Java/J2EE Monitor

Java is today the dominant platform for server-based applications. With the widespread adoption of J2EE application servers, Java provides an open standards based platform to build upon. A wide range of vendors provide J2EE application servers and the AppPerfect monitor's Java/J2EE monitor supports many of the commonly available ones.

The reason we use Java/J2EE rather than only J2EE, is some application servers such as Apache's Tomcat are not a full fledged J2EE application server. While it provides many of the J2EE servers, it lacks a few. Other vendors such as JBoss which do provide a full J2EE container, have not certified their product as J2EE compliant.

Internally, the Java/J2EE monitor uses Java Management Extensions (JMX) to extract monitoring data from the Java application server. Most Java app servers that support JMX are supported. Note however that based on the specifics of the JMX implementation by that particular vendor, the data that is displayed can vary greatly from one app server to another.

This chapter describes how to work with Java/J2EE monitor provided by AppPerfect Monitor to monitor your Java application infrastructure.

Managing Java/J2EE monitors

To view the list of all available monitors defined with the AppPerfect Monitor, log in as administrator and click the "Monitors" tab. A list of all defined monitors is displayed. You can edit the properties of a monitor by clicking it and updating the properties page for that monitor.

To delete a monitor, select the checkbox to the left of that monitor and click "Delete". When you delete a monitor, you may choose to preserve the data already recorded for that monitor or you may delete the monitor along with all its historical data.

Defining a new monitor

Please refer to the chapter Managing Monitors for the common settings required.

1. Java v1.5 to v1.8
2. Oracle WebLogic v7.x to v8.x
3. Oracle WebLogic v9.x to v12.x
4. IBM WebSphere v5.x to v8.x
5. Tomcat 5.0.x
6. Tomcat v5.5.x to v8.x
7. Jetty v6.x to v9.x
8. Oracle Application Server 10.1.x
9. JMS Queue

Java v1.5 to v1.8

The AppPerfect Agentless monitor can monitor any application or any server running on Java 1.5 or above. It monitors attributes like Heap Memory, Non-Heap Memory, CPU Usage (on some platforms), Classes Loaded, Classes unloaded etc. You will need to configure remote access to JMX service running in your Java 1.5 or above for the monitoring.

Steps : Steps to configure Java 1.5 or above for Monitoring

• Open startup file you are using to launch your application or your server.
• Look for line from where you are invoking java command.
• Add "-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=<port> -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false" to JVM parameters.
• Please specify any availabe port in place of <port> in the JVM parameters and make note of this port. You will be required to specify this port number while adding monitor to agentless monitor server.
• If you wish to use authentication then please follow steps give below. If not then skip the following steps:
  • Copy JRE_HOME/lib/management/jmxremote.password.template as jmxremote.password in the same directory. Here JRE_HOME is location where "jre" folder is present in the java/jdk you are using.
  • Edit the jmxremote.password file. Go to end and Modify:
    # monitorRole QED
    # controlRole R&D
    To
    monitorRole QED
    controlRole R&D
    
    Note: These roles are defined in JRE_HOME/lib/management/jmxremote.access file. By default monitorRole can only monitor and controlRole can monitor & manage the JVM using JMX approach. By default monitorRole's password is QED & that of controlRole is R&D. Please change it to any appropriate value that you want. We can connect from agentless monitor using monitorRole OR controlRole. If we connect using controlRole we can perform "Manage" action as well.
  • Set file permissions so that only the owner can read and write the password file.
  • Now add "-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=<port> -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=true" to JVM parameters.
  • By default the password file is JRE_HOME/lib/management/jmxremote.password. One can keep it at some other location and specify its path using -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.password.file=. If you keep is in JRE_HOME/lib/management/ then you don't need to provide "-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.password.file".

