL Bind Variables, andDiagnostic Data Collectorsin the AppDynamics documentation.

Answer: A, D

Explanation:

According to the Cisco AppDynamics Professional Implementer (CAPI) documents, when updating the Database Agent, you need to follow these steps12:

Stop the agent as described for your specific installation in Start and Stop the Database Agent.

Make a copy of the existing agent directory, <db_agent_home>. Backing up allows you to revert to the previous agent installation if you need to. You can also copy over the controller-info.xml configuration file to the new installation to ensure the agent configuration is maintained.

Install the Database Agent as described for your specific installation in Administer the Database Agent.

Copy the <backup_db_agent_home>\conf\controller-info.xml file to the new installation directory, <db_agent_home>\conf. To ensure the agent configuration is maintained, copy the <backup_db_agent_home>\conf\controller-info.xml file to the new installation directory, <db_agent_home>\conf.

Start the new agent. See Start and Stop the Database Agent.

Verify the Database Agent Installation. See Verify the Database Agent Installation.

Therefore, the correct statements are:

The Database Agent must be stopped and restarted during the upgrade. (A)

Controller-info.xml is the only file that needs to be migrated from the previous agent to the new agent. (D)

The incorrect statements are:

If the agent is moved to a new location during the upgrade, the AppDynamics Controller must be reconfigured to reference the new location of the agent. (B) This is not true because the controller-info.xml file contains the information about the Controller host, port, account name, access key, and SSL settings. As long as this file is copied to the new agent location, the Controller does not need to be reconfigured.

All data collectors created from the previous agent must be migrated to the new agent. This is not true because the data collectors are configured on the Controller UI, not on the agent. The agent collects the metrics from the databases and sends them to the Controller. The data collectors do not need to be migrated to the new agent.

After the Database Agent is upgraded, the AppDynamics Controller must be restarted. (E) This is not true because the Controller does not depend on the agent version. The agent and the Controller are compatible as long as they meet the Agent and Controller Compatibility requirements.

1: Upgrade the Database Agent - AppDynamics

2: Release Upgrade Checklist for Database Agents - AppDynamics