dt-obs-frontends

Frontend Observability (RUM)

Monitor web and mobile frontends using Real User Monitoring with DQL. Targets RUM on the latest Dynatrace — do not use RUM Classic data.

Concepts and data model: https://docs.dynatrace.com/docs/observe/digital-experience/new-rum-experience/concepts

Data Model

Three data sources, each for a different question:

Rule of thumb: start with metrics for the shape of the problem, drill into events for the why. Use sessions when the question is about user journeys, not individual interactions.

Full event model: https://docs.dynatrace.com/docs/semantic-dictionary/model/rum/user-events

DQL language reference (functions, syntax, operators): https://docs.dynatrace.com/docs/platform/grail/dynatrace-query-language

Key `dt.frontend. metrics** (all support dimensions: frontend.name, device.type, geo.country.isocode`, `browser.name`, `os.name`, `dt.rum.usertype, dt.smartscape.frontend`):

• dt.frontend.web.page.largest_contentful_paint / dt.frontend.web.page.interaction_to_next_paint / dt.frontend.web.page.cumulative_layout_shift / dt.frontend.web.page.first_input_delay — Core Web Vitals
• dt.frontend.web.navigation.time_to_first_byte / dt.frontend.web.navigation.dom_interactive / dt.frontend.web.navigation.load_event_end — Navigation timing
• dt.frontend.error.count — Error counts
• dt.frontend.request.count / dt.frontend.request.duration — Request volume and latency
• dt.frontend.user_action.count / dt.frontend.user_action.duration — User action volume and duration
• dt.frontend.session.active.estimated_count / dt.frontend.user.active.estimated_count — Active sessions and users (cardinality metrics; use countDistinct() aggregation)

Common Filters

All sources (`user.events` + `user.sessions`):

• frontend.name — frontend identifier (preferred for all filtering); array on user.sessions (session can span multiple frontends). dt.smartscape.frontend is the Smartscape entity reference — use it to access entity attributes such as tags or linked services, not for name-based filtering. Avoid querying Smartscape to resolve a name to an entity ID and then joining with user.events — always filter on frontend.name directly.
• dt.rum.user_type — real_user, synthetic, robot
• dt.rum.application.type — web or mobile
• dt.rum.session.id, dt.rum.instance.id
• os.name, geo.country.iso_code, client.isp
• client.ip — client IP address (sensitive field — hidden by default; see Field Permissions below)

`user.events` — web only:

• browser.name, browser.version, device.type

`user.events` — mobile only:

• device.model.identifier, device.manufacturer, app.short_version

Common characteristic filters (scope user.events to a specific event type — use as | filter characteristics.has_X):

• characteristics.has_page_summary — page loads (web)
• characteristics.has_view_summary — views (SPA + mobile screens)
• characteristics.has_navigation — navigation events
• characteristics.has_user_action — user actions
• characteristics.has_error — all errors

Full characteristics reference: references/characteristics.md

Field Permissions

Some fields are sensitive and belong to the builtin-sensitive-user-events-and-sessions fieldset. They are hidden by default on both user.events and user.sessions — users without access see null, and queries that filter or group by these fields silently return no results.

Sensitive fields used in this skill:

• client.ip — client IP address
• user.identifier — real user identity

Grant access with the following policy statement:

ALLOW storage:fieldsets:read WHERE storage:fieldset-name="builtin-sensitive-user-events-and-sessions"

Reference: Field permissions

Drill-Down Pattern

Most investigations follow this layered approach regardless of the specific problem domain (errors, performance, background activity, etc.):

1. Identify the frontend

Start by grouping by: {frontend.name} to find which application is affected. Filter by dt.rum.application.type (web or mobile) if you need to split web from mobile analysis upfront.

2. Find the affected page or view

Both fields are available on all events (not scoped to a specific characteristic):

• page.name — the page URL normalised to a Dynatrace entity name; web only
• view.name — the SPA route or mobile screen name; available on web and mobile

Both can be present on the same event. For web SPAs, page.name reflects the top-level document while view.name reflects the current route — grouping by view.name gives finer granularity. For mobile, use view.name only.

Additional narrowing dimensions

Workflows

Each workflow maps to one or more references. Load the reference when you start the workflow, not upfront.

Performance Thresholds (quick reference)

• LCP: Good < 2.5 s | Poor > 4.0 s
• INP: Good < 200 ms | Poor > 500 ms
• CLS: Good < 0.1 | Poor > 0.25
• FCP: Good < 1.8 s | Poor > 3.0 s
• TTFB: Good < 800 ms | Poor > 1800 ms
• Mobile cold start: Good < 3 s | Poor > 5 s
• Mobile warm start: Good < 1.5 s | Poor > 2 s
• Mobile hot start: Good < 500 ms | Poor > 1 s
• Long tasks: > 50 ms problematic, > 250 ms severe

Web vitals thresholds (LCP, INP, CLS, FCP, TTFB): https://web.dev/articles/vitals

When to Use

Use this skill for real-user web and mobile frontend telemetry — Core Web Vitals, sessions, clicks, errors, crashes, request latency from the browser/app, and frontend-backend linking.

Use a different skill for:

• Synthetic monitors / availability checks → dt-obs-synthetic
• Backend services, traces, spans → dt-obs-services, dt-obs-tracing
• Infrastructure, hosts → dt-obs-hosts
• Logs → dt-obs-logs
• Problems and incidents → dt-obs-problems