Prerequisites

What you will learn in this section :

• Validate access to the Dynatrace cluster
• Generate an API Token with the correct rights

Review of Syntax and Key Operators

What you will learn in this section :

• Understand the overall structure of an Entity Selector
• Master basic selection criteria

Tip: You can use the NOT operator to exclude entities, for example type("HOST"),not(tag("ENV:DEV")).

1. Main criteria

   Here are the most used operators to target your entities:
   • type(): Filter by entity type (e.g., HOST, SERVICE, APPLICATION).
   • tag(): Filter by tag. Accepts the key:value format (e.g., tag("ENV:PROD")).
   • entityName(): Filter by entity name, very useful with wildcards like *.

Creating an Entity Selector

What you will learn in this section :

• Write a complex Entity Selector
• Know how to target specific entities with tags

Golden rule of design (Scaling): For each selection rule, you must imperatively define either an Entity ID (unique identifier of the entity) or an Entity type.

Best practice: The use of fixed Entity IDs is to be avoided in production as it is too specific and rigid. To ensure large-scale management compatible with the dynamic lifecycle of your infrastructures, exclusively use the Entity type combined with dynamic attributes or tags.

1. Selector syntax

   Write the query to select these entities.

Validation via API

What you will learn in this section :

• Test an Entity Selector query via the REST API v2
• Dynamically validate the result returned by Dynatrace

Tip: URL encoding of your Entity Selector is essential in your cURL requests. For example, quotes " become %22.

1. API Request

   Find the cURL command to query the '/api/v2/entities' endpoint with your 'entity selector'.

Creating the Management Zone

What you will learn in this section :

• Create a Management Zone in the Dynatrace console
• Apply an Entity Selector type rule to a management zone

1. Configuration in the console

   Indicate the steps to create the Management Zone based on this selector in the Dynatrace interface.