Questions for the 500-425 were updated on : Dec 01 ,2025
Unless archived, what is the default length of time events can be viewed with full detail before being
purged?
A
Explanation:
The default length of time events can be viewed with full detail before being purged is 7 days, unless
archived. Events are records of significant occurrences in the monitored environment, such as errors,
exceptions, policy violations, health rule violations, and more. You can view the events in the
Controller UI under Events > All Events.
You can also archive the events to retain them for longer
periods or export them to external systems1 Reference: 1
:
Events
A customer wants a dashboard that will show them the number of current database connections on
their application in a Timeseries graph, and compare it to past averages for the same time What
option would solve this the fastest for the customer?
C
Explanation:
The option that would solve this the fastest for the customer is to include baseline data within
widgets on the dashboard. Baseline data is the data that represents the normal or expected behavior
of a metric, based on the historical data collected by the AppDynamics Cognition Engine. By
including baseline data within widgets on the dashboard, the customer can easily compare the
current value of the metric with the past average value for the same time. For example, if the
customer wants to see the number of current database connections on their application in a
Timeseries graph, and compare it to the past averages for the same time, they can create a
Timeseries graph widget that shows the metric “Database Connections” and enable the option
“Show Baseline Data” in the widget settings.
This will display the current and the baseline values of
the metric in the same graph, and allow the customer to see the trends and deviations over time1
.
Which two would be marked as an exception in AppDynamics? (Choose two)
BC
Explanation:
An exception in AppDynamics is a code-level event that indicates a problem or abnormality in the
execution of a business transaction. AppDynamics captures and presents information on exceptions
in the monitored environment, and allows you to configure the rules and criteria for detecting and
reporting exceptions.
According to the
Errors and Exceptions - AppDynamics
, the following two types of events would be
marked as an exception in AppDynamics:
A custom-configured error method and error message: This is a type of event that you can define as
an exception based on a specific method and message that indicate an error condition in your
application code. You can configure the error detection rules to mark a business transaction as an
error and capture the exception information when such a method and message are encountered. For
example, you can configure a rule to mark a business transaction as an error and capture the
exception when the method com.example.MyClass.myMethod returns the message Invalid input.
Any message that is logged with a severity of Error or Fatal: This is a type of event that AppDynamics
automatically detects as an exception based on the log messages that are generated by your
application code. AppDynamics scans the log messages for the keywords Error or Fatal, and marks
the business transaction as an error and captures the exception information when such a message is
found. For example, AppDynamics will mark a business transaction as an error and capture the
exception when the log message contains Error: Null pointer exception.
Therefore, B (a custom-configured error method and error message) and C (any message that is
logged with a severity of Error or Fatal) are two types of events that would be marked as an
exception in AppDynamics. Reference:
Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
Errors and Exceptions - AppDynamics
Error Detection - AppDynamics
After installing the standalone machine agent, how do you enable the agent to start collecting
metrics?
D
Explanation:
According to the Install the Standalone Machine Agent document1
, the machine agent is a
standalone Java program that collects performance statistics about your environment. It can be
deployed on any machine that hosts application servers, database servers, messaging servers, Web
servers, etc. However, the machine agent does not start collecting metrics as soon as it is installed.
You need to start the machine agent manually or configure it to run as a service or a daemon.
Therefore, the correct answer is D. The machine agent does not require an app agent to collect
metrics, nor does it run with the monitored application. These are false statements. Reference:
Install the Standalone Machine Agent
By default, which two Sensitive Data Filters substring does the Java Agent enable? (Choose two.)
CE
Explanation:
By default, the Java Agent enables two Sensitive Data Filters substring: substring “key” and substring
“password”. These filters prevent the agent from capturing and sending any data that contains these
substrings to the Controller, such as query parameters, HTTP headers, cookies, environment
variables, or system properties. This helps to protect sensitive information from being exposed in the
Controller UI or reports.
You can also add more filters or modify the existing ones by editing the
agent configuration file1 Reference: 1
:
Filter Sensitive Data
Java APM agents used in a production environment are consistently found to be disabled while no
development environments exhibit this behavior Given that agents in both environments use the
default configuration, what solution should be implemented to resolve this issue?