Oracle WebLogic v7.x to v12.x

Oracle is one of the world's leading application infrastructure software companies. Oracle WebLogic Server is among the top application servers according to major industry analysts. The AppPerfect Monitor Java/J2EE monitor for WebLogic Server monitors attributes like Heap, Sockets, EJBs, JSP/Servlets, JDBC connection, JMS and JTA. You will need to provide a user name, password and the information about the HOME directory of the WebLogic Server or path of WebLogic installation folder to monitor WebLogic Server. Default values of user name and password are weblogic.

Oracle WebLogic 7.x / 8.x

Note : AppPerfect needs to load few jar files from the Weblogic server hence its very important that correct Weblogic HOME directory is provided. In case weblogic is running on remote machine then you should create a folder on local machine (on which monitor is running) and should copy all the jars on local machine maintaining the folder structure.

WebLogic HOME should contain folders like,
%WEBLOGIC_HOME%/common
%WEBLOGIC_HOME%/samples
%WEBLOGIC_HOME%/server
%WEBLOGIC_HOME%/uninstall

Oracle WebLogic v9.x to v12.x

Note : Oracle Weblogic 9.x or above server implements JMX 1.2 architecture and also requires JDK/JRE 1.5.x or above. AppPerfect Agentless Monitor server run in Apache Tomcat server with built-in JAVA_HOME of JDK 1.4.x as all the older versions of Java/J2EE servers had proprietary implementation of JMX and hence monitor server cannot be run with JAVA_HOME of JDK/JRE 1.5.x or above. If you want to monitor Oracle Weblogic 9.x or above server please configure the built-in tomcat server to run with JDK 15. Please download & install JDK 1.5.x and above from Sun's site. Please do the following to configure built-in tomcat server to use JDK 1.5.x or above:

If you have added other Java/J2EE monitors for monitoring, please suspend these monitors as running the tomcat server with JDK 1.5 or above will result in error fetching the data of the attributes being monitored.

For Windows: If Agentless Monitor is installed in C:\AppPerfect\AgentlessMonitor directory then open C:\AppPerfect\AgentlessMonitor\tomcat\bin\tc.bat in some text editor for editing like Notepad. Modify the line that defines JAVA_HOME environment variable. Set its value to point to the JDK 1.5.x or above home location.

For Linux/Solaris/MAC OS X: If Agentless Monitor is installed in /AppPerfect/AgentlessMonitor directory then open /AppPerfect/AgentlessMonitor/tomcat/bin/am.sh in some text editor for editing like vi editor. Modify the line that defines JAVA_HOME environment variable. Set its value to point to the JDK 1.5.x or above home location.

Now, Start AppPerfect Monitor server and add Oracle Weblogic monitor.

IBM WebSphere

IBM WebSphere Application Server fully supports EJBs and provides a portable application deployment environment. It comprises of Application-level partitioning and load balancing features. The AppPerfect Monitor Java/J2EE monitor for IBM WebSphere monitors attributes like Heap, Sockets, EJBs, JSP/Servlets, JDBC connection, JMS and JTA.

Notes on configuring the monitors:

Make sure:

• WebSphere is already installed
• WebSphere Server is not started

For WebSphere, AppPerfect Agentless Monitor uses the Performance Monitoring Service (PMI) on the WebSphere server. You can enable the PMI via the WebSphere Administrator's Console. Following are the steps to be performed to enable the PMI.

1. Start the WebSphere server.
2. Log on to the WebSphere Administrator Console.
3. Click Servers -> Application Servers.
4. Select the server to be monitored from the Application Server list.
5. In the Configuration tab, Click 'Performance Monitoring Service' link in the Additional Properties list.
6. Click the Start Up checkbox and select the Initial specification level as Standard or Custom.
7. Click the Apply button and save the changes.
8. Restart the WebSphere server.

