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Dynatrace Quickstart Guide

This quickstart guide will help you get Causely up and running with Dynatrace. This setup allows Causely to ingest service dependencies and traces from both Kubernetes and ECS environments, creating a unified causal model.

1

Get Your Installation Command​

  1. Log in to the Causely portal.
  2. Visit the mediators page.
  3. Click the "Add new" button (or "Add ➕" button) on the mediators page.
  4. In the instructions panel, you'll see the Helm installation command with your access token pre-filled.
  5. Copy the complete Helm command. It will look similar to the example below.
Example Command

The command you copy will include your specific access token and cluster name. Here's what it typically looks like:

export CAUSELY_TOKEN=<your_token>
export CAUSELY_CLUSTER_NAME=<your_cluster_name>
export CAUSELY_VERSION=<version>
helm upgrade --install causely \\
  --create-namespace oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/public-causely/public/causely \\
  --version "${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --namespace=causely \\
  --set image.tag="${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --set global.cluster_name="\${CAUSELY_CLUSTER_NAME}" \\
  --set mediator.gateway.token="\${CAUSELY_TOKEN}"
Screenshot Placeholder

Screenshots of the mediators page, "Add new" button, and instructions panel will be added here.

4

Create a Values File to Disable eBPF​

Since you'll be using Dynatrace for instrumentation, create a causely-values.yaml file to disable eBPF instrumentation:

global:
  cluster_name: <your_cluster_name>
mediator:
  gateway:
    token: <your_token>
scrapers:
  bpf:
    enabled: false

Replace <your_cluster_name> and <your_token> with your actual values from the portal.

5

Run the Installation Command​

  1. Open a terminal with kubectl configured to access your cluster.
  2. Run the Helm command with your values file:
export CAUSELY_VERSION=<version>
helm upgrade --install causely \\
  --create-namespace oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/public-causely/public/causely \\
  --version "${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --namespace=causely \\
  --set image.tag="${CAUSELY_VERSION}" \\
  --set global.cluster_name="<your_cluster_name>" \\
  --set mediator.gateway.token="<your_token>" \\
  --values causely-values.yaml
  1. Wait for the installation to complete:
kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready pod -l app.kubernetes.io/part-of=causely -n causely --timeout=300s
6

Configure Dynatrace Integration​

Now you need to configure Causely to scrape data from your Dynatrace account.

Step 6a: Create a Kubernetes Secret​

Create a Kubernetes secret with your Dynatrace URL and API token:

kubectl create secret generic \
  --namespace causely dynatrace-credentials \
  --from-literal=url="<your_dynatrace_url>" \
  --from-literal=api-token="<your_dynatrace_api_token>"

Step 6b: Update Causely Configuration​

Update your causely-values.yaml to enable Dynatrace scraping:

global:
  cluster_name: <your_cluster_name>
mediator:
  gateway:
    token: <your_token>
scrapers:
  bpf:
    enabled: false
  dynatrace:
    enabled: true
    accounts:
      - secretName: dynatrace-credentials

Then upgrade your Causely installation:

helm upgrade --install causely \\
  --namespace=causely \\
  --values causely-values.yaml \\
  oci://us-docker.pkg.dev/public-causely/public/causely \\
  --version "${CAUSELY_VERSION}"
Alternative: Credentials Autodiscovery

You can also use credentials autodiscovery by labeling the secret:

kubectl --namespace causely label secret dynatrace-credentials "causely.ai/scraper=Dynatrace"

This allows you to add new accounts without editing the configuration. See the Dynatrace integration documentation for more details.

7

What to Expect​

Once configured, Causely will:

  • Ingest Dynatrace topology and telemetry: Causely will scrape service dependencies and traces from your Dynatrace account.
  • Unified view across platforms: If you have both Kubernetes and ECS services, Causely will automatically discover and model dependencies between them, creating a unified causal view.
  • Show data in the UI: Within a few minutes, you should start seeing services from both Kubernetes and ECS appearing in the Causely UI at https://portal.causely.app.

For more details on how Causely unifies data across platforms, see the Dynatrace integration documentation.

8

Add More Telemetry Sources​

To help Causely infer Diagnoses more effectively, connect additional telemetry sources. Visit the Telemetry Sources page to learn about the data sources that Causely supports, including:

9

Review Discovery​

You have successfully installed Causely! Navigate to https://portal.causely.app to verify your environment has been discovered. You should see entities populated in the Topology view:

Topology View

If the entities and connections you are expecting to see are not appearing, go to the Integrations page and check for any errors for the telemetry sources you have configured.

Integration Errors

Errors in the integrations page will prevent Causely from discovering entities and connections in your environment. Follow the troubleshooting steps to resolve the errors.

10

Connect Causely to AI Agents​

Give your agents access to Causely's causal model via the MCP server. Any MCP-compatible agent or assistant including Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, HolmesGPT, or your own custom agent, can query root causes, service health, dependency maps, and reliability reports directly.

Visit the agent integration page to get started.

Other Platforms Supported

While this quickstart guide focuses on Kubernetes, Causely also supports:

  • Container Orchestration: Nomad, Docker, ECS
  • GitOps: Argo CD, Flux
  • Virtual Machines: Direct installation on VMs

For detailed installation instructions for these platforms, visit the Installation Overview page.