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Welcome to our third installment of the AppDynamics Community Member Spotlight series, featuring Ashley Lewis , with First Abu Dhabi Bank.   — Claudia and Ryan   Table of Contents A day in the life of Ashley.Lewis Why participate in Community? How do you use AppDynamics in your role? Keeping  up with Technology Trends Inspiration & Insights Ashley.Lewis, Specialist, IT Application Performance, First Abu Dhabi Bank   A day in the life of Ashley.Lewis Can you give us a picture of “a day in the life”? My responsibilities include working with different teams at First Abu Dhabi Bank across design and architecture, infrastructure, development, and support to enable monitoring, look for opportunities to improve observability of applications, and work on the evolving monitoring strategy of our organization.    I look into opportunities to improve current toolsets and make maximum use of the technology we have. On a daily basis, I also use the tools with my team to troubleshoot incidents and look for opportunities to reduce our detection time.   How did you get involved with this work? I've been working in the monitoring space within the banking domain for more than ten years. Exposure to development at the start of my career gave me a different perspective as to the possibilities of leveraging APM to increase the reliability and performance of applications using these tools.    I started off by using tools like Quest Foglight and HP Diagnostics, and learned the capabilities I should expect in this domain. In my current role, I am expected to increase the adoption and usage of the tools within the organization.   What feeds your interest in your work? The diverse nature of the technology stack you need to know in order to cover monitoring is extremely interesting. I get to talk to a wide range of SMEs across business and technology domains. It’s very satisfying to be able to deliver improvements which, in the end, benefit our customers positively.    For example, one of the issues we diagnosed using AppDynamics led to a significant overhaul of one of our core business applications, which in turn lead to significant response time improvements for our customers. This would not have been possible using traditional log-based analysis.   Why participate in the AppD Community? What first brought you to community? Looking for solutions and innovative ways to leverage the technology and solution stack that we have. Sharing knowledge with the wider community helps us all and I've had a good experience with some of the responses on the community   Can you tell us about a positive experience you’ve had with the community? Looking through the Idea Exchange in the community, I came across the idea of using the PII Data analysis and deletion tool which was developed by one of the internal teams at AppDynamics and had been successfully used to analyze data captured in AppDynamics. I was able to reach out and get access to the tool through our partners and hope to be able to use it positively at work.   How do you use AppD in your role? AppDynamics is used extensively to monitor applications at the bank. We also use it to baseline, troubleshoot performance problems, and narrow the gap between business and IT in how we communicate by using the same language.    High priority issues are typically analyzed using AppDynamics’ core capabilities to get down into code-level diagnostics. This might either trigger a required improvement in the level of detail we need to capture, or improvements to the application itself. Having this rich data within AppDynamics allows us to communicate easier with our external vendors and developers.   What are your top 2 AppDynamics hot tips? Make the best use of the Business iQ and Analytics capabilities of AppDynamics — especially in order to understand the functional status of business-critical transactions. We've observed this giving maximum value to business teams. Get the development teams to use AppDynamics as a part of the development lifecycle even before it hits production. The potential performance improvements are well worth the effort.   How do you use AppD day-to-day? There is a lot of interest around using AppDynamics’ MIDC capability in order to capture the functional status of business transactions. Most teams seem to expect this to be available out of the box: it requires some education to convey that this needs inputs from developers or team members who have a good understanding of the application code. Having this as a capability is invaluable.   Keeping up with technology trends What’s your best way of keeping up with industry news? I occasionally follow the podcast TWiET. The topics covered and open discussions are helpful to keep up to date with industry news.   What have you learned in the past year that you wish you had known when you started your career? This past year of the pandemic has brought about maximum innovation in the tech community to keep our enterprises running efficiently even though we have been working remotely. I wish organizations had realized the value of providing flexibility to workers without having to be forced into it due to the current situation. I ended up having more time to spend on developing my own interests.   Inspiration & Insights What are some of your favorite things to experience outside of work? I enjoy a bit of gaming on my PlayStation to relax outside of office hours. I also enjoy traveling around the world and experiencing new cultures.   How–or where–do you find inspiration? I like to read about science topics, especially physics, and the human mind. Its curiosity never ceases to amaze me. What we've achieved in the last century is a constant reminder that we can accomplish pretty much anything we put our minds to.   What advice would you give someone who is up and coming in your field of work? Find the right mentor to guide you in the right direction. I was only scratching the surface of the APM space until I received the right advice and guidance on how to go about it. Having sound knowledge in development is also very helpful to do well in this field. ... View more

