Migrating to DX APM FAQs

Migrating to Broadcom’s next-generation DX APM will provide you with the benefits of a modern architecture, high scalability, and comprehensive observability. With its advanced capabilities, the platform can support your organization’s monitoring needs long into the future. For your convenience, below is a summary of frequently asked questions and answers on migrating to DX APM.

Recommended Reading

The white paper entitled "Migrating to DX APM: Key Options, Considerations, and Best Practices” contains information on migrating from APM version 10.7 (or prior) to both DX APM SaaS and DX APM on-premises. DX APM is available for on-premises installation for a private cloud deployment and DX APM SaaS is Broadcom’s SaaS service in the public cloud.

My current version is working just fine—why should I upgrade?

Indeed, your current version is providing uninterrupted service. However, enterprise security standards are more rigorous due to recent global security incidents. Broadcom’s next-generation DX APM is not just compatible with current security standards but is designed to meet the standards of tomorrow.

Also, keep in mind APM 10.7 is three years old and is based on aging technology. Next-generation DX APM provides full-stack observability with multi-dimensional topology and microservices-based scalability options, helping support your organization in the future.

What are the benefits of upgrading?

DX APM is based upon the open source, microservices architecture of the DX platform. The DX platform utilizes a unified data lake that provides normalized and correlated monitoring data for deeper analytical insight. 

This next-generation architecture represents a significant evolution of Broadcom’s APM solution and provides the following benefits to users: 

• Monitoring scalability, addressing enterprise needs for growth and full observability.
• First-class security capabilities that support sustained compliance and protection.
• Improved manageability, requiring fewer resources for upgrades, maintenance, and management.
• Increased flexibility in deploying Broadcom software and integrated third-party domain tools.
• Faster evolution of the DX platform and DX APM to meet changing customer demands and expectations.
• Increased efficiency in data processing, providing optimized resource utilization, response times, and capacity, and improved predictability and stability.

DX APM also offers a correlated multi-layer topology, encompassing application, infrastructure, and network. And, with DX APM, you can fully leverage our Universal Monitoring Agent capabilities with zero-touch monitoring and simple automated deployment and automatic application discovery and monitoring of clustered environments.

Other benefits include:

• Dynamic dashboarding capabilities with DX Dashboards (based on Grafana).
• Out-of-the-box, bi-directional ticketing system integrations.
• The option to add on DX Operational Intelligence for unified service, alarm, performance, capacity, and log analytics, encompassing all monitoring data.

Does my current license allow me to upgrade?

Yes. If you are a current 10.7 customer on maintenance, you are entitled to ownership of the latest DX APM on-premises software. You don’t need to purchase or convert to a new SKU.

Do I need to convert to a subscription license?

No. Broadcom offers both perpetual and subscription licensing. Broadcom knows that on-premises customers have budgetary reasons for subscription licensing and perpetual licensing with annual maintenance. If you wish to convert from a perpetual to subscription license, this is your choice. Please contact your Broadcom Account Team to discuss the options to convert/credit your current license to a subscription license. Keep in mind, DX APM SaaS is only available as a subscription license.

How do I convert my on-premises license to a SaaS license?

Please contact your Broadcom Account Team on how to convert/credit your current license to a DX APM SaaS license.

Is an in-place upgrade available?

Customers on DX APM 11 or newer can perform an in-place upgrade.

Customers on previous versions will require a migration.

How long will the migration take?

Migration time varies by customer based upon organizational readiness and how the migration is scoped. It also depends upon whether you choose to migrate to on-premises or SaaS. SaaS migrations can be completed quickly.

Can I talk with other customers that have migrated?

Yes. Your Broadcom Solution Engineering contact can help you.

Will Broadcom provide any support for the migration? 

Broadcom Solution Engineering and Broadcom R&D can support your preparation and process. Support will designate a customer site as a “hot” site for the duration of your upgrade. This ensures internal awareness, priority support, and assistance by Broadcom’s Solution Engineering team when needed.

