Alibaba Cloud extension
- Latest Dynatrace
- Extension
Automatically discover, baseline, and monitor Alibaba Cloud environment components.
Get started
Overview
Access essential metrics from the Alibaba Console for ECS, SLB, NAS, NAT Gateway, CEN, and VPN services. Optionally monitor database workloads (ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server, and ApsaraDB for MongoDB). Ingest Alibaba tags to enrich Dynatrace entities with cloud metadata.
Use cases
- Monitor the health and performance of the Alibaba Cloud.
- Focus on the compute, storage, and networking foundation of your Alibaba Cloud.
- Optionally observe RDS and MongoDB database instances when the corresponding feature sets are enabled.
- Ingest Alibaba tags and use them in the Dynatrace Platform.
Requirements
The Alibaba Cloud extension is executed by ActiveGate (remote monitoring). You need to have an ActiveGate provisioned in your environment and networking set up so that the ActiveGate can connect to the Alibaba Cloud tenant you are about to monitor.
Activation and setup
-
Go to Dynatrace Hub
and activate the Alibaba Cloud extension. -
Provide your Alibaba Cloud monitoring endpoint information for each region you want to monitor (one configuration per region):
- Region ID: See Regions and zones in the Alibaba Cloud documentation.
access-key-idandaccess-key-secret(or the associated Dynatrace Vault)
-
To ingest Alibaba tags, provide a Dynatrace Token with the
entities.readandentities.writescope for each endpoint you are about to monitor on your Alibaba Cloud.
Exact RAM action names vary by console wording and evolve over time. Authorize read-only capabilities for RDS, MongoDB/DDS, and Cloud Monitor in line with your security baseline. Consult the official Alibaba Cloud OpenAPI and Cloud Monitor documentation for exact RAM actions, endpoint maps, and quota limits. Restrict keys and networks according to your organization's policies.
Details
The Alibaba Cloud extension collects metrics and topology for:
- AliCloud ECS
- AliCloud SLB
- AliCloud NAT Gateway
- AliCloud CEN
- AliCloud NAS
- AliCloud VPN
Optional database services (enable per feature set during activation):
- ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL (
rds_mysql) - ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL (
rds_postgresql) - ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server (
rds_sqlserver) - ApsaraDB for MongoDB: Single Node, Replica Set, and Sharding (
mongodb)
When tag import is configured, the extension also retrieves Alibaba tags and correlates them with OneAgent entities for enhanced observability.
The Alibaba Cloud extension is packaged with overview dashboards and service-specific dashboards (including optional Classic and Gen3 documents for database engines) that serve as a starting point for data analysis.
For metric names, Alibaba APIs (Cloud Monitor versus RDS performance), and access planning, see Database monitoring.
The Alibaba Cloud extension does not cover every single service available on Alibaba Cloud.
Licensing and costs
There is no charge to use the extension. You are only charged for the data that the extension ingests.
The Alibaba Cloud extension ingests custom metrics, which consume Davis Data Units (DDUs) (Dynatrace classic license) or Metrics powered by Grail (DPS), according to your license model.
The following formula approximates annual ingested data points with all infrastructure feature sets enabled, plus any database feature sets you turn on.
(( 5 * number of ECS )+ ( 6 * number of SLB )+ ( 4 * number of NatGW )+ ( 4 * number of CEN )+ ( 6 * number of NAS )+ ( 7 * number of VPN )+ ( 12 * number of RDS MySQL instances ) -- if rds_mysql enabled+ ( 17 * number of RDS PostgreSQL instances ) -- if rds_postgresql enabled+ ( 18 * number of RDS SQL Server instances ) -- if rds_sqlserver enabled+ ( 13 * number of MongoDB instances ) -- if mongodb enabled) * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days data points per year
Database counts are per monitored region. Omit any line for a feature set you don't activate.
Dynatrace Platform Subscription
In the Dynatrace Platform Subscription, metric ingestion consumes Metrics powered by Grail according to the number of ingested metric data points.
Dynatrace classic license
In the classic licensing model, metric ingestion consumes Davis Data Units (DDUs) at the rate of .001 DDUs per metric data point. Multiply the above formula for annual data points by .001 to estimate annual DDU usage.