To monitor WebSphere version the necessary WebSphere libraries must be available to AppPerfect Agentless Monitor. To provide the libraries you can either provide the WebSphere's HOME path or you can also copy all of the files mentioned below on the local machine where the AppPerfect Agentless Monitor has been installed and just provide the local folder where the files are copied as the WebSphere Home. The structure of the folder should be similar to what is present in the WebShpere server. All the jar files present in all its sub-directories are added to monitor's classpath expect from a few folders mentioned below:

_uninst, bin, cloudscape, classes, config, deploytool, etc, firststeps, installableApps, installedApps, lafiles, logs, properties, prt, samples, temp, tranlog, universalDriver, web, wstemp

For the IBM Websphere , AppPerfect Agentless Monitor uses the Websphere JMX interface so the port number used to communicate with the application server is the SOAP port number. The default SOAP port number is 8880.

Note : The above settings are necessary for configuring the setting for Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI)

Tomcat 5.0.x

Apache Tomcat is a free, open source application server developed under the Jakarta project at the Apache Software Foundation. The AppPerfect Monitor Java/J2EE monitor for Apache Tomcat monitors attributes like Heap, Sockets, JSP/Servlets, JDBC connection, JMS and JTA.

Notes on configuring the monitors:

Tomcat 5.0.9

Make sure:

• Tomcat 5.0.9 is already installed
• For instructions purpose lets assume that Tomcat 5.0.9 is installed in the directory: C:\jakarta-tomcat\tomcat-5.0.9
• Tomcat 5.0.9 Server is not started

Steps to follow:

• Open the C:\jakarta-tomcat\tomcat-5.0.9\conf\jk2.properties file in any text-editor
• At the end of the file and paste the line mx.port=9999
• Start the Tomcat server
• Confirm that the monitor is working: start the browser and type the URL http://<hostname>:<serverPort>/ (for example http://localhost:8080/)
• 'Tomcat Server Status ...' should be displayed in the browser

Tomcat 5.0.10 and above

Make sure:

• Tomcat 5.0.10 (or above) is already installed
• For instructions purpose lets assume that Tomcat 5.0.10 (or above) is installed in the directory: C:\jakarta-tomcat\tomcat-5.0.10
• Tomcat 5.0.10 (or above) Server is not started

Steps to follow:

• Open the C:\jakarta-tomcat\tomcat-5.0.10\conf\jk2.properties file in any text-editor
• At the end of the file and paste the line mx.port=9999 and mx.jrmpPort=1099
• In the C:\jakarta-tomcat\tomcat-5.0.10\common\lib folder, replace 'jmx.jar' and 'jmx-tools.jar' with the ones in Tomcat 5.0.9. This is to be done because from Tomcat 5.0.10 onwards, jmx v1.2 has been implemented. Monitor Console supports jmx v1.1 for Tomcat.
• Start the Tomcat server
• Confirm that the monitor is working: start the browser and type the URL http://<hostname>:<serverPort>/ (for example http://localhost:8080/)
• 'Tomcat Server Status ...' should be displayed in the browser

Tomcat v5.5.x to v8.x

Apache Tomcat is a free, open source application server developed under the Jakarta project at the Apache Software Foundation. The AppPerfect Monitor Java/J2EE monitor for Apache Tomcat monitors attributes like Heap, Sockets, JSP/Servlets, JDBC connection, JMS and JTA.

Notes on configuring the monitors:

Tomcat 5.5.0 and above

Make sure:

• Tomcat 5.5.0 (or above) is already installed
• For instructions purpose lets assume that Tomcat 5.5.0 (or above) is installed in the directory: C:\jakarta-tomcat\tomcat-5.5.0
• Tomcat 5.5.0 (or above) Server is not started

Steps to follow:

