Dynatrace Observability tab for Service Observability

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Dynatrace Observability tab for Service Observability

    The Dynatrace Observability tab within the Service Details page in Service Observability provides comprehensive dashboards and charts that display key performance metrics for services, hosts, and databases associated with your applications. It enables ServiceNow customers to monitor the health and performance of their services in real time by integrating Dynatrace data with ServiceNow’s configuration management database (CMDB).

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • Application > Service dashboard: Shows essential service performance metrics such as transaction rate, error percentage, latency, client error rate, throughput, response time, database connections, and database call durations. These metrics come directly from Dynatrace and help identify service-level issues.
    • Transactions charts: Visualize key transactions’ throughput, error rates, and response times. Hovering over chart points reveals transaction names, facilitating detailed analysis of specific transactions within the service.
    • Compute > Host dashboard: Displays host-level metrics related to the service including CPU, memory, and disk utilization, sourced from Dynatrace. It also provides links to all active hosts and virtual machines (VMs) associated with the service, with detailed information available via the CMDB.
    • Databases > MySQL dashboard: Provides MySQL-specific metrics such as CPU and memory utilization, availability, number of connections, and slow query counts. Active MySQL instances linked to the service are accessible through the CMDB for deeper investigation.
    • Databases > PostgreSQL dashboard: Shows PostgreSQL database metrics including scheduled checkpoints, buffer writes, checkpoint write time, and buffer allocation. Detailed information for each PostgreSQL instance is available via the CMDB links.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables centralized and actionable visibility into service performance and health through integrated Dynatrace metrics within ServiceNow.
    • Supports proactive identification and troubleshooting of issues at the service, host, and database levels to maintain service reliability and performance.
    • Facilitates correlation of service health data with CMDB configuration items, improving impact analysis and operational decision-making.
    • Allows customization of dashboards, although note that customized dashboards might differ from the default views described.

    Dashboard and charts on the Dynatrace Observability tab of the Service Details page in the SOW.

    Application > Service dashboard

    This dashboard displays performance metrics for the selected service.
    Note:
    If the dashboards have been customized, they might not reflect the information shown on this page.
    Table 1. Basic metrics
    Chart Description Data source
    Rate Aggregate rate of transactions through the service. Dynatrace
    Error % Percent of transactions that have an error. Dynatrace
    Latency Aggregate duration of transactions through the service, in milliseconds. Dynatrace
    Client error rate Rate of errors the service clients experienced. Dynatrace
    Client throughput Rate of client requests for this service. Dynatrace
    Client response time Response time for client requests on this service, in milliseconds. Dynatrace
    Total DB connections Number of databases that this client has connections to. Dynatrace
    DB connection errors Number of errors received by the client when trying to access databases. Dynatrace
    Time spent in database calls Duration of requests to databases, in milliseconds. Dynatrace
    Table 2. Transactions
    Chart Description Data source
    Key Request Count Each line represents the throughput of a key transaction through the service. Hover over a point to view the different transaction names. Dynatrace
    Key Request Error % Each line represents the percentage of errors on a key transaction in the service. Hover over a point to view the different transaction names. Dynatrace
    Key Request Response Time Each line represents the response time for a key transaction on the service. Hover over a point to view the different transaction names. Dynatrace

    Compute > Host dashboard

    This dashboard displays metrics for hosts related to the service.

    Chart Description Data source
    CPU utilization Percent of the host processing power being consumed. Dynatrace
    Memory utilization Percent of memory the host is using. Dynatrace
    Disk utilization Percent of disk space being used. Dynatrace
    All Active Hosts Information for all hosts the service is actively using. Select a host link to view more detailed information. CMDB
    All Active VM Instances Information for all virtual machines (VM) the service is actively using. Select a VM link to view more information. CMDB

    Databases > MySQL

    This dashboard displays metrics for MySQL databases related to the service.

    Chart Description Data source
    CPU utilization Percent of the database's processing power being consumed. Dynatrace
    Memory utilization Percent of memory the database is using. Dynatrace
    Availability Percent of time the database is available. Dynatrace
    Connections Number of connections to the database. Dynatrace
    Slow queries Number of database queries that have been categorized as slow by the APM. Dynatrace
    All MySQL Instances Information for all databases the service is actively using. Select a database link to view more detailed information. CMDB

    Databases > PostgreSQL

    This dashboard displays metrics for PostgreSQL databases related to the service.

    Chart Description Data source
    Scheduled Checkpoints Average number of scheduled checkpoints that were performed. Dynatrace
    Buffers Written for Checkpoint Average number of buffers written during checkpoints. Dynatrace
    Buffers Written by Background Writer Average number of buffers written by the background writer. Dynatrace
    Buffers Allocated Average number of buffers allocated. Dynatrace
    Checkpoint Write Time Time in milliseconds spent writing files to disk. Dynatrace
    All PostgreSQL Instances Information of all databases the service is actively using. Select a database link to view more detailed information. CMDB