Database monitoring
Database monitoring is optional. Enable only the engines you use:
| Activation feature set | Alibaba products (conceptual) | Primary Dynatrace metric prefix |
|---|---|---|
| ApsaraDB RDS for MySQL |
|
| ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL |
|
| ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server |
|
| ApsaraDB for MongoDB |
|
Each enabled feature set discovers instances per configured region—one Dynatrace monitoring configuration per Alibaba region.
API reference
The current implementation reads RDS MySQL metrics from Cloud Monitor (DescribeMetricList), namespace acs_rds_dashboard, with per-instance dimensions. RDS PostgreSQL and RDS SQL Server metrics are read from the RDS DescribeDBInstancePerformance API for the keys listed below. The current implementation does not populate these Dynatrace series from Cloud Monitor DescribeMetricList, even though Cloud Monitor may expose analogous names in the Alibaba console.
| Purpose | API style | Typical operations | Used for feature sets |
|---|---|---|---|
Instance inventory | RDS OpenAPI | Instance describe/list operations for RDS |
|
Instance inventory | MongoDB / DDS OpenAPI | MongoDB instance describe/list |
|
Time-series metrics (MySQL, MongoDB) | Cloud Monitor | Metric list query for namespace-specific metric names |
|
Time-series metrics (PostgreSQL, SQL Server) | RDS OpenAPI |
|
|
RDS MySQL metrics
Cloud Monitor namespace acs_rds_dashboard. For each discovered DBInstanceId, Cloud Monitor is queried with dimensions that bind the series to that instance (JSON dimension including instanceId set to the DB instance id). The period is aligned with minute granularity for instance-scoped metrics.
| Dynatrace metric key | Cloud Monitor MetricName | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
| Host CPU utilization |
|
| Host memory utilization |
|
| Connection pool usage |
|
| Disk usage |
|
| IOPS usage |
|
| Active sessions |
|
| Threads running |
|
| Threads connected |
|
| Queries per second |
|
| Transactions per second |
|
| Slow query count |
|
| InnoDB row lock time (per second–scaled field name in Cloud Monitor) |
RDS PostgreSQL metrics
RDS DescribeDBInstancePerformance with multiple Key parameters per request (batched). Values are parsed from the latest returned sample for each key.
The table lists the performance Key values the collector requests, with their corresponding Dynatrace metric keys. Some Dynatrace metrics are derived from multiple sub-fields (for example disk or connection utilization).
| Dynatrace metric key | RDS performance Key (representative) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
| Sub-field example: |
|
| Sub-field example: |
|
| Derived from data/log IOPS components when present |
|
| Aggregates size-related sub-fields when present |
|
| Uses space usage sub-fields |
| (derived) | From disk used / disk total when both available |
|
| Long-running SQL signal |
|
| Sub-field: total sessions (representative) |
|
| Active sessions |
|
| Idle connections |
|
| Waiting connections |
| (derived) | From active / total when both available |
|
| Commit / TPS-related sub-fields |
|
| Best-effort maximum from available sub-fields |
|
| Replication latency sub-fields |
| — | Not ingested by the current collector (no stable performance mapping) |
| — | Not ingested by the current collector |
Additional performance keys may be requested for parsing resilience. Only metrics that resolve to a numeric value are emitted to Dynatrace.
RDS SQL Server metrics
| Dynatrace metric key | RDS performance Key | Representative sub-field |
|---|---|---|
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. cache hit ratio |
|
| e.g. lock waits per second |
|
| e.g. lock timeouts |
|
| e.g. deadlocks |
|
| e.g. |
|
| e.g. longest transaction duration |
MongoDB metrics
Cloud Monitor namespace acs_mongodb. Discovery determines the deployment category—single node, replica set, or sharding. The same Dynatrace metric keys are used for all categories; only the Cloud Monitor metric name prefix changes.
| Dynatrace metric key | Single Node MetricName | Replica Set MetricName | Sharding MetricName |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Instances with an unrecognized category are skipped for metric collection.
Topology and tagging
When database feature sets are enabled, instances appear under dedicated Dynatrace topology types (one cloud entity type per engine). Optional tag import into Dynatrace applies to those entity types when configured and requires a Dynatrace API token with the entity scopes listed in Activation and setup.
