Hi,
I confirm this could be expected behavior as i see below in local which looks to be standard behavior here:
a) started tomcat with 4.x agent at 1:10:10 pm IST
b) at tomcat console we see "Started AppDynamics Java Agent Successfully." at 1:10: 30 PM IST itself
c) but agent will try to send registration request to controller after tomcat started completely in my case 3 minutes for tomcat to start and listening tomcat http port
If you try 3.x agent version pre 4.x agent you will see agent tries to register immediately after "Started AppDynamics Java Agent Successfully." message, we confirm agent could be delaying registration to make sure agent is not causing any delay on jvm startup rather agent delay registration request to controller though it starts earlier to make sure it is not part of any delay , Hope that clarifies product behavior.
yes agent will not monitor start before node got registered this could be expected behavior.