When configuring a Smart Alert in Advanced Mode within IBM QRadar Use Case Manager, you can define how the alert's trigger condition is evaluated. The system provides two distinct threshold types for this purpose. A 'Static' threshold uses a fixed, user-defined value. An alert is generated when the monitored property's value crosses this predefined number. In contrast, an 'Adaptive' threshold is dynamic. It establishes a baseline by analyzing historical data over a specified period and triggers an alert when the current value deviates significantly from this learned baseline, which is useful for detecting anomalous behavior.

A. Single: This is not a recognized threshold type. While a static threshold uses a single value, the official term for the type is 'Static'.

C. Progressive: This term is not used for threshold types in QRadar Smart Alerts. It might be conceptually similar to adaptive, but it is not the correct terminology.

E. Neutral: This is not a valid threshold type. Thresholds are defined by a value to be exceeded or fallen below, not a neutral state.

1. IBM QRadar SIEM Documentation. (2023). Creating a smart alert. IBM Knowledge Center. Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/qradar-siem/7.5?topic=manager-creating-smart-alert.

Reference Point: In the procedure for creating a smart alert, Step 6 for Advanced Mode explicitly states: "In the Threshold type list, select one of the following options: Static, Adaptive".

Instana provides specific monitoring for serverless compute platforms like AWS Lambda. This is accomplished by using an Instana Lambda Layer or by including an Instana library directly in the function's code. This component acts as the "serverless agent," enabling in-process tracing and performance metric collection for the function's executions. This method provides deep visibility into the serverless application's performance, which is distinct from the metric-polling approach used for other managed services.

A. Azure Redis Cache: This is a managed caching service monitored by the Instana Azure sensor, which collects metrics via Azure Monitor APIs, not a serverless agent.

C. AWS Kinesis: This is a data streaming service. Instana monitors it via the AWS sensor, which pulls metrics from AWS CloudWatch, not by deploying an agent.

D. AWS SQS: This is a managed message queue. Like Kinesis, Instana monitors it through the AWS sensor by collecting metrics from AWS CloudWatch.

1. IBM Documentation, Instana Observability, "Monitoring AWS Lambda": "Instana offers monitoring for AWS Lambda functions. The monitoring is done by including an Instana library in the function's code or by including the Instana Lambda Layer." This document details the specific mechanism for Lambda, which functions as the serverless agent.

2. IBM Documentation, Instana Observability, "AWS Sensor - Monitored Services": This page lists Amazon SQS and Amazon Kinesis as services monitored by the AWS Sensor. The monitoring approach described for these services is based on collecting metrics from AWS CloudWatch, not deploying an in-process agent.

3. IBM Documentation, Instana Observability, "Azure Sensor - Monitored Services": This document lists Azure Cache for Redis as a monitored service. The monitoring is performed by querying the Azure Monitor API for metrics, which is different from using a serverless agent.

In IBM Instana Observability, the Analytics page is a powerful tool for deep-diving into performance data. Traces, which represent the end-to-end journey of a request through a distributed system, are the fundamental data unit for Application Performance Monitoring (APM). This APM data is categorized and analyzed under the Applications data source. Within the Analytics view, users select an Application Perspective to filter, group, and investigate the associated traces and calls to diagnose latency, errors, and other performance bottlenecks.

A. Infrastructure: This data source pertains to the health and performance metrics of hosts, containers, and cloud platforms (e.g., CPU, memory), not application request traces.

C. Logs: This section is dedicated to querying and analyzing log messages. While logs can be correlated with traces, they are a distinct data type and source within Analytics.

D. Websites: This data source focuses on Real User Monitoring (RUM) data, such as browser page loads and JavaScript errors (beacons), not the back-end distributed traces.

1. IBM Instana Observability Documentation, "Unbounded Analytics": "With Unbounded Analytics, you can query all your traces and calls that are collected by Instana. [...] To access Unbounded Analytics, click Analytics on the sidebar. By default, the Analytics view for Calls & Traces is displayed." This section confirms that the primary function of Analytics is to query traces and calls, which are the core components of the Applications monitoring area.

2. IBM Instana Observability Documentation, "Application Perspectives": "Application Perspectives (APs) provide a customized view of an application, its services, and endpoints. APs are the primary way that users view and analyze their applications within Instana, providing a context for understanding the flow of requests (traces) through the system." This establishes that traces are analyzed within the context of an Application.

3. IBM Instana Observability Documentation, "Analyzing Traces": This section details the Trace View, which is accessed through Application Perspectives. It states, "The trace view is the central hub for all trace analysis related investigations. It provides a comprehensive overview of a single trace, from a high-level summary to every single call that is part of this trace." This directly links trace analysis to the application monitoring function.

When Instana is integrated with Prometheus using the remotewrite API, Instana acts as a remote storage endpoint, ingesting metrics sent from a Prometheus server. The configuration options for this integration within the Instana agent allow users to define how these ingested metrics are displayed and correlated. Specifically, the user can choose to have the metrics appear as "Process Custom Metrics" attached to the application process that sent them, or they can be grouped and displayed under a distinct "Prometheus Entity" within the Instana UI. This provides flexibility for visualizing and analyzing Prometheus data in the context of the broader application landscape monitored by Instana.

