Dynatrace

Last Updated: February 20, 2026

Introduction

Dynatrace is an AI-powered full-stack observability platform. Through OneAgent technology, it automatically monitors applications, infrastructure, and user experience, while the Davis AI engine automatically analyzes root causes of problems.

Key Features

Feature	Description
OneAgent	Full-stack monitoring with a single agent
Auto-instrumentation	Automatic tracing without code changes
Davis AI	AI-powered root cause analysis
PurePath	Distributed tracing technology
Smartscape	Real-time topology mapping
Full Stack	From infrastructure to user experience

Architecture

EKS Deployment with Helm

1. Install Dynatrace Operator

# Add Helm repository
helm repo add dynatrace https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Dynatrace/dynatrace-operator/main/config/helm/repos/stable
helm repo update

# Create namespace
kubectl create namespace dynatrace

2. Create API Tokens

Create API tokens in the Dynatrace console with these permissions:

• Access problem and event feed, metrics, and topology
• Read configuration
• Write configuration
• PaaS integration - Installer download
• PaaS integration - Support alert
• Read entities
• Write entities
• Read settings
• Write settings
• Ingest logs
• Ingest metrics
• Ingest OpenTelemetry traces

3. Create Secret

# dynatrace-secret.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: dynakube
  namespace: dynatrace
type: Opaque
data:
  # Base64 encoded values
  apiToken: <BASE64_ENCODED_API_TOKEN>
  dataIngestToken: <BASE64_ENCODED_DATA_INGEST_TOKEN>

# Or create via CLI
kubectl create secret generic dynakube \
  --namespace dynatrace \
  --from-literal=apiToken=<API_TOKEN> \
  --from-literal=dataIngestToken=<DATA_INGEST_TOKEN>

4. values.yaml Configuration

# dynatrace-values.yaml
platform: "kubernetes"

operator:
  image:
    repository: docker.io/dynatrace/dynatrace-operator
    tag: v1.0.0
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 50m
      memory: 64Mi
    limits:
      cpu: 100m
      memory: 256Mi

webhook:
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 50m
      memory: 64Mi
    limits:
      cpu: 100m
      memory: 256Mi

csidriver:
  enabled: true

5. Install Operator

helm upgrade --install dynatrace-operator dynatrace/dynatrace-operator \
  --namespace dynatrace \
  --values dynatrace-values.yaml \
  --wait

6. DynaKube CR Configuration

# dynakube.yaml
apiVersion: dynatrace.com/v1beta2
kind: DynaKube
metadata:
  name: dynakube
  namespace: dynatrace
spec:
  # Dynatrace environment URL
  apiUrl: https://<ENVIRONMENT_ID>.live.dynatrace.com/api

  # OneAgent deployment mode
  oneAgent:
    # Classic Full Stack (DaemonSet)
    classicFullStack:
      tolerations:
        - effect: NoSchedule
          operator: Exists
      args:
        - --set-host-group=eks-production
      env:
        - name: ONEAGENT_ENABLE_VOLUME_STORAGE
          value: "true"
      resources:
        requests:
          cpu: 100m
          memory: 512Mi
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 1.5Gi
      # Node selector
      nodeSelector:
        kubernetes.io/os: linux

  # ActiveGate configuration
  activeGate:
    capabilities:
      - routing
      - kubernetes-monitoring
      - dynatrace-api
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 512Mi
      limits:
        cpu: 1000m
        memory: 1.5Gi
    # Replica count
    replicas: 2
    # Kubernetes API monitoring
    group: eks-production
    # Custom properties
    customProperties:
      value: |
        [kubernetes_monitoring]
        kubernetes_cluster_name=eks-production

  # Metadata enrichment
  metadataEnrichment:
    enabled: true

  # Namespace selector (namespaces to monitor)
  namespaceSelector:
    matchLabels:
      dynatrace: enabled
---
# Add label to namespaces to monitor
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: production
  labels:
    dynatrace: enabled

7. Deploy and Verify

# Deploy DynaKube
kubectl apply -f dynakube.yaml

# Check status
kubectl get dynakube -n dynatrace
kubectl get pods -n dynatrace

# Check OneAgent status
kubectl logs -n dynatrace -l app.kubernetes.io/name=oneagent --tail=100

# Check ActiveGate status
kubectl logs -n dynatrace -l app.kubernetes.io/name=activegate --tail=100

Cloud Native Full Stack Mode

Lightweight monitoring through code module injection:

# dynakube-cloudnative.yaml
apiVersion: dynatrace.com/v1beta2
kind: DynaKube
metadata:
  name: dynakube
  namespace: dynatrace
spec:
  apiUrl: https://<ENVIRONMENT_ID>.live.dynatrace.com/api

  oneAgent:
    # Cloud Native Full Stack (Sidecar approach)
    cloudNativeFullStack:
      # Code modules image
      codeModulesImage: docker.io/dynatrace/dynatrace-codemodules

      # Namespace selector
      namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          dynatrace-injection: enabled

      # Resource limits
      initResources:
        requests:
          cpu: 30m
          memory: 30Mi
        limits:
          cpu: 300m
          memory: 300Mi

