Documentation Plugins AppDynamics data source Annotations

AppDynamics annotations

Annotations allow you to overlay event data on your time-series visualizations. You can use the AppDynamics Events query type to display application events such as deployments, policy violations, errors, and health rule violations directly on your graphs.

For an overview of annotations, refer to Annotate visualizations.

Create an annotation

To create an annotation using AppDynamics event data:

1. Open your dashboard and click Dashboard settings (gear icon).
2. Select Annotations from the left menu.
3. Click Add annotation query.
4. Configure the annotation:
   • Name: Enter a descriptive name for the annotation.
   • Data source: Select your AppDynamics data source.
   • Enabled: Toggle on to display the annotation.
   • Color: Choose a color for the annotation markers.
5. Select Events from the query type selector.
6. Configure the Events query fields described in the following section.
7. Click Save dashboard.

Events query fields

The Events query type retrieves events from the AppDynamics Controller REST API. Configure the following fields to control which events are returned:

The Events query type supports a Use dashboard’s time picker toggle. When enabled (default), the query automatically uses the dashboard’s time range and the start-time and end-time fields are hidden. When disabled, you can specify a fixed time range using the time-range-type, start-time, and end-time fields.

Common event types

AppDynamics provides a wide range of event types. The following are commonly used for annotations:

For the complete list of supported event types, refer to the AppDynamics Events and Action Suppression API.

Example: Deployment annotations

Overlay application deployment events on your dashboards to correlate deployments with performance changes:

1. Create a new annotation query.
2. Select Events from the query type selector.
3. Select your application from the application_id drop-down.
4. Select APPLICATION_DEPLOYMENT from the event-types drop-down.
5. Select INFO from the severities drop-down.
6. Leave the Use dashboard’s time picker toggle enabled.

Example: Policy violation annotations

Display health rule violations to identify when alerting policies triggered:

1. Create a new annotation query.
2. Select Events from the query type selector.
3. Select your application from the application_id drop-down.
4. Select POLICY_OPEN_CRITICAL, POLICY_OPEN_WARNING, POLICY_CLOSE_CRITICAL, and POLICY_CLOSE_WARNING from the event-types drop-down.
5. Select WARN and ERROR from the severities drop-down.

Example: Error and slow transaction annotations

Mark error and slow transaction events on your response time graphs:

1. Create a new annotation query.
2. Select Events from the query type selector.
3. Select your application from the application_id drop-down.
4. Select APPLICATION_ERROR, SLOW, VERY_SLOW, and STALL from the event-types drop-down.
5. Select WARN and ERROR from the severities drop-down.

Use template variables in annotations

You can use template variables in annotation queries. For example, if you have a variable named application, use ${application} in the application_id field to dynamically filter events based on the selected application.

Annotation display options

When configuring annotations, you can customize how they appear:

• Color: Choose distinct colors for different annotation types to easily differentiate them.
• Show in: Select which panels display the annotation (all panels or specific panels).
• Hide: Temporarily hide annotations without deleting them.

Additional resources

• Annotate visualizations
• AppDynamics Events and Action Suppression API