  Learn how you can outpace the IT challenges we know will continue this year. Training sessions at Transform 2021 will give you the tools you need to meet issues head-on and contribute to shape observability at your company, day-to-day.   Training sign-up is available to Transform 2021 registrants, but seats are limited.    Training Sessions AppD 101 AMER February 25 EMEA March 10 APAC March 12 Get a hands-on experience with the essentials of APM, including database and browser monitoring using AppDynamics agents and Controller UI.  Learn how to: Configure business transaction detection rules, health rules and alerts Conduct basic troubleshooting Make the most of AppDynamics activity monitoring at the database and at the end-user browser Business Insights  Using AppDynamics AMER February 26 EMEA March 10 APAC March 12 How can you meet your Business iQ goals? This hands-on lab session offers a guided experience of how to use AppDynamics Analytics features and data to effectively produce real-time insights into the sources of impact on your business performance.  Learn how to: Create dashboards, step-by-step, that meet the goals of specific BiQ use cases Define and manage analytics searches, metrics and visualizations Use some specialized Business iQ features like the Funnel Widget, Experience Level Management, and Business Journeys   Reserve  your free seat to Transform 2021 AMER February 23-26   |   EMEA   March 9-10   |    APAC   March 11-12 ... View more

Watch this space for updates throughout the month Want to be notified when new product updates are posted? Subscribe to Monthly Product Updates today! Learn how to subscribe here .    Our free virtual customer conference, Transform 2021 AMER, has wrapped—but its content will be available on-demand for 90 days. Regional Transform 2021 events are yet to begin. Sign up! EMEA  March 9-10  | APAC  March 11-12      Table of Contents Overview Feature Enhancements Heads Up - What Else You Should Know Beta Programs Resolved Issues Get Started Ask a Question   Overview We did not have a Controller or Enterprise Console release in January. However, the month included several key product enhancements and agent updates. We also resolved a series of issues associated with the previous release.   What highlights should I know about? These release highlights include the newest features and capabilities at-a-glance this month. In the grid below, we’ve flagged who may be most interested or impacted in your organization by each enhancement. Category Enhancement  User and Performance Analyst Admin and Implementer Developer AIOps Health Status ✓   ✓ Agent Updates Java Agent Self Telemetry (SaaS, On premises) ✓ ✓   Machine Agent ✓ ✓   Java Agent ✓ ✓   .NET Agent ✓ ✓   System Administration Updates Access to Download from Account Page   ✓     AIOps We have made several enhancements to our Cloud Native Visualizations . (Released January 18, 2021)   Note: These Cloud Native Vizualization capabilities are currently only available to those customers participating in our early access program.   The enhancements include:  Health status of monitored components are now automatically computed and displayed in many screens. Health Status on new Relationship Map   New revamped health rules and anomalies unified configuration UIs. Users can define custom health rules on any entity with a 4-step wizard. Also available via APIs for automation.  New Health Rule unified configuration UI   Agent Updates The new Java Agent Self Telemetry for Saas and OnPrem collects info on agent footprint and behavior to guide tuning environments . (Released January 18, 2021) Our updated Machine Agent and Server Visibility for Linux bundles have been updated to Java 11 Azul JRE. See the system requirements to take advantage of this new capability. (Released January 22, 2021) To provide extended coverage in your Java environments, our updated Java Agent now supports OOTB Detection for MariaDB, Tomcat 10. Ktor and Netty frameworks. For details please see our Java Support Environments documentation.  This release also adds exit support for Couchbase database. For more information, see Java Backend Detection. (Released January 28, 2021) Our .NET Agent Windows Agents now support End User Monitoring (EUM) for ASP.NET Core Web applications. Additionally, Redis instrumentation is now supported on both .NET Full Framework and Core Framework on Windows. (Released January 29, 2021)   System Administration Updates As of January 2021, the download.appdynamics.com URL redirects to your Accounts page at accounts.appdynamics.com/downloads. By moving Downloads to Accounts, users will have a personalized, centralized experience. Read the FAQ here to learn more. (Released January 27, 2021)   To view all technical documentation associated with this month’s releases, please visit Product Announcements, Alerts, and Hot Fixes in our documentation portal .   Heads up - What else you should know  Attention Premium University subscribers! Curious which upcoming AppDynamics virtual instructor-led courses are happening closest to your time zone? You’re in luck! In December, AppDynamics University released a calendar view to help you discover the variety of instructor-led courses we offer on a weekly basis closest to your time zone. Simply sign in to AppDynamics University and access the schedule from your Dashboard! Early this year, we will be upgrading how administrators create users, also updating our password policies accordingly. These changes are meant to improve security while laying the groundwork for new capabilities that will be rolled out in the near future. A staged rollout of these planned capabilities is slated to begin with Controller v21.2, with completion anticipated in the Spring 2021 timeframe. Check out the Changes to User Creation and Password Policy FAQ for the details about this upcoming enhancement.  