D
Explanation:
One possible reason why Java APM agents used in a production environment are consistently found
to be disabled while no development environments exhibit this behavior is that the production
agents are running out of heap memory and crashing. This can happen if the production agents are
monitoring a high volume of business transactions, metrics, or snapshots, and the default heap size
is not sufficient to handle the load. To resolve this issue, you can enable the heap-storage-monitor-
enabled setting on the agent, which allows the agent to monitor its own heap usage and
automatically reduce the amount of data it collects when the heap usage reaches a certain threshold.
This can help to prevent the agent from running out of memory and crashing.
You can also adjust the
heap-storage-monitor-threshold setting to specify the percentage of heap usage that triggers the
data reduction1
.
Alternatively, you can also increase the heap space for the agent by using the -Xmx
option in the agent startup script, but this may require more resources from the host machine2
.
The other options are not valid solutions to resolve this issue. Enabling agent auto-restart in the
controller UI will not prevent the agent from crashing due to heap exhaustion, but only restart the
agent after it crashes.
This may cause data loss and performance degradation3
. Decreasing the
worker thread count will not affect the heap usage of the agent, but only limit the number of
concurrent tasks that the agent can execute. This may reduce the agent throughput and
responsiveness.
https://docs.appdynamics.com/display/PRMY22/Java+Agent
https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/23.x/latest/en/application-security-monitoring/cisco-secure-
application-requirements
When troubleshooting an application using AppDynamics. which order would help narrow down a
code problem with a specific business transaction
the fastest?
A
Explanation:
When troubleshooting an application using AppDynamics, the fastest way to narrow down a code
problem with a specific business transaction is to follow this order:
Review Application Dashboard: This is the first step to get an overview of the health and
performance of your application and its components. You can see the key metrics, such as response
time, throughput, error rate, and load, for each tier, node, and business transaction. You can also see
the health rule violations, events, and alerts that indicate any issues or anomalies in your
application.
Check transaction scorecard: This is the second step to drill down to the details of a specific business
transaction that you want to troubleshoot. You can see the transaction scorecard by clicking on the
business transaction name on the application dashboard. The transaction scorecard shows the
metrics, such as average response time, calls per minute, errors per minute, and slow calls, for the
selected business transaction. You can also see the breakdown of the response time by tier, node,
and remote service, and the distribution of the response time by percentile.
Check transaction snapshots for problems: This is the third step to identify the root cause of the code
problem for the selected business transaction. You can see the transaction snapshots by clicking on
the View Snapshots button on the transaction scorecard. Transaction snapshots are the detailed
records of the execution of a business transaction, including the call graph, the exit calls, the errors,
the exceptions, the logs, the HTTP parameters, the cookies, the session attributes, and the custom
data. You can use the transaction snapshots to analyze the code execution, the database queries, the
web service calls, the message queues, the errors, and the exceptions that affect the performance of
the business transaction.
Therefore, A (Review Application Dashboard > Check transaction scorecard > Check Transactions
snapshots for problems) is the correct answer. Reference:
Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
Troubleshoot Business Transactions - AppDynamics
Business Transaction - AppDynamics
Transaction Snapshots - AppDynamics
The Default Flow map shows a tier with a full or partial red circle, which indicates one or more nodes
have reported Health Rule violations. Which procedure should the engineer take?
D
Explanation:
According to the Troubleshoot Health Rule Violations document1
, one of the ways to troubleshoot
health rule violations is to click on the Events tab for the application on the Default Flow Map and
then analyze the health rule(s) being violated. This will show you the details of the health rule
violation events, such as the affected entity, the severity, the duration, the evaluation time, and the
triggered actions. You can also drill down into the health rule violation details to see the health rule
configuration, the metric values, and the snapshots. This will help you identify the root cause of the
issue and take appropriate remediation actions. Therefore, the correct answer is D. Using the metric
browser, disabling the health rule, or rebooting the server may not be the best or the most efficient
ways to troubleshoot health rule violations, as they may not reveal the source of the problem, may
affect other entities, or may not resolve the issue permanently. Reference:
Troubleshoot Health Rule Violations
What two types of information can be shared without an AppDynamics login? (Choose two.)
AE
Explanation:
Two types of information that can be shared without an AppDynamics login are Flow Map and
Custom Dashboards. Flow Map is a graphical representation of the application topology, showing the
interactions between the tiers, nodes, backends, and remote services. Custom Dashboards are user-
defined views of the application performance data, metrics, and events.
