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Getting Started

Tutorial

What Are Extensions?

Dynatrace Extensions 2.0 let you monitor anything Dynatrace doesn't cover out of the box — network switches, firewalls, UPS devices, custom APIs. There are 216 extensions in the Hub across 7 data sources:

Data Source   Count  How It Works                              Coding?
──────────── ─────  ──────────────────────────────────────────  ──────────
SNMP          19    Declarative YAML, OID polling               No
Python        33+   Python SDK, REST API calls                  Yes
JMX           12    Declarative YAML, MBean attributes          No
SQL           14    Declarative YAML, SQL queries                No
Prometheus    12    Declarative YAML, scrape /metrics            No
WMI            1    Declarative YAML, WMI queries (Windows)     No
StatsD         1    Declarative YAML, StatsD receiver            No

This course covers SNMP (modules 0-8) and Python (modules 9-12). Both share the same extension.yaml structure for metrics, topology, and screens — only the data source section differs.

How It Works

extension.yaml Your code → Upload + Sign ZIP package → EEC On ActiveGate → SNMP Device OID polling → Dynatrace Metrics + Entities The EEC (Extension Execution Controller) runs on ActiveGate, reads your YAML, polls devices on schedule

The Extension File

Every extension starts with extension.yaml. Here's the minimum:

name: custom:com.dynatrace.extension.my-device
version: 0.0.1
minDynatraceVersion: "1.318.0"
author:
  name: Your Name

⚠️ Custom extension names MUST start with custom:. Official Dynatrace extensions don't have this prefix.

What's in the Package?

bundle.zip (what you upload)
├── extension.zip
│   ├── extension.yaml    ← your code
│   ├── snmp/             ← MIB files (if needed)
│   └── dashboards/       ← dashboard JSON (up to 10)
└── extension.zip.sig     ← digital signature (required!)

🛠 Try it: Open Dynatrace Hub → search "SNMP" → browse the 20+ SNMP extensions available. Click one to see its metrics, topology, and dashboards.

Adding SNMP Polling

To actually collect data, add an snmp: section:

snmp:
  - group: Device Default
    interval:
      minutes: 1
    dimensions:
      - key: device.address
        value: this:device.address

This polls every 1 minute and captures the device IP. No metrics yet — we'll add those next.

Next →SNMP Fundamentals