Feature sets
When activating your extension using monitoring configuration, you can limit monitoring to one of the feature sets. To work properly, the extension has to collect at least one metric after the activation.
In highly segmented networks, feature sets can reflect the segments of your environment. Then, when you create a monitoring configuration, you can select a feature set and a corresponding ActiveGate group that can connect to this particular segment.
All metrics that aren't categorized into any feature set are considered to be the default and are always reported.
A metric inherits the feature set of a subgroup, which in turn inherits the feature set of a group. Also, the feature set defined on the metric level overrides the feature set defined on the subgroup level, which in turn overrides the feature set defined on the group level.
natGateway
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Network Bandwidth RX from Outside | cloud.alicloud.nat_gateway.network.bw_rx_from_outside | — |
| Network Bandwidth TX to Outside | cloud.alicloud.nat_gateway.network.bw_tx_to_outside | — |
| Network Bandwidth RX from Inside | cloud.alicloud.nat_gateway.network.bw_rx_from_inside | — |
| Network Bandwidth TX to Inside | cloud.alicloud.nat_gateway.network.bw_tx_to_inside | — |
ecs
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Utilization | cloud.alicloud.ecs.cpu_utilization | — |
| RAM Utilization | cloud.alicloud.ecs.memory_utilization | — |
| IO Read | cloud.alicloud.ecs.disk.io_read | — |
| IO Write | cloud.alicloud.ecs.disk.io_write | — |
| Load | cloud.alicloud.ecs.load | — |
| — | cloud.alicloud.ecs.status | — |
slb
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Network RX | cloud.alicloud.slb.network.traffic_rx | — |
| Network TX | cloud.alicloud.slb.network.traffic_tx | — |
| Network Drop RX | cloud.alicloud.slb.network.drop_rx | — |
| Network Drop TX | cloud.alicloud.slb.network.drop_tx | — |
| Healthy Server Count | cloud.alicloud.slb.healthyservercount | — |
| Unhealthy Server Count | cloud.alicloud.slb.unhealthyservercount | — |
cen
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Network Internet Bandwidth RX | cloud.alicloud.cen.network.bw_rx_internet | — |
| Network Internet Bandwidth TX | cloud.alicloud.cen.network.bw_tx_internet | — |
| Latency Healthcheck | cloud.alicloud.cen.healthcheck.latency | — |
| Loss Healthcheck | cloud.alicloud.cen.healthcheck.loss | — |
nas
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| IOPS Read | cloud.alicloud.nas.disk.iops_r | — |
| IOPS Write | cloud.alicloud.nas.disk.iops_w | — |
| Latency Read | cloud.alicloud.nas.disk.latency_r | — |
| Latency Write | cloud.alicloud.nas.disk.latency_w | — |
| Aligned Size | cloud.alicloud.nas.disk.alignedsize | — |
| Secondary Aligned Size | cloud.alicloud.nas.disk.secondaryalignedsize | — |
vpn
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SSL Client Count | cloud.alicloud.vpn.ssl.clientcount | — |
| IPsec Bandwidth TX | cloud.alicloud.vpn.network.ipsec.bw_tx | — |
| IPsec Bandwidth RX | cloud.alicloud.vpn.network.ipsec.bw_rx | — |
| Bandwidth TX | cloud.alicloud.vpn.network.bw_tx | — |
| Bandwidth RX | cloud.alicloud.vpn.network.bw_rx | — |
| Bandwidth Utilization TX | cloud.alicloud.vpn.network.bw_utilization_tx | — |
| Bandwidth Utilization RX | cloud.alicloud.vpn.network.bw_utilization_rx | — |
FAQ
Should I split the monitoring configuration into many instances to scale the Alibaba Cloud extension out?
One monitoring configuration can track one or more Alibaba Cloud instances. Multiple monitoring configurations are not mandatory.
I use a proxy to connect to Alibaba Cloud. How can I enable a proxy connection in the Alibaba Cloud extension?
Proxy support is planned for a future extension version.
Does the Alibaba Cloud extension support monitoring of other entities, such as CDNs?
Not yet. We look forward to your feedback on the enhancements that would make this extension better suited to your environment. Post your product idea to the Dynatrace Community, and let others up-vote it!