The Dynatrace Platform
Dynatrace is a unified observability platform. Instead of separate tools for metrics, logs, traces, and security, everything lives in one place — connected by a real-time topology map and powered by AI.
Architecture
Key Components
Component What It Does Key Fact
────────────── ────────────────────────────────────────────── ──────────────────────────
OneAgent Installed on hosts, auto-discovers everything One agent per host, zero config
Grail Stores ALL data (metrics, logs, traces, etc.) Data lakehouse, schema-on-read
Smartscape Real-time topology map of all entities Auto-discovers relationships
Davis AI Detects anomalies, finds root causes Correlates across full stack
DQL Query language for all data in Grail One language replaces 9 tools
Workflows Automation engine (alerts → actions) Replaces manual runbooks
AppEngine Build custom apps on the platform React + TypeScript + Strato
OpenPipeline Processes data on ingestion (parse, route) Masking, enrichment, routing
OneAgent — The Foundation
OneAgent is a single binary installed on each host. It automatically:
- Discovers all processes, services, and dependencies
- Instruments application code (Java, .NET, Node.js, Go, Python, PHP)
- Captures distributed traces (PurePath) across service calls
- Collects host metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network)
- Injects RUM JavaScript for browser monitoring
- Feeds everything into Grail via the Smartscape topology
Davis AI — The Brain
Davis AI continuously analyzes all data and automatically:
- Detects anomalies — baseline deviations, not just static thresholds
- Correlates events — groups related issues into a single problem
- Finds root cause — traces the impact chain from user to infrastructure
- Davis CoPilot — natural language to DQL ("show me slow services")
💡 Davis AI is what makes Dynatrace different from log aggregators and metric tools. Instead of hundreds of unrelated alerts, Davis gives you ONE problem with the root cause already identified.
Smartscape — The Map
Smartscape is a real-time topology map showing every entity and relationship:
Application → Service → Process → Host → Data Center
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
User actions Endpoints Libraries Containers
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Sessions Databases Threads Network
When Davis detects a problem, it uses Smartscape to trace the impact — from a slow database query all the way up to affected users.
🛠 Try it: Open Ctrl+K (the Dynatrace launcher) and just browse. Type "host", "logs", "dashboard", "workflow" — notice how every capability is one search away. Try the Smartscape app to see your full topology as an interactive dependency graph.