A. To write data to Prometheus: This reverses the data flow. The remotewrite feature configures Prometheus to send data to Instana, not the other way around.

C. To configure remote access to Instana: This is too generic. The remotewrite configuration is specifically for the ingestion of time-series metric data, not for general remote access like UI or API management.

D. To display metrics as only a Prometheus Entity: This is incorrect because it presents only one of the two available options. The configuration allows for a choice between a Prometheus Entity and Process Custom Metrics.

1. IBM Instana Observability Documentation - Prometheus Integration:

Section: Prometheus > Monitoring > Configuration > Prometheus remote write API

Content: The documentation describes how Instana can be used as a remote endpoint for the Prometheus remotewrite API. It states, "The Instana agent listens on port 42699 for Prometheus remote write requests." This confirms Instana receives data.

Section: Prometheus > Monitoring > Metrics visibility

Content: This section details the two display options: "By default, Prometheus metrics are linked as Process Custom Metrics to the process that exposes them... Alternatively, the Prometheus sensor can create a Prometheus entity for each process instance that exposes Prometheus metrics." This directly supports the choice described in the correct answer. The configuration createprometheusentity: true is used to enable the latter option.

The default installation directory for the IBM Instana host agent on Linux systems is /opt/instana/agent. This location adheres to the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), which designates the /opt directory for optional, add-on software packages. The one-liner installation script, which is the recommended method, automatically unpacks and configures the agent within this path. All agent binaries, configuration files (in the etc subdirectory), and data/log files are contained within this main directory structure, providing a standardized and isolated environment for the agent's operation.

A. /var/lib/instana is a path for variable state information or data files, not the primary installation directory for the agent's binaries and libraries.

B. /opt/instana/agent/etc/ is a subdirectory within the main installation folder that specifically houses the agent's configuration files, such as configuration.yaml.

D. /etc/default/instana is a file path used to store default environment variables for the Instana agent service, not the installation directory itself.

1. IBM Documentation, "Installing the host agent on Linux": In the "One-liner" section, the documentation explicitly states, "The agent is installed into /opt/instana/agent." This is presented as the standard outcome of the preferred installation method.

2. IBM Documentation, "Host agent files": This document details the agent's file system layout, confirming the root location. It states, "The Instana host agent files are in /opt/instana/agent." It then lists the subdirectories, including bin, data, and etc, reinforcing that /opt/instana/agent is the parent installation directory.

Instana's Synthetic monitoring for API tests utilizes a Node.js runtime environment. Consequently, the scripts for these tests are written primarily in JavaScript. This allows users to create complex, multi-step API test scenarios, validate responses, and handle authentication using a widely adopted and versatile scripting language. The environment provides various pre-packaged Node.js modules to facilitate the creation of these test scripts, such as modules for making HTTP requests and assertions.

A. Java: While the Instana backend and agent have components written in Java, it is not the language used for writing Synthetic API monitoring scripts.

C. Python: Python is a common language for scripting and testing but is not the language used by the Instana Synthetic API test runtime environment.

D. Go: The Instana agent is written in Go, but this language is not used for user-defined Synthetic API scripts within the platform.

1. IBM Instana Documentation - API script tests: "API script tests are written in JavaScript and run in a Node.js environment. You can use API script tests to make a sequence of API requests." This section explicitly states JavaScript as the language. (Source: IBM Documentation, Instana, "Synthetic monitoring > API script tests").

2. IBM Instana Documentation - Scripting API tests: This page details the JavaScript-based methods and modules available for scripting, such as $synthetic.execute() and the use of the got HTTP request library, which are all JavaScript constructs. (Source: IBM Documentation, Instana, "Synthetic monitoring > Creating an API script test > Scripting API tests").

3. IBM Instana Documentation - API script reference: The reference guide for scripting lists available modules and their APIs, such as assert, btoa, crypto, and got. These are all standard or specific Node.js/JavaScript libraries, confirming the underlying language. (Source: IBM Documentation, Instana, "Synthetic monitoring > API script reference").

The configuration of the AWS agent's polling interval for the CloudWatch API is managed at the agent instance level. In IBM's monitoring solutions, such as IBM Cloud Application Performance Management (APM) or its successors, the standard practice for monitoring multiple AWS regions is to create and configure a separate agent instance for each region. Each of these instances has its own configuration file where parameters like the CloudWatch polling interval can be set independently. Therefore, the polling interval can be effectively configured at the Region level.

A. Resource group: An AWS Resource Group is a logical collection of resources for organizational purposes and is not a level at which agent polling intervals are configured.

C. Account: While the agent is configured to access an AWS account, the polling interval is a more granular setting within a specific agent instance, not a global setting for the entire account.

D. Service: Although some monitoring tools allow per-service polling rates, the primary configuration model for the relevant IBM agents involves creating instances that target a specific region, making Region the configurable level.

