Integrating Atlassian JIRA and AppDynamics

By integrating these two solutions, when an incident occurs, AppDynamics will automatically create a JIRA ticket and post updates to that ticket with pertinent information that is vital to conducting a root cause analysis. This integration will help reduce the time it takes to search for specific event data by consolidating the JIRA information related to an AppDynamics incident or event, providing a centralized location to conduct a root cause analysis with all of the relevant data in one location.

AppDynamics and Atlassian JIRA is a synchronous integration system that can automatically create and update JIRA tickets when incidents take place. This provides the ability to use a JIRA Ticket widget in Custom Dashboards in order to view detailed ticket information directly in AppDynamics. With this integration, you can also view JIRA ticket information (status, assignee and priority) from the Health Rule Violations table.

Navigating through the Atlassian JIRA integration

When conducting a Root Cause Analysis, you may need to review a list of associated JIRA tickets in order to correlate the information contained to the Root Cause Analysis. This can be time consuming, since the data for AppDynamics is in many different locations within the application. This integration will consolidate the JIRA information related to what AppDynamics classifies as an incident or event into one location. This will assist in reducing the time it takes to search for specific event and incident data.

JIRA integration Health Rule Violations table column

With the JIRA integration enabled, you are able to view a new column in the Health Rule Violations table that can be found on the Health Rule Violations page. This column will provide basic details on the related JIRA issue and you can click on the JIRA Key to see the JIRA issue itself directly from the AppDynamics Controller UI. You also have the option to start a War Room from this column.

Configuration using Open Authentication

Open Authentication is an option for configuring the Atlassian JIRA integration. This model passes back and forth the consumer and public keys and creates links on the Atlassian system. This configuration is completed via a wizard in which you can input the URL, create public keys and launch the Atlassian links that are needed. Once this configuration is complete, OAuth will handle all authorizations linked to the JIRA system (administrator access required for OAuth).

• Log into the AppDynamics Controller UI as an administrator.
• In the upper right corner, click Settings Cog > Administration.
• In the Administration window, select the Integration tab and then the Atlassian JIRA OpenAuth from the integrations sub tab.

• Click Start JIRA Integration Wizard.
• Follow the steps in the Wizard.
• Click Save.

Configuring JIRA action

In order to create a JIRA issue using the previously configured integration, you will need to configure a JIRA action within the Alert & Respond feature of AppDynamics. Follow the walk through below in order to do this.

• In the Controller UI, select the Alert & Respond tab, then select Actions on the left.
• Click Create to create an action.

• Select Create or Update a JIRA Ticket.

• Complete the Create JIRA Action pop-up box.
• Click Save.

You can now associate a health rule with a policy that executes the newly created JIRA action, as well as start and manage a War Room with this integration.

Create a JIRA issue with integration

You can now define a policy that if triggered can generate a JIRA issue. Information such as event reason and error stack is placed in the JIRA ticket based on the event type and can be defined on an action-by-action basis. To create a JIRA from a configured health rule, do the following:

• Navigate to the Alert & Respond page.
• Click Health Rules on the left navigation pane.

• Select the context for the health rule from the pull-down menu. Here you can either create a new health rule or edit an existing health rule.
• Follow the instructions in the wizard to complete the configuration of your health rule.
• Go back to the Alert & Respond page, then select Policies on the left navigation pane.

• Make the policy trigger based on the Health Rule Violation Events.
• Make the policy execute** the JIRA action that was created in the last section.

Start and manage a War Room with the integration

With the AppDynamics War Room feature and the Atlassian JIRA integration, you can collaborate with other users with the benefit of viewing active JIRA issues. This integration allows you to track content related to an AppDynamics war room incident.

Start a War Room

• Navigate to your application within the AppDynamics Controller UI.
• On the left navigation pane, expand Troubleshoot.
• Click on War Rooms.
• On the War Rooms pane, select Start Room. 

• In the Start a War Room pop-up box, provide a name in the Name field.
• Select New.
• Click OK.

You have now created a War Room.

Add an Issue Tracking Widget to the War Room

The owner of the War Room can set up the JIRA integration for the room by adding an issue tracking widget. To add the widget:

• From inside the War Room, click the + icon.

• Click on the Issue Tracking widget icon under Other Widgets.

The Issue Tracking Widget can display the following details regarding the JIRA issue: 

• Title and description.
• Status.
• Assignee.
• Target version.
• Timeline of changes with information pertaining to who made the change as well as the change delta showing previous and new values of the changed fields.

Once the ticket is updated on a remote system, this information is displayed within the War Room for all users to see. All users will see the same information to include the latest statuses as well as any previous activity on the ticket. Each user type will have a different interaction with the widget. Descriptions are listed below:

• War Room Owner: Can edit widget properties.
• War Room Viewer: Can view updates to the JIRA ticket tracker that was set up by the War Room Owner. This user cannot view widget properties or make edits to the JIRA tracker widget.
• Shared War Room Viewer: Can view a shared War Room without being required to sign in to the AppDynamics UI, with the shared URL.

War Room issue tracking details

The Issue Tracking Widget in the war room allows you to see live updates of the related JIRA issue as shown below. 

Disabling the Atlassian JIRA integration

If you wish to disable the Atlassian JIRA integration you can do so in the Integrations sub-tab from the Administration pane. Disabling this integration will disable these features: 

• JIRA Action.
• Issue Tracking Widget.
• JIRA / WAR Room column in the Health Rule Violations table.

If you disable these features, they will not be deleted. Should you choose to re-enable them at a later date, they will be restored to their original views.

To disable the integration: 

• In the AppDynamics Controller UI, Click the Settings Cog in the upper right corner.
• Click Administration.
• Select the Integrations tab.
• Select the Atlassian JIRA OpenAuth sub-tab.
• Uncheck the Enabled check box.
• Click Save.

You have now disabled the Atlassian JIRA integration.

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