We’ve updated and refreshed our upgrade checklists— a helpful review prior to an upgrade: please check out the main article here —> How do I get started with upgrading my AppDynamics components for any release? . It contains links to the whole series. Have a great product idea? Contribute to the AppDynamics Community Idea Exchange , where you will be able to submit your ideas, and vote on or discuss ideas from other community members. To participate, sign in to the community and look for the Idea Exchange button in the top navigation. See Idea Exchange Guidelines for more details. Thanks in advance for helping guide the future of our product.     Share your feedback! Participate in a Beta today We’re currently running two Beta programs and looking for your feedback:   Sign up for our Mobile App Beta program . We’re redesigning the AppDynamics Mobile App to provide users 24/7 access to powerful performance insights, on-the-go. Submit feedback on the Dash Studio Preview through the in-product feedback button, or on Community here .   Resolved Issues The following list notes key issues that were resolved this month. To see a complete listing of this month's resolved issues, see  Resolved Issues by Month .   EC Installer copies mysql 5.5 binaries to null in 4.5.17+ versions (ECONSOLE-6344) Controller diagnosis job fails with the current implementation for Windows after v20.10+ (ECONSOLE-6368) [21.1.0] [Master] NodeJS does not receive Analytics HTTP config (ANALYTICS-13090) Health rule status precedence has been fixed (METADATA-9483) Reports with custom time ranges getting delivered with login page (master) (REPORTS-811)   Get Started Please note: customers are advised to check backward compatibility in the Agent and Controller Compatibility documentation .    Download Essential Components (Agents, Enterprise Console, Controller (on-prem),  Events Service, EUM Components) Download Additional Components (SDKs, Plugins, etc.) How do I get started upgrading my AppDynamics components for any release? Product Announcements, Alerts, and Hot Fixes Extensions AppDynamics is switching to calendar versioning, Why? License Entitlements and Restrictions   Can’t find what you’re looking for? Need more assistance? Ask a question in the Latest Release forum. ... View more

.      Co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team Megan Rapinoe knows a thing or two about building teams that work well together. The two-time World Cup Champion helped lead the USWNT to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Championship, putting the US team in the elite group of those who have won two consecutive tournaments.    Off the pitch, Megan gives her voice in service of social justice issues. She is the author of One Life, an autobiography.   Join us for a conversation with Megan about the role of leadership in driving change and how to build resilient teams during these extraordinarily transformational times.   Missed AppDynamics customer conference, Transform 2021? Register to watch on-demand . ... View more

When and how should I clear my browser history to improve Community performance?   Occasionally, you may experience issues like inability to log into the Community, not being able to view content, or similar issues.   We have noticed that these accessibility issues often coincide with a platform update in the Community. The fix? Try clearing the cache and cookies from your browser history.   Table of Contents What issues might I resolve by clearing clear my browser's cache and cookies? How do I clear the cache and cookies on Chrome? How do I clear the cache and cookies on Edge? How do I clear the cache and cookies on Firefox? How do I clear the cache and cookies on Safari?   What issues might I resolve by clearing my browser's cache and cookies? After the AppD Community platform gets a software update, you may find your experience improves if you clear the cache and cookies from your browser history.    Some of the issues you may experience include: Mini profile not visible Login not working Not able to view content or areas of the community that require specific permission   How do I clear the cache and cookies on Chrome?  The simple steps for clearing cache and cookies on Chrome are identical for both Apple and Windows operating systems. See the instructions on Google’s official Support page .   How do I clear the cache and cookies on Edge? On the Edge browser, to clear cache and cookies on the Windows operating system, see Microsoft Edge | View and delete browser history.   How do I clear the cache and cookies on Firefox? The steps for clearing cache and cookies on Firefox are nearly identical for macOS and Windows, with slight differences to accommodate different labels in those operating systems. See the instructions for each on Firefox’ Support pages: Mac: How to clear the Firefox cache in macOS Windows: How to clear the Firefox cache in Windows   How do I clear the cache and cookies on Safari? See the simple instructions clearing cache and cookies on Safari on Apple’s official Support page. You will be able to choose the timeframe for which you’d like to clear the browser history. ... View more

