Notebooks
Notebooks are Dynatrace's interactive analysis tool — like Jupyter notebooks for observability. Mix DQL queries with markdown documentation.
When to Use Notebooks vs Dashboards
Notebooks Dashboards
────────────────────────────────────── ──────────────────────────────────────
Exploration and investigation Daily monitoring and KPIs
Ad-hoc queries, try different angles Fixed tiles, auto-refresh
Markdown documentation between queries Visual layout, shared with team
Export as PDF for reports Embed in portals, TV screens
One-time analysis Persistent views
Creating a Notebook
- Ctrl+K → "Notebooks" → Create new
- Add a DQL section → write a query → run it
- Add a Markdown section → document your findings
- Repeat — build a narrative of your investigation
🛠 Try it: Create a notebook with these three sections:
- Markdown:
# Host Health Check - DQL:
timeseries avg(dt.host.cpu.usage), by:{dt.entity.host} - DQL:
fetch logs | filter loglevel == "ERROR" | summarize cnt=count(), by:{log.source} | sort cnt desc
Visualization Types
timeseries queries auto-render as line charts. fetch queries render as tables. Click the visualization selector to change: bar chart, pie chart, single value, honeycomb, etc.
Sharing
- Share link — anyone with access can view
- Export PDF — for email reports
- Clone — duplicate for a new investigation
💡 Notebooks are the Gen3 replacement for Data Explorer. Any time you want to explore data interactively, start with a Notebook.
Notebooks vs Dashboards
Aspect Notebook Dashboard
────────────────── ────────────────────────────── ──────────────────────────────
Layout Linear, top-to-bottom Grid-based (24 columns)
Purpose Investigation, analysis, RCA Monitoring, at-a-glance status
DQL location state.input.value query
Viz config state.visualization visualizationSettings
Use notebooks for step-by-step investigations with markdown narrative between queries. Use dashboards for operational monitoring with multiple tiles visible simultaneously.