Learning service analysis

[serhat_balik]

It might seem a little odd request, but I really don’t know where to start.

I am fairly new to APM world and Dynatrace is the first tool I’ve used. Because of my modest LAMP stack and JavaScript background I am not total alien to the tool, but when I make a presentation to the customers, they sometimes go really deep about service call analysis.

Specifically, PurePaths & Response Time Hotspots & Method Hotspots. They can ask from what these all 99% numbers one after another means in method hotspots, why can’t we see all the methods in PurePaths, or how to interpret Code-level flow in PurePath analysis. These are just some questions you probably get on a daily basis, and it can rapidly evolve into how Java bytecode injection works (which I recently discovered).

I can keep asking these kinds of stuff in the forum one by one, and learn on the job through experience, but I want solidify this knowledge in my spare time through courses, documentations, etc. Dynatrace documentation is enough to make use of the tool, but it doesn’t provide what I need.

So, where should I look? It doesn’t matter if it is long or beyond my comprehension. I just need a direction. Thank you for all your suggestions in advance.

[skrystosik]

I think you should check this training in University:

https://university.dynatrace.com/live-training/training/23466

Register at dynatrace Perform 2021 as well, there are some interesting sessions that may clarify some things to you.

https://www.dynatrace.com/perform-2021/

Sebastian

[serhat_balik]

Thank you Sebastian. I've passed the Exam 3 months ago and got the certificate.

I tried Pro Certificate taste of the exam 2 weeks ago, and failed as expected. I need to learn more about container technologies and configuration.

The hole in my understanding of software performance analysis is becoming more obvious every single day. It is a good thing, but also annoying, because I don't know exactly how to overcome that issue without building a Java/.NET application with all the bells and whistles 🙂

[The_AM · Accepted solution]

Hi Serhat,

I suggest that if you simply need a demo environment to see transactions & services and perform analysis, that the Dynatrace EasyTravel application is an excellent place to start.

The EasyTravel app has built into it a load generator, so it'll create it's own traffic. It also now includes an Angular based frontend, so you can try out RUM application setup for both the legacy frontend and single page app.

EasyTravel may be downloaded from here: 
https://community.dynatrace.com/t5/Getting-started/easyTravel-Documentation-and-Download/td-p/181271

All you need is Dynatrace OneAgent deployed on the host, and launch EasyTravel with the UI launcher. OneAgent will automatically instrument all the related Java/.NET/C++ code for EasyTravel. You could even do this on your personal laptop, no server required. It's that easy!

Andrew