Watch this space for updates throughout the month... Want to be notified when new product updates are posted? Subscribe to Monthly Product Updates today! Learn how to subscribe here .    We did not have a Controller or Enterprise Console release in December. However, the month included several key product enhancements and agent updates . We also resolved a series of issues associated with the previous release.   Table of Contents Feature Enhancements Heads Up - What Else You Should Know Beta Programs Resolved Issues Get Started Ask a Question   What highlights should I know about? These release highlights include the newest features and capabilities at-a-glance this month. In the grid below, we’ve flagged who may be most interested or impacted in your organization by each enhancement. Category Enhancement  User and Performance Analyst Admin and Implementer Developer Cloud Native Cloud Native Visibility Enhancement   ✓      Agent Updates Node.js Agent Update ✓ ✓    iOS Agent Update   ✓   ✓   Database Agent Update ✓   ✓   Machine Agent Update ✓ ✓   System Admin Updates Access to Download from Account Page   ✓     Cloud Native  We have enhanced our Cloud Native Visibility capabilities to surface health statuses of entities and health rule violations. Now you can configure your health rules so that a violation event triggers a policy, which can initiate automatic actions, such as, sending alerting emails or running remedial scripts. Additionally, you can create health rules using the health rule wizard to group commonly-used system entities and related metrics to simplify setting up health rules. Learn more in the Health of Entity Filtering documentation. (Released December 17, 2020) Agent Updates v20.11.0  We have updated the Node.js Agent API allowing you to attach existing Analytics data generated for any given transaction to an exit call. (Released December 8, 2020) You can now customize how you instrument the iOS Agent allowing you to disable the agent to stop sending user data to the collector. (Released December 15, 2020) With this enhancement, the Database Agent now supports mutual authentication (client and server). Additionally, you can now use the service record (SRV record) within the connection string while configuring the MongoDB collector. (Released December 16, 2020) The Machine Agent now prepends the hostname in the log files and has been updated, tested, and certified to work with the following. (Released December 16, 2020) com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.12.0 com.google.guava:guava:30.0-jre commons-io:commons-io:2.8.0 junit:junit:4.13.1 org.apache.ant:ant:1.10.9 org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient:4.5.13 org.bouncycastle: bcprov-jdk15on:1.67 org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server:9.4.35.v20201120 org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-webapp:9.4.35.v20201120 org.exist-db.thirdparty.xerces:xercesImpl:2.12.1 org.hibernate: hibernate-validator:6.1.6.Final   System Administration With access to Downloadable artifacts from your Account page , users can download artifacts without visiting the Downloads page . There is no impact to your CI/CD pipeline or any automation you may have implemented. Read the FAQ here to learn more. (Ongoing release started in June 2020)   To view all technical documentation associated with this month’s releases, please visit Product Announcements, Alerts, and Hot Fixes in our documentation portal   Heads up - What else you should know  Attention Premium University subscribers! Curious which upcoming AppDynamics virtual instructor-led courses are happening closest to your time zone? You’re in luck! In December, AppDynamics University released a calendar view to help you discover the variety of instructor-led courses we offer on a weekly basis closest to your time zone. Simply sign in to AppDynamics University and access the schedule from your Dashboard! Early next year we will be implementing changes to how administrators create users and will be updating our password policies.  Check out the FAQ for all the details you need on this upcoming enhancement.  We’ve updated and refreshed our upgrade checklists— they're helpful to review prior to an upgrade. Please check out the main article here  >> How do I get started with upgrading my AppDynamics components for any release? . It contains links to the whole series. Have a great product idea? Contribute to the AppDynamics Community Idea Exchange , where you will be able to submit your ideas, and vote on or discuss ideas from other community members. To participate, sign in to the community and look for the Idea Exchange button in the top navigation. See Idea Exchange Guidelines for more details. Thanks in advance for helping guide the future of our product!   Share your feedback! Participate in a Beta today We’re currently running two Beta programs and looking for your feedback:   Sign up for our Mobile App Beta program . We’re redesigning the AppDynamics Mobile App to provide users 24/7 access to powerful performance insights on-the-go. Submit feedback on the Dash Studio Preview through the in-product feedback button, or on Community here .   Resolved Issues The following list notes the key issue that was resolved this month. To see a complete listing of this month's resolved issues, see  Resolved Issues by Month . Database DB2: Issue with Calls Per Minute metric data (DBMON-7444)   Get Started   Please note: customers are advised to check backward compatibility in the Agent and Controller Compatibility documentation .  Download Essential Components (Agents, Enterprise Console, Controller (on-prem),  Events Service, EUM Components) Download Additional Components (SDKs, Plugins, etc.) How do I get started upgrading my AppDynamics components for any release? Product Announcements, Alerts, and Hot Fixes Extensions AppDynamics is switching to calendar versioning, Why? License Entitlements and Restrictions   Can’t find what you’re looking for? Need more assistance? Ask a question in the Latest Release forum. ... View more