Dynatrace Backend listener plugin for JMeter

This library implements a JMeter Backend listener and sends the recorded loadtest metrics via the Dynatrace MINT metric ingest to the configured Dynatrace monitoring environment.

See https://jmeter.apache.org/usermanual/component_reference.html#Backend_Listener for a description of the JMeter BackendListener concept.

Building

Execute the gradle build task. This will generate a "jmeter-dynatrace-plugin-VERSION" in the build/libs directory

Prerequisites

JMeter 5.3 (https://jmeter.apache.org/download_jmeter.cgi)

Dynatrace Version > 1.202

Installation

Copy this generated jar to the apache-jmeter-5.3\lib\ext folder and (re-)start JMeter

Maven repository

The plugin is now also available in maven central

See https://search.maven.org/artifact/com.dynatrace.jmeter.plugins/jmeter-dynatrace-plugin/1.8.0/jar

Configuration

Dynatrace

• Open the WebUI of your monitoring environment
• Go to Settings > Integration > Dynatrace API
• Select Generate token
• Add a token name and select the access scope Ingest metrics using API V2
  • If you also want to read those metrics, you can also select Read metrics using API V2
• Copy the generated token ad store it in a secure space (it will be needed for the JMeter plugin configuration)

JMeter

• Open your JMeter jmx file
• Add Listener > Backend Listener
• Select Backend Listener implementation: com.dynatrace.jmeter.plugins.MintBackendListener
• Change the required parameters:
  • dynatraceMetricIngestUrl: the URL of your monitoring environment with the suffix /api/v2/metrics/ingest
  • dynatraceApiToken: the API token which you generated for your Dynatrace API integration
  • transactionDimensions: a comma-separated list of key=value pairs which will be used as dimensions for the test step related metrics. You must either replace the "dt.entity.service=SERVICE-XXXXXXXXXXXXX" with the correct service id or remove/replace the parameter.
• Change the optional parameters if needed:
  • testDimensions: a comma-separated list of key=value pairs which will be used as dimensions for the test related metrics.
  • enabled: allows to disable this plugin from outside without changing the jmeter script itself by passing the parameter -Jenabled=false to the start script.
  • name: The name of the listener which will be used as prefix for the log messages. If you have multiple listeners for multiple thread groups you should use unique names.
  • samplersRegex: a regular expression which allows to filter the samplers which generate the metrics
• Start the load test

Debug logging

If you want to enable debug logs for this plugin, please add the line <Logger name="com.dynatrace.jmeter.plugins" level="debug" /> to the log4j2.xml file in the JMeter bin folder.

MINT metrics

When the JMeter test is running, it will generate the specified general metrics:

• jmeter.usermetrics.startedthreads: the number of started threads
• jmeter.usermetrics.finishedthreads: the number of finished threads
• jmeter.usermetrics.minactivethreads: the minimum number of active threads
• jmeter.usermetrics.maxactivethreads: the maximum number of active threads
• jmeter.usermetrics.meanactivethreads: the arithmetic mean of active threads

Dimensions used for those metrics:

• testDimensions: a comma-separated list of key=value pairs which will be used as dimensions for the test related metrics. e.g. dimension1=Test1,dimension2=Test2

In addition it will generate the specified metrics for each test step (JMeter sampler)

• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.mintime: the minimal elapsed time for requests within sliding window
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.maxtime: the maximal elapsed time for requests within sliding window
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.meantime: the arithmetic mean of the elapsed time
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.receivedbytes: the number of received bytes
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.sentbytes: the number of sent bytes
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.hits: the number of hits to the server
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.error: the number of failed requests
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.success: the number of successful requests
• jmeter.usermetrics.transaction.count: the total number of requests

Dimensions used for those metrics:

• transactionDimensions: a comma-separated list of key=value pairs which will be used as dimensions for the test step related metrics. e.g. dimension3=Test3,dimension4=Test4

Monitoring the metrics in Dynatrace

• Create a dashboard
• For every metric:
  • Add a custom chart
  • Select Try it out in the Banner line Analyze multidimensional metrics from Prometheus, StatsD and others channels right on your dashboards
  • Enter the name of the metric (from the list of the metrics above) in the field Filter metrics by...
  • Specify the chart settings (Visualization type, Chart type...)
  • Select Pin to dashboard
• Save the dashboard
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