How to extract Traces from AppDynamics

Owned by Alexander Bran
Last updated: Sept 30, 2016Version comment
3 min read

In AppDynamics it is not that easy to extract a trace. Because of that, here are some short instructions to get the results. 

Step-by-step guide


  1. First you need to navigate to the Business Transaction Section. There you need to choose one transaction by double clicking it.


  2. Now you will find you in the Dashboard view. From there you need to navigate to the Transaction Snapshots.


  3. In the Transaction Snapshot view, you will find various traces. Double click one to get more information.
     

  4. In the now open window, please click "List View".


  5. In the List View, select a item and click "Drill Down".
     

  6. Now you see the trace in some sort of a list. If not please click on "Call Graph" on the left hand side.
     

  7. To export the trace, click left on one item, which will be the root of your export. Everything beneath it will be exported. Finally, click "Export Call Graph Starting Here" as shown in the screenshot.
     

  8. Now the "Call Graph Exporter" will open and you can adjust the settings in the "Formatting string". On the lower right corner you can copy the text and then paste it to a file.



Converting the trace into the OPEN.xtrace fromat


For converting the Trace into the OPEN.xtrace format, you need to insert the following text in the "Formatting string" field (black arrow):

method="%m" exclusive_time="%M" total_time="%T" class="%c"

This string can be saved in AppDynamics that you do not need to set it every time you export a trace.

Also you need to ident with tabs by selecting "Tabs" before copying (blue arrow).

After this procedure you can now copy the trace to clipboard (orange arrow) and then paste it into a .txt file with an editor of your choice. If you want to convert the trace into the OPEN.xtrace format you can now use the adapter for it.