What tools are available to support our migration?

EasySeries is a set of Broadcom field-developed and tested tools designed to address the challenges of onboarding new applications for monitoring and migrating from APM 10.7 to DX APM. EasyMigrator automates the one-to-one mapping of domains to universes, a domain’s management modules to the universe created from the domain, and then creates experience views and email channels. Reach out to Broadcom Solution Engineering for access to the EasySeries utilities.

Are there product features that ease migration?

The cloud proxy, as a proxying manager of connections between agents and DX APM, can significantly ease your migration.

It enables an in-place, at-once upgrade scenario without any changes to the current configuration of your deployed agents. The cloud proxy (or proxies) takes the place of your MoM(s) by being installed on the same host. They can then forward your agent connections to either a SaaS or on-premises DX APM tenant. This significantly reduces migration change management efforts. It also makes fallback straightforward and immediate. Please consult the white paper mentioned at the top of this document for further information.

R&D is finalizing dashboard migration utilities and other features to help with migration. Broadcom Solution Engineering is happy to have a discussion with you to understand your needs and concerns and how we can help.

Do I need to upgrade my entire 9.x/10.x environment at one time?

No. The cloud proxy also enables a selective upgrade scenario and when using loadbalancing.xml, you can migrate agents selectively at a pace and phased approach that suits your needs. 

This scenario also fully eliminates agent reconfigurations. Selected agents are simply redirected to a cloud proxy for proxying to DX SaaS via loadbalancing.xml. This significantly reduces migration change management efforts and it makes fallback straightforward and quite immediate.

Please consult the white paper mentioned at the top of this document for further information.

What should I do before migrating?

Full backup and restore of your existing deployment is paramount as a routine part of your operational procedures. Double-checking this before migration is standard due diligence.

The architecture of DX APM has changed and now runs in a Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster. That cluster must be sized, deployed, and available as per DX APM prerequisites before installation of DX APM into that cluster. To ensure successful installation, the DX installer extensively checks that the cluster fulfills all requirements before actual installation begins.

The provisioning of a dedicated cluster for DX APM is your responsibility. However, Broadcom Solution Engineering is available for questions.

Once DX APM has been deployed and successfully started, you can begin directing agents to your new DX APM installation, either directly or via cloud proxy. Prior to that, nothing is final.

When does migration happen? And how are agents migrated?

Migration happens when you direct agents to DX APM. Agents can either be connected directly or proxied through the cloud proxy.

There are three options available to you:

• In-place, at-once migration of an entire cluster for immediate, full migration.
• Selective migration of individual agents over time for a phased approach.
• Advanced manual migration for honoring (tightened) network security requirements.

Please consult the white paper mentioned at the top of this document for details on these options.

Are my current agents compatible with DX APM SaaS? Do I need to upgrade my agents?

Only agents version 10.7 SP2 and later support WebSockets and can thus connect directly to DX APM SaaS. We recommend multiplexing agent connections within cloud proxy connections.

Older agents do not support the WebSocket (WSS) protocol and must connect to DX APM SaaS via a cloud proxy. However, older agents may not be compliant with current security requirements.

We currently have Broadcom APM on-premises. How do I decide between SaaS and on-premises?

Because the new architecture of orchestrated microservices requires DX APM to run in a Kubernetes or OpenShift cluster, a first consideration should be a decision of acquisition and maintenance of Kubernetes or OpenShift skills—if they are not already present in your organization. While Broadcom has product features which assist in the day-to-day management of DX APM software, some basic knowledge of Kubernetes or OpenShift will be required to successfully install and maintain DX APM infrastructure.

In considering and planning a move to DX APM SaaS or deploy DX APM on-premises, there are a range of options and factors to consider. The white paper mentioned at the top of this document will provide useful insights in making this move most efficiently and ultimately realizing maximum value from your DX APM SaaS or DX APM transition.

For GDPR compliance, SaaS tenants can be deployed in a data center located in the EU.