You can share these types of
information by generating a shareable link from the Controller UI, which can be accessed by anyone
who has the link, without requiring a login12 Reference: 1
:
Share a Flow Map 2
:
Share a Custom
Dashboard
Users are saying they are experiencing occasional slow response lime. You suspect a database issue
and want to find snapshots showing slow database response times Which two statements describe
how to locate snapshots showing the slow database response? (Choose two.)
AC
Explanation:
Snapshots are the detailed records of the execution of a business transaction, including the call stack,
the exit points, the errors, and the metrics. To locate snapshots showing slow database response, you
can use the following methods:
Go to the list of snapshots and apply a filter based on slow database response: You can access the list
of snapshots from the Business Transaction Dashboard or the Tier Dashboard. You can then apply a
filter to show only the snapshots that have a slow database response time, which is the time spent
by the business transaction in calling the database. You can specify the minimum and maximum
values for the slow database response time, or use the predefined options such as slower than 1
second, slower than 5 seconds, etc. You can also combine this filter with other filters, such as time
range, business transaction name, tier name, node name, etc.
to narrow down the results1
.
From the flow map, right-click the database icon and select view snapshots: You can access the flow
map from the Application Dashboard, the Business Transaction Dashboard, or the Tier Dashboard.
The flow map shows the graphical representation of the flow of the business transactions, including
the tiers, the nodes, the backends, and the remote services. You can right-click on any database icon
on the flow map and select view snapshots to see the list of snapshots that have called that
database.
You can then sort or filter the snapshots by the database response time column to find the
slowest ones2
.
The other options are not valid methods to locate snapshots showing slow database response. Going
to the dashboard for the database and selecting slowest database calls will show the metrics and the
flow map for the database, but not the snapshots. Going to the list of snapshots and selecting
analyze for a group of snapshots will show the summary and the comparison of the selected
snapshots, but not the database response time.
https://community.appdynamics.com/t5/Share-a-tip/Snapshots-and-identifying-intermittent-
issues/td-p/42896
The applications and servers are running normally What are two important reasons for the engineer
to view and analyze server performance data at this time? (Choose two.)
AB
Explanation:
Server performance data is the information that AppDynamics collects and reports about the health
and availability of the servers that host your applications and their components. Server performance
data includes metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, network traffic, and so on. You
can use server performance data to monitor and troubleshoot the performance issues of your
servers and applications.
According to the
Server Visibility - AppDynamics
, the following two reasons are important for the
engineer to view and analyze server performance data at this time:
Visualizing application performance during normal operations helps identify when the application
performance is abnormal: This means that by comparing the current server performance data with
the historical or baseline data, you can detect any anomalies or deviations that may indicate a
potential problem or degradation of your application performance. For example, you can use the
Server Dashboard to see the current and historical trends of the server metrics, and use the Anomaly
Detection feature to identify any outliers or unusual patterns.
Graphs and charts collected at this time are useful for showing application owners the stability of
their application: This means that by using the graphical and visual representations of the server
performance data, you can communicate and demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of your
application to the stakeholders and customers. For example, you can use the Server Health Report to
generate a summary of the server health status, availability, and performance over a specified time
period, and share it with the application owners.
Therefore, A (Visualizing application performance during normal operations helps identify when the
application performance is abnormal) and B (Graphs and charts collected at this time are useful for
showing application owners the stability of their application) are two important reasons for the
engineer to view and analyze server performance data at this time. Reference:
Server Visibility - AppDynamics
Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
Server Monitoring - AppDynamics
A customer needs to understand how establishing standards for naming Applications. Tiers, and
Nodes can help them determine the root of a problem when users are working with AppDynamics or
receive an alert Which three statements about establishing naming conventions are true? (Choose
three.)
ABE
Explanation:
According to the Tiers and Nodes document1
, establishing standards for naming applications, tiers,
and nodes can help you identify and organize the components of your monitored environment, as
well as troubleshoot performance issues and health rule violations. Some of the statements about
establishing naming conventions are true:
Application Tier and Node values can be configured in the application agent startup script: This is
true for Java agents, as you can pass values to the agent that will be used as the application, tier, and
node name for the system.
