Define your own process group properties via environment variables and Kubernetes annotations

Dynatrace automatically detects and displays lots of metadata values related to the processes that run in your environment—including version numbers, port numbers, and the name of the script or JAR file that launches each process.

Dynatrace also enables you to uses these metadata values to automate tagging as well as use environment variables to supply tags. The functionality that has been lacking to-date is the ability to define your own metadata based on your organization’s or environment’s unique needs. With the latest Dynatrace release, this is now possible.

Define meta data as via environment variable

You can now define an environment variable called DT_CUSTOM_PROP on either the process or host level. The format of the variable is simple, comprised of key/value pairs (for example, DT_CUSTOM_PROP=Department=Acceptance Stage=Sprint).  These variables must be visible to the respective process at startup. Once in place, the metadata values appear on each respective Process and Process group page (see examples below).

Using annotations in Kubernetes

If you monitor Kubernetes, we have even cooler functionality to share with you. We already support automated tagging in Kubernetes based on Kubernetes labels. You can now similarly use Kubernetes annotations and they too will now show up on your Process and Process group pages (see below).

Let us know what you think of these enhancements. If you have suggestions for enabling Dynatrace to pick up metadata in other scenarios, we’d love to hear them.

Note: This feature requires Dynatrace OneAgent v1.127 or higher.