      # Node selector
      nodeSelector:
        kubernetes.io/os: linux

      # Tolerations
      tolerations:
        - effect: NoSchedule
          operator: Exists

  # Host monitoring separate configuration
  hostGroup: eks-prod-cloudnative

  activeGate:
    capabilities:
      - routing
      - kubernetes-monitoring

Davis AI Root Cause Analysis

How Davis AI Works

Problem Alert Configuration

# Dynatrace alerting profile (via API)
# POST /api/config/v1/alertingProfiles
{
  "displayName": "EKS Production Alerts",
  "rules": [
    {
      "severityLevel": "AVAILABILITY",
      "tagFilter": {
        "includeMode": "INCLUDE_ANY",
        "tagFilters": [
          {
            "context": "KUBERNETES_CLUSTER",
            "key": "eks-production"
          }
        ]
      },
      "delayInMinutes": 0
    },
    {
      "severityLevel": "ERROR",
      "tagFilter": {
        "includeMode": "INCLUDE_ANY",
        "tagFilters": [
          {
            "context": "CONTEXTLESS",
            "key": "environment",
            "value": "production"
          }
        ]
      },
      "delayInMinutes": 5
    }
  ],
  "eventTypeFilters": []
}

Auto-instrumentation

Supported Technologies

Language/Platform	Supported Frameworks
Java	Spring, Spring Boot, Micronaut, Quarkus, Jakarta EE
Node.js	Express, Fastify, NestJS, Koa
Python	Django, Flask, FastAPI
.NET	ASP.NET Core, .NET Framework
Go	net/http, Gin, Echo, Fiber
PHP	Laravel, Symfony

Verify Auto-instrumentation

# Check Pod environment variables
kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- env | grep -i dynatrace

# Expected output:
# LD_PRELOAD=/opt/dynatrace/oneagent/agent/lib64/liboneagentproc.so
# DT_TENANT=abc12345
# DT_TENANTTOKEN=xxxxx
# DT_CONNECTION_POINT=https://abc12345.live.dynatrace.com/communication

# Check OneAgent logs
kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- cat /var/log/dynatrace/oneagent/oneagent.log

Cost Structure

License Model

Type	Unit	Includes
Full-Stack	Host Unit	Infrastructure + APM + Logs
Infrastructure	Host Unit	Infrastructure monitoring only
Application Security	Host Unit	RASP + Vulnerability analysis
DEM (Digital Experience)	Session	RUM + Synthetic
Log Monitoring	GiB	Log collection and analysis

Cost Optimization Strategies

# 1. Selective namespace monitoring
spec:
  oneAgent:
    cloudNativeFullStack:
      namespaceSelector:
        matchLabels:
          dynatrace-injection: enabled  # Only necessary namespaces

# 2. Resource limits
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu: 500m
          memory: 1Gi

# 3. Data retention adjustment (Dynatrace console)
# Settings > Monitoring > Data privacy > Data retention

# 4. Disable session replay if needed
# Applications > [App] > Session Replay > Disable

Host Unit Calculation

Host Units = max(memory_GB / 16, vCPU / 1.5)

Examples:
- 4 vCPU, 16GB RAM = max(1, 2.67) = 2.67 Host Units
- 8 vCPU, 32GB RAM = max(2, 5.33) = 5.33 Host Units
- 2 vCPU, 8GB RAM  = max(0.5, 1.33) = 1.33 Host Units

OpenTelemetry Integration

Dynatrace natively collects OpenTelemetry data:

# Send from OTEL Collector to Dynatrace
exporters:
  otlphttp/dynatrace:
    endpoint: https://<ENVIRONMENT_ID>.live.dynatrace.com/api/v2/otlp
    headers:
      Authorization: "Api-Token <DYNATRACE_API_TOKEN>"

service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      exporters: [otlphttp/dynatrace]
    metrics:
      exporters: [otlphttp/dynatrace]
    logs:
      exporters: [otlphttp/dynatrace]

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

# 1. OneAgent connection issues
kubectl logs -n dynatrace -l app.kubernetes.io/name=oneagent | grep -i error

# 2. ActiveGate status check
kubectl exec -n dynatrace -it $(kubectl get pod -n dynatrace -l app.kubernetes.io/name=activegate -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- \
  /opt/dynatrace/gateway/jre/bin/java -jar /opt/dynatrace/gateway/lib/cli.jar status

# 3. Code module injection verification
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> | grep -A5 "Init Containers"

# 4. Network connectivity test
kubectl exec -n dynatrace -it <oneagent-pod> -- \
  curl -v https://<ENVIRONMENT_ID>.live.dynatrace.com/api/v1/deployment/installer/agent/connectioninfo

# 5. Token permission verification
curl -X GET "https://<ENVIRONMENT_ID>.live.dynatrace.com/api/v2/apiTokens/<TOKEN_ID>" \
  -H "Authorization: Api-Token <API_TOKEN>"

Log Collection Verification

# ActiveGate logs
kubectl logs -n dynatrace -l app.kubernetes.io/name=activegate --tail=200

# OneAgent logs
kubectl exec -n dynatrace -it <oneagent-pod> -- \
  tail -100 /var/log/dynatrace/oneagent/oneagent.log

# Operator logs
kubectl logs -n dynatrace -l app.kubernetes.io/name=dynatrace-operator --tail=100

Quiz

Test your knowledge with the Dynatrace Quiz.