Pinging 100 K devices?

[AntonioSousa]

I have a challenge to ping 100K devices with Dynatrace.

I'm expecting to hit several Dynatrace limits...

Has anyone gone so far? Any ideas on how to tackle this efficiently?

[sujit_k_singh]

Hi @AntonioSousa 

100K devices is extreme scale for Dynatrace ICMP monitoring. You'll hit limits on synthetic monitors (default 10K), DEM unit consumption, and ActiveGate capacity.

My approach would be  

• Extension Framework 2.0 — Build a custom ICMP extension that pings devices in bulk from ActiveGate. Avoids synthetic monitor limits entirely, no DEM unit consumption, and is far more scalable. You'd need multiple ActiveGates distributed to handle the load.
• Metrics API v2 ingest — I'd write a lightweight script (Python) that handles the bulk ICMP pings externally and pushes the results into Dynatrace via Metrics API v2. You still get everything in Dynatrace — dashboards, alerting, without hitting synthetic limits or burning DEM units. 

Extension 2.0 or Metrics API v2 ingest is probably the cleanest path for this scale — all within Dynatrace, no DEM cost.

Thanks,

Sujit

[AntonioSousa]

@sujit_k_singh ,

NAM currently has a 5000 monitor limit per environment. Not an option. BTW, NAM consumes DDUs, not DEMs.

Yes, I'm going the extension way, as I have developed several ping extensions over time (eg. Ping Every Second).

The first limitation that I'm considering is really anomaly detection around metric events, and the associated throttling. I'm considering launching the events directly from the extension 😊

Pretty sure there are other limits waiting me along the way...

[sujit_k_singh]

Hi @AntonioSousa 

Thanks for the correction on NAM/DDUs — my mistake.

Good to hear you're going the extension route — makes sense given your experience with Ping Every Second.

Curious how you'll handle the AG distribution/batching — that's the key architectural decision here.

[AntonPineiro]

Hi,

I do not have that use case in mind, but it would be a challenge.

Looks like Prometheus + black exporter or Zabbix + Zabbix proxy are more capable for this. I am curious to know your results.

Best regards