For example, you can use the -Dappdynamics.agent.applicationName, -
Dappdynamics.agent.tierName, and -Dappdynamics.agent.nodeName properties to specify the
names in the JVM startup script2
.
Node names must be unique across the entire business application: This is true, as node names are
used to identify the individual instances of the application components that are monitored by
AppDynamics. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the data collection
and reporting.
Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures uniqueness and clarity
for each node1
.
Application Tier and Node values can be configured in the controller-info.xml file: This is true for Java
agents, as you can also configure the names in the controller-info.xml file, which is located in the
<agent_home>/conf directory. The controller-info.xml file contains the properties that define the
agent identity and connection to the Controller.
You can use the <application-name>, <tier-name>,
and <node-name> elements to specify the names in the file2
.
Some of the statements about establishing naming conventions are false:
Nodes that reside on different Tiers and different machines (hosts) can have duplicate Node names:
This is false, as node names must be unique across the entire business application, regardless of the
tier or the host they belong to. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion and errors in the
data collection and reporting.
Therefore, you should use a naming convention that ensures
uniqueness and clarity for each node1
.
Nodes that reside on the same Tier but on different machines (hosts) can have duplicate Node
names: This is also false, as node names must be unique across the entire business application,
regardless of the tier or the host they belong to. Having duplicate node names can cause confusion
and errors in the data collection and reporting.
Therefore, you should use a naming convention that
ensures uniqueness and clarity for each node1
.
Reference:
Tiers and Nodes
Name Business Applications, Tiers, and Nodes
Where do you go to create a user in the web user interface?
D
Explanation:
To create a user in the web user interface, you need to go to Settings > Groups and Roles > Create
User. This option allows you to add a new user account and assign it to one or more groups.
You can
also specify the user’s name, email, password, and authentication method1 Reference: 1
:
Create
Users
Which role would you need to grant to an existing user for them to manage Controller security
settings?
C
Explanation:
To manage Controller security settings, you would need to grant the Security Administrator role to an
existing user.
The Security Administrator role is a built-in role that allows the user to access and
modify the security settings of the Controller, such as encryption, certificates, authentication,
authorization, and audit1
.
The Security Administrator role also inherits the permissions of the
Credentials Administrator role, which allows the user to manage the credentials for the Controller
and the agents2
. The other roles listed do not have the permission to manage Controller security
settings.
The Administrator role can perform most administrative tasks, but not security-related
ones2
.
The Analytics Administrator role can manage the analytics platform and data, but not the
Controller security3
.
The Account Owner role can manage the account settings and licenses, but not
the Controller security4
https://docs.appdynamics.com/appd/21.x/21.1/en/application-monitoring/install-app-server-
agents/agent-to-controller-connections
Capacity planning for a regionally partitioned application requires that the administrator monitors
the number of users and orgs mapped to a database. How does the administrator meet this
requirement?
A
Explanation:
Capacity planning is the process of estimating and allocating the resources needed to meet the
current and future demands of an application. For a regionally partitioned application, where
different users and organizations are assigned to different databases based on their location, capacity
planning requires that the administrator monitors the number of users and orgs mapped to each
database and ensures that they do not exceed the available resources.
According to the
AppDynamics Analytics - AppDynamics
, one way to meet this requirement is to
schedule an analytics query to check and report on the result periodically. An analytics query is a
SQL-like query that allows you to analyze and visualize the data collected by AppDynamics, such as
business transactions, logs, metrics, events, and custom data. You can use analytics queries to create
dashboards, widgets, reports, and alerts that provide insights into the performance and behavior of
your applications and their components.
To schedule an analytics query to check and report on the number of users and orgs mapped to a
database, the administrator can follow these steps:
Go to Analytics > Search.
Select the data source that contains the user and org information, such as Business Transactions,
Logs, or Custom Data.
Enter the query that counts the number of users and orgs for each database, such as SELECT
database, COUNT(DISTINCT user), COUNT(DISTINCT org) FROM data_source GROUP BY database.
Click the Save button and enter a name and description for the query.
Click the Schedule button and select the frequency, time range, and recipients for the query
execution and report delivery.
Click Save.
Therefore, A (Schedule an analytics query to check and report on the result periodically) is the
correct answer. Reference:
AppDynamics Analytics - AppDynamics
Cisco AppDynamics Associate Administrator Certification
Analytics Queries - AppDynamics