1. IBM Documentation - Monitoring Agent for Amazon EC2: In the section on configuring the agent, the documentation states, "You can create multiple instances of this agent to monitor different AWS regions." Each instance has its own configuration, including the polling interval.

Source: IBM Documentation, Monitoring Agent for Amazon EC2, "Configuring the agent". (This principle applies to IBM's agent-based monitoring architecture for cloud services).

2. IBM Documentation - Configuration parameters for the Amazon EC2 agent: The documentation lists KECCLOUDWATCHINTERVAL as the "Interval in minutes for collecting CloudWatch data." This parameter is set per agent instance. Since each instance can be configured for a different region, the interval is effectively set at the region level.

Source: IBM Documentation, Monitoring Agent for Amazon EC2, "Configuration parameters for the Amazon EC2 agent".

Action script sensors, and more broadly, any scripts executed via Instana's Action Framework, are run by the Instana agent process on the monitored host. The script inherits the user permissions, security context, and environment variables of the agent process itself. This is the default and fundamental execution model, allowing scripts to interact with the local system for tasks like data collection or remediation.

B. Logged in Instana user: The logged-in user interacts with the Instana UI to configure or trigger actions, but the script execution occurs on the remote host managed by the agent, not under the UI user's context.

C. Service agent: This is not a standard Instana term. The single Instana agent (host agent) is responsible for monitoring all services on a host and executing actions.

D. Container: While a script can be configured to execute within a specific container, its default execution context is the agent process itself, which typically runs on the host operating system.

1. IBM Instana Observability Documentation - Actions: "The script action executes a script on the agent that an event was detected on." This statement directly confirms that the agent is the execution context. (Source: IBM Documentation, Instana Observability, Section: Automate > Actions > Script).

2. IBM Instana Observability Documentation - Script Sensor: "The script is executed by the agent, and its output is parsed to create metrics that are displayed in the Instana UI..." This explicitly states the agent executes the script for custom metric collection. (Source: IBM Documentation, Instana Observability, Section: Application Monitoring > Sensors > Custom sensors > Script).

The standard and officially documented procedure for an administrator to manage a user's Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) settings is through the Instana user interface. The administrator must navigate to the 'Settings' area, select the 'Users' management page, choose the specific user whose 2FA needs to be reset, and then use the dedicated option to delete or reset their 2FA configuration. This ensures the action is performed safely within the application's intended workflow.

A. The kubectl-instana command-line utility is designed for managing the lifecycle of the Instana backend on a Kubernetes cluster, not for managing individual user account settings.

C. While Instana has a Web REST API, the documented and standard administrative procedure for resetting a user's 2FA is via the UI, not a direct API call for this specific purpose.

D. Directly accessing and modifying the application's database via SSH and SQL is an unsupported, high-risk practice that bypasses application logic and can lead to data corruption or system instability.

1. IBM Instana Documentation, "Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)". In the "Resetting 2FA" section, it states: "As an administrator, you can reset 2FA for a user. Go to Settings > Users, select the user, and then click Reset 2FA." This directly confirms the procedure described in option B.

2. IBM Instana Documentation, "kubectl plugin". This page details the commands available for the kubectl-instana plugin, which include action, analyze, cluster, images, license, maintenance, operator, template, and version. None of these relate to user management or resetting 2FA, confirming option A is incorrect.

In the context of IBM Instana, the OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) endpoint on the Instana agent is disabled by default. To enable it, especially in containerized environments like Kubernetes or Red Hat OpenShift, the standard and recommended procedure is to modify the configuration during deployment. This is accomplished by using the Instana agent Helm chart and setting the instana.agent.otlp.enabled parameter to true in the values.yaml file. Helm is the tool used to manage and apply this configuration to the Kubernetes cluster, thereby enabling OTLP ingestion.

A. By configuring multiple tracers: Configuring tracers relates to instrumenting application code to generate telemetry data, not enabling the ingestion protocol on the backend agent.

B. In the settings.hcl: The .hcl extension is for HashiCorp Configuration Language (e.g., Terraform), which is not the standard method for configuring the Instana agent.

C. In the params.yaml: params.yaml is a generic filename. The specific configuration file for the Instana Helm chart is values.yaml, not params.yaml.

1. IBM Documentation for Instana: "Installing the Instana agent on Kubernetes". This document details the use of Helm for installation and configuration. In the "Enable OpenTelemetry" section, it explicitly states: "To enable OTLP in your Helm installation, add the following lines to your values.yaml file: instana.agent.otlp.enabled: true". This directly confirms that Helm is the method used to apply the configuration that enables OTLP.

Source: IBM Documentation, Instana 263, Installing Instana agents > Host agents > On Kubernetes.

2. IBM Documentation for Instana: "OpenTelemetry". This page provides an overview of OTLP integration and notes that the OTLP endpoint is disabled by default on the agent. It directs users to the appropriate installation method (like Helm for Kubernetes) to enable it.

Source: IBM Documentation, Instana 263, OpenTelemetry.