Differences between Extensions and Remote Plugin Module in Dynatrace ActiveGate

[rsaliou]

Hello,

I am a newcomer in Dynatrace universe and got a basic question about difference between "Dynatrace Extensions Controller" and "Dynatrace Remote Plugin Module" in Dynatrace ActiveGate.

Which one to use regarding use cases related to functionnality, performance, ... or both linked to EEC, pls ?

Thanks for your return.

Best regards.

[natanael_mendes · Accepted solution]

Dynatrace Remote Plugin Module responsible for running ActiveGate plugin module

The Extension Execution Controller (EEC) is the Dynatrace component running your extensions. EEC can query your local data sources when run on OneAgent, or remote data sources when run from an ActiveGate. EEC doesn't need your attention at all; it's automatically installed and managed with each OneAgent and ActiveGate instance. EEC takes care of translating all the ingested data so that Dynatrace can leverage it for our Davis AI causation analysis.

Here some Links that will help you understand more

ECC

https://www.dynatrace.com/support/help/extend-dynatrace/extensions20/extensions-concepts

Remote Plugin

https://www.dynatrace.com/support/help/extend-dynatrace/extensions/development/extension-how-tos/act...

[rsaliou]

Thanks for links to the documentation. I already read them just before to ask my question and still didn't understood how Remote plugin interact with Extensions.

I didn't figure both functionality

Remote plugin seems embbeded in Extensions from doc point of view but appears at same level than Extension 1 and Extension 2 in ActiveGate status menu.

Most valuable document i found is: activegate-extensions/introduction-to-activegate-plugins 

[natanael_mendes]

With ActiveGate extensions, you can extend Dynatrace monitoring to any remote technology that exposes an interface, where OneAgent installation isn't an option. For example, PaaS technologies, network devices, or cloud technologies. ActiveGate extensions (aka Remote Plugins) are executed on ActiveGate and can acquire metrics and topology from remote sources, fully integrating new-technology monitoring into Dynatrace Smartscape and problem detection. You need some Python expertise to develop ActiveGate extensions.

The Extension Execution Controller (EEC) is the Dynatrace component running your extensions. EEC can query your local data sources when run on OneAgent, or remote data sources when run from an ActiveGate. EEC doesn't need your attention at all; it's automatically installed and managed with each OneAgent and ActiveGate instance. EEC takes care of translating all the ingested data so that Dynatrace can leverage it for our Davis AI causation analysis

[rsaliou]

Thanks Natanael,

As far as i understand from following configure-activegate#extn1_mod , RPM (Remote Plugin Module) is the old name for Extension 1 and now there is also Extension 2

• rpm_enabled: Enables the Remote plugin module, which is used to run ActiveGate extensions.
• extension_controller_enabled: Enables the Extensions 2.0 module. Possible values: true or false.