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Define custom services

If your application services aren't built on standard technologies, they may not be recognized out-of-the box. You can monitor these technologies, but you'll need to define them as custom services with specific service entry points. Another use case for custom services are microservices that are used by a larger application that aren't exposed via communication technologies.

DESK allows you to define any method, class, or interface as the entry point of a service to be monitored.

A custom service is a service that has a manually defined method, class, or interface as its entry point.

You can define custom services for Java, .NET, and PHP. Each custom service may contain multiple entry points.

Entry points for your custom service can be methods of a specific class or implementations of an interface. Each non-recursive call to such a method represents a single request to your custom service.

Dissociated transactions

If transactions aren't connected, creating a custom service will not help/stitch them. A custom service will create a new entry point.

Method delegation

OneAgent understands the concept of method delegation and only records the first call in a delegation chain. For example, if you have several methods that are calling each other, you can safely mark all these methods as entry points—instances where one method directly calls the other are recorded as single requests.

Delegation suppression

OneAgent suppresses method delegation per service. That is, any calls between two methods of one service are not recorded. If you need to capture such calls you must create a separate custom service for it.

Java and .NET services

For Java and .NET you can use search to select the entry point and methods or you can specify them manually. To create a new custom Java or .NET service:

  1. Go to Settings > Server-side service monitoring > Custom service detection.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Java Select the Java services tab and click Define Java services.
    • .NET Select the .NET services tab and click Define .NET services.
  3. Give your service a meaningful name.
  4. Click Find entry point.
  5. Find and select the process group that contains your entry point.
  6. Select the process that contains your entry point and click Continue.
  7. Find the class you want to instrument. Type in the name or part of the name to search for it.
  8. Select the required class and click Continue.
  9. Define how you want to instrument the class. You have two options:
  • Use the selected class for instrumenting methods of the selected class only.
  • Use an implemented interface or superclass for instrumenting methods in any interface or super class in the class hierarchy. In such cases, click Load inheritance to load all available superclasses and interfaces, then select the one you need.
  1. Select the methods you want to instrument and click Finish.
    The Define custom service page displays the newly added entry point and methods.
  2. If needed, add more entry points.
  3. If needed, restrict the new custom service to certain process groups. See the Restrict a custom service to specific process groups section below.
  4. Review the entry point and methods to be instrumented.
  5. In the bottom right corner of the page, click Save.
Unsupported scenario

Note that some scenarios do not work in DESK, like the Queue/Worker scenario. Anything that is put into a java.util.Queue and is handled by another worker thread, cannot be seen in the Pure Path. See Oracle java.util Interface Queue.

PHP services

For PHP you can use search to select the entry point and methods or you can specify them manually. To create a new custom PHP service:

  1. Go to Settings > Server-side service monitoring > Custom service detection.
  2. Select the PHP services tab and click Define PHP service.
  3. Give your service a meaningful name.
  4. Click Find entry point.
  5. Find and select the process group that contains your entry point.
  6. Select the process that contains your entry point and click Continue.
  7. Find the class you want to instrument. Type in the name or part of the name to search for it.
  8. Select the required class and click Continue.
  9. Select the methods you want to instrument and click Finish.
    The Define custom service page displays the newly added entry point and methods.
  10. If needed, add more entry points.
  11. If needed, restrict the new custom service to certain process groups. See the Restrict a custom service to specific process groups section below.
  12. Review the entry point and methods to be instrumented.
  13. In the bottom right corner of the page, click Save.

Go services

For Go you can only search for an entry point. To create a new custom Go service:

  1. Go to Settings > Server-side service monitoring > Custom service detection.
  2. Select the Go services tab and click Define Go service.
  3. Give your service a meaningful name.
  4. Click Find entry point.
  5. Find and select the process group that contains your entry point.
  6. Select the process that contains your entry point and click Continue.
  7. Find the package you want to instrument. Type in the name or part of the name to search for it.
  8. Select the required class and click Continue.
  9. Select the functions you want to instrument and click Finish.
    The Define custom service page displays the newly added entry point and methods.
  10. If needed, add more entry points.
  11. If needed, restrict the new custom service to certain process groups. See the Restrict a custom service to specific process groups section below.
  12. Review the entry point and functions to be instrumented.
  13. In the bottom right corner of the page, click Save.

Priority of custom services

If you have several custom services defined, the evaluation goes from top to bottom, applying the first matching rule. If for some reason you have the same class and method defined in several custom services, make sure to prioritize the services accordingly.

x-desk header

For HTTP requests, DESK uses an additional HTTP header called x-desk for transaction stitching. Network components like firewalls, routers or other appliances may remove those headers, which leads to broken pure paths. Also, some of those network components completely disable such requests (and deliver HTTP 403 error) as the additional header may considered as unsafe. In this case it is necessary to configure such components to accept the x-desk header.

Edit custom service

You can edit any custom service at any time. For changes to take effect, you need to restart the affected processes, unless the real-time updates are activated for Java and PHP. For .NET, you must restart the process.

To edit a custom service, click the service's Edit button in the list of services.

You can activate/deactivate existing entry points, add/delete entry points, add/delete methods in entry points.

You can also restrict the custom service to certain process groups. See the Restrict a custom service to specific process groups section below.

Real-time updates

Updates to Java and PHP custom services can be applied in near real-time, without process restarts. To activate this feature, enable the Enable real-time updates to Java and PHP services selector at Custom service detection.

Real-time updates may cause CPU spikes when changes are deployed.

Restrict a custom service to specific process groups

You can restrict usage of any custom service to certain process groups. Custom services rules will apply in specified process groups only and will be ignored in other process groups. You can restrict a custom service during creation or edit it later.

To restrict a custom service:

  1. At the Define custom service or Edit service page, expand Optionally restrict custom service rules by process groups drop-down.
  2. Click Add process group.
  3. Select the process group where you want to apply the custom service.
  4. Click Add.
  5. In the bottom right corner of the Define custom service or Edit service page, click Save.