on - edited on by
Michal_Gebacki
Dynatrace Extensions allow you to monitor many different technologies that aren't already
monitored by Dynatrace's core product. While you are notified when there's an error, it can be
difficult to determine what, specifically, the problem is. Whether an extension is running on a
host, host group or an ActiveGate (AG) Group, you can download a Support Archive to help
determine what the problem is and correct it.
Preparing to download the support archive
Before we collect the Support Archive we'll need the following information:
• The Monitoring Configuration ID
• If using an AG, we’ll need to know which AG a Monitoring Configuration is assigned to.
• Enable debug logs, where possible
How to find the Monitoring Configuration ID:
Gen 2 and 3:
You can find the Monitoring Configuration ID by choosing to edit or
view the relevant Monitoring Configuration. Here, you'll find the
Monitoring Configuration ID in the URL:
How to find the Assigned ActiveGate:
Gen 3:
• Navigate to the Gen 3 (colored blue/purple) Extensions application
• Search for and click on the extension you're interested in. This will list their
monitoring configurations
• Expand the ">" on the left of the entry. This will expand the entry and show the
Monitoring Configuration ID along with the Assigned ActiveGate, if any.
In this example, we've searched for the SNMP Traps extension and have
expanded the Monitoring Configuration's entry to show the Monitoring
Configuration ID and assigned ActiveGate:
Gen 2:
Navigate to Data Explorer then create a query like so:
• Search for: "Extension - Status"
• Split By: dt.active_gate.id, dt.extension.config.id, dt.extension.name
• Filter by: dt.extension.name <Name of Extension you're interested in>
The results will show the ActiveGate ID, the monitoring configuration ID, and the name of
the extension. In this example I'm looking for the AG's assigned to our SNMP
Traps extension:
Verbose / Debug Logs:
Some extensions will have the option to add Verbose or Debug level logs. When
troubleshooting an extension, enabling this feature is a good idea. This adds [Debug]
entries into the logs and, for some extensions, is essential to effectively troubleshoot.
However, it's important to remember to turn these off when you're done
troubleshooting as it adds unnecessary overhead during normal operation.
To enable debug logs:
- Edit the monitoring configuration
- This presents a couple different ways:
- Enable the toggle for Debug / Verbose Logs
- Log level listbox with either INFO or DEBUG as options. Set this to DEBUG.
- Save the configuration
- Wait 10 minutes so these logs can populate in the Support Archive
- Download the support archive (see below)
- Disable the Enable Verbose Logs toggle/set Log Level to INFO
Collect the Support Archive:
Now that we know which AG or Host we want to check and have enabled debug logs where possible, we'll need to collect the Support Archive. Instructions to do so can be found here:
How to Collect a Support Archive
Once downloaded, you'll need to unzip it to a convenient location. If you're downloading a host's support archive, you will also need to unzip the SupportArchive.zip file within it.
How to read the support archive
To read a support archive, we'll go over the following:
- Recommended programs to view them
- Where the logs are located
- Which files to check
- How to easily search logs for important information
- Errors that you can ignore
Recommended Programs:
We recommend using a powerful text editor such as Visual Studio Code or Notepad++ to view these files as the formatting options these programs offer will make them much easier to read.
Where the logs are located:
The location of the extension's log files differs slightly depending on if you're reading them from a host or ActiveGate:
- Host:
<RootFolder>/AGENT/logs/extensions/datasources/extensions/<extensionName> - ActiveGate:
<RootFolder>/COLLECTOR/<ActiveGateID>/remotepluginmodule/log/extensions/<extensionName>
Which files to check:
- Python3.log
- Fastcheck.log
- dynatracesourcesql.jar.log (for SQL extensions)
- *statuses.log
- ruxitagent_extensionsmodule
All of these files are useful but python3.log and dynatracesourcesql.jar.log are the files you'll check for most extension errors.
How to search logs for important information:
The following will reference this error from the Windows Scheduled Tasks extension (found in a python3.log file):
- Look for [err]
Most errors are labelled with this tag and this makes it easy to locate errors for your extension. - Look for the the monitoring configuration ID
When your ActiveGate or host is assigned to multiple monitoring configurations, it's important to ensure the error you're looking at is for the correct monitoring configuration. Every line in python3.log and dynatracesourcesql.jar.log begins with the monitoring configuration ID. Here, that is: 0fe5adb2-2f20-3da8-a750-6dee882b2ed9
Errors you can ignore:
Many extensions will have errors that are always going to be there that can be ignored.
This is a challenge of supporting a wide range of versions or covering a wide spectrum of
data that may or may not have entries associated with them. The following is a list of
errors that you may see in popular extensions that can be ignored:
- Invalid column name physical database name
These queries will always fail on old non-Azure databases.
- Empty results for Azure queries
A query that contains "Azure" somewhere inside. These queries will always return empty on non-azure databases. - NotOpenSSL warning
Example:
You'll see this warning for any extension that uses SSL.NotOpenSSLWarning: urllib3 v2 only supports OpenSSL 1.1.1+, currently the 'ssl' module is compiled with 'Dynatrace Cryptographic Module 1.1'. See: https://github.com/urllib3/urllib3/issues/3020
Summary
In this guide, we talked about what information we need to pull the correct Support Archive, which
files to investigate and how to find and read these errors. We also provided a few errors that you can safely ignore or are not relevant to any extension issue you come across.
What's next
If you are trying to troubleshoot an extension issue and need further assistance, please feel free to open a Support ticket.
If you'd like to see this article expanded or enhanced please feel free to leave a comment.
