Dynatrace has several major components. A useful way to think about it is as data collection → ingestion → storage/analytics → AI/root cause → apps/automation.
flowchart TD
A[OneAgent]
B[ActiveGate]
C[Dynatrace Platform / Tenant]
D[Grail]
E[OpenPipeline]
F[Smartscape]
G[PurePath]
H[Davis / Dynatrace Intelligence]
I[APPS]
I --> I1[Infrastructure Observability]
I --> I2[Application Observability]
I --> I3[Log Management and Analytics]
I --> I4[Digital Experience Monitoring]
I --> I5[Application Security]
I --> I6[Business Observability]
I --> I7[AI / LLM Observability]
I --> I8[Automation, Workflows, Dashboards, Alerts]
A --> B --> C --> D
C --> E
D --> F
D --> G
F --> H
G --> H
H --> I1. OneAgent
The main agent installed on hosts, VMs, containers, or Kubernetes nodes. It automatically discovers and instruments applications, services, infrastructure, processes, and dependencies. It collects metrics, traces, logs, events, topology, and code-level performance data. (Dynatrace Documentation)
2. ActiveGate
A secure gateway/proxy that sits between monitored environments and Dynatrace. It is commonly used for private networks, large-scale deployments, Kubernetes/cloud integrations, routing traffic, reducing outbound connections, and handling remote monitoring. Dynatrace describes ActiveGate as a secure proxy between OneAgents and Dynatrace clusters or other ActiveGates. (Dynatrace Documentation)
3. Dynatrace Platform / Tenant
The SaaS or Managed Dynatrace environment where data is processed, correlated, visualized, queried, alerted on, and used by Dynatrace apps. Dynatrace positions the platform as combining observability, AI, automation, and application security. (Dynatrace)
4. Grail
Dynatrace’s observability data lakehouse. It stores logs, metrics, traces, events, business data, and other telemetry in one place, with topology and dependency context connected to the data. Users query Grail with DQL, the Dynatrace Query Language. (Dynatrace Documentation)
5. OpenPipeline
The ingestion and processing layer for telemetry. It helps route, transform, enrich, filter, and control data before storage or analysis. Dynatrace describes OpenPipeline as managing unified ingestion with scalable stream processing and extraction options. (Dynatrace Documentation)
6. Smartscape
The real-time topology and dependency graph. It maps relationships among services, hosts, processes, Kubernetes objects, cloud resources, applications, and infrastructure so Dynatrace can understand what depends on what. (Dynatrace Documentation)
7. PurePath
Dynatrace’s distributed tracing technology. It follows individual requests across services, processes, databases, queues, and external calls, giving code-level visibility into performance and failure paths. (Dynatrace)
8. Davis / Dynatrace Intelligence
The AI and analytics layer. It uses topology, telemetry, baselines, anomalies, events, and dependencies to detect problems, reduce alert noise, and identify root cause. Dynatrace’s current docs describe Dynatrace Intelligence as applying causation-based analysis across apps, services, infrastructure, logs, and traces using Grail and Smartscape. (Dynatrace Documentation)
9. Observability Apps
These are the user-facing capability areas, such as:
- Infrastructure Observability
- Application Observability
- Log Management and Analytics
- Digital Experience Monitoring, including real-user and synthetic monitoring
- Application Security
- Business Observability
- AI / LLM Observability
For example, Dynatrace docs describe Business Observability as connecting application performance and user experience to business metrics, while Application Security combines vulnerability detection, runtime protection, and security posture management. (Dynatrace Documentation)
10. AutomationEngine, AppEngine, Dashboards, Alerts, and Integrations
These provide workflow automation, custom apps, alerting, dashboards, notebooks, integrations, and extensions through Dynatrace Hub. Dynatrace Hub currently lists hundreds of apps, extensions, and technology integrations. (Dynatrace)
In one sentence: Dynatrace is built around OneAgent and ActiveGate for collection/connectivity, Grail and OpenPipeline for data ingestion/storage, Smartscape and PurePath for topology/tracing, Davis/Dynatrace Intelligence for AI analysis, and Dynatrace apps for observability, security, business insights, and automation.
flowchart TD
A[Monitored Environment<br/>Apps, Services, Hosts, Containers, Kubernetes, Cloud] --> B[OneAgent<br/>Auto-discovery and instrumentation]
B --> C{Connectivity Layer}
C --> D[ActiveGate<br/>Secure proxy, routing, integrations, remote monitoring]
C --> E[Direct Dynatrace Ingest]
D --> F[OpenPipeline<br/>Filter, enrich, transform, route telemetry]
E --> F
F --> G[Grail<br/>Observability data lakehouse<br/>Logs, metrics, traces, events, business data]
G --> H[Smartscape<br/>Real-time topology and dependencies]
G --> I[PurePath<br/>Distributed tracing and code-level request paths]
H --> J[Davis / Dynatrace Intelligence<br/>Anomaly detection, correlation, root cause analysis]
I --> J
G --> J
J --> K[Dynatrace Platform Apps]
K --> L[Infrastructure Observability]
K --> M[Application Observability]
K --> N[Log Management and Analytics]
K --> O[Digital Experience Monitoring]
K --> P[Application Security]
K --> Q[Business Observability]
K --> R[Automation, Workflows, Dashboards, Alerts]
R --> S[Notifications and Integrations<br/>Slack, Jira, PagerDuty, ServiceNow, APIs]