• Tomcat 5.5.x (or above) requires JDK 15 and above. Set appropriate JAVA_HOME
• Start the Tomcat server
• Confirm that the monitor is working: start the browser and type the URL http://<hostname>:<serverPort>/ (for example http://localhost:8080/)
• 'Tomcat Server Status ...' should be displayed in the browser
• Tomcat 5.5.x(or above) monitoring is based on JMX 1.2. To setup Tomcat for remote monitoring refer to Monitoring and Managing Tomcat. The JMX Specification API and JMX Remote API libraries have to be provided for monitoring. For using the SUN implementations of JMX API, download both the JMX Remote API Reference Implementation and JMX Reference Implementations from here.
• Extract the files to a local folder (say C:\). Two directories, jmx-*-bin and jmxremote-*-bin will be created on extracting the two implementations. * will correspond to the version numbers you download. Within each folder exists a lib/ folder. Copy *.jar files from both lib/ folders to a new folder (say C:\JMX). Now C:\JMX is the path provided for this property. For Linux/Unix users if the JMX jars are placed in /opt/JMX then this is the value to be provided for this property.

Jetty v6.x to v9.x

The AppPerfect Monitor Java/J2EE monitor for Jetty application server monitors attributes like Heap, Sockets, EJBs, JSP/Servlets, JDBC connection, JMS and JTA. You will need to provide a user name, password and the information about the HOME directory of the Jetty Server and path of JMX libraries to use.

Jetty 6.x / 7.x

Steps : Steps to configure Jetty server for Monitoring

• Open "jetty-jmx-mx4j.xml" file present in /etc folder inside Jetty install folder and uncomment Remote JMX connector.
• Start rmiregistry by running command "rmiregistry".
• Start jetty server "java -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -jar start.jar etc/jetty-jmx-mx4j.xml etc/jetty.xml".
• Download JMX(TM)) Remote API Reference Implementation 1.0.1_04 and Java(TM) Management Extension (JMX) 1.2.1 from Sun's site. Extract the files to a local folder (say C:\). Two directories, jmx-*-bin and jmxremote-*-bin will be created on extracting the two implementations. * will correspond to the version numbers you download. Within each folder exists a lib/ folder. Copy *.jar files from both lib/ folders to a new folder (say D:\JMX). Now D:\JMX is the path provided for JMX libraries property.

Note : AppPerfect needs to load few jar files from the Jetty server hence its very important that correct Jetty HOME directory is provided. In case Jetty is running on remote machine then you should create a folder on local machine (on which monitor is running) and should copy all the jars on local machine maintaining the folder structure.

Jetty HOME should contain folders like,
%JETTY_HOME%/bin
%JETTY_HOME%/etc
%JETTY_HOME%/modules
%JETTY_HOME%/domains
%JETTY_HOME%/webapps

Jetty 8.x /9.x

Steps : Steps to configure Jetty server for Monitoring

• Open "jetty-jmx.xml" file present in /etc folder inside Jetty install folder and uncomment Remote JMX connector.
• Start rmiregistry by running command "rmiregistry".
• Start jetty server "java -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -jar start.jar etc/jetty-jmx.xml etc/jetty.xml".

Oracle Application Server 10.1.x

The AppPerfect Monitor Java/J2EE monitor for Oracle application server monitors attributes like Heap, Sockets, EJBs, JSP/Servlets, JDBC connection, JMS and JTA. You will need to provide a user name, password and the information about the HOME directory of the Oracle Application Server and path of JMX libraries to use.

Steps : Steps to configure Oracle application server for Monitoring

• Start oracle server "oc4j -start". Before starting Oracle server please set ORACLE_HOME and JAVA_HOME environment variables.
• The OC4J zip distribution contains the JMX-based Application Server Control Console, which enables you to perform server configuration tasks as well as deploy and manage applications. Application Server Control Console is configured to be auto-deployed when the OC4J instance is started for the first time. Verify that Application Server Control Console is running, Application Server Control Console can be accessed using the URL:http://:8888/em
• Add Oracle Application Server monitor for monitoring and provide following parameters
  
  • OC4J Home (Folder having files/folders as shown in the notes)
  • JMX Connector Port (Default value is 23791)
  • JMX Libraries path (Path of JMX jars, default value is %ORACLE_HOME%/j2ee/home/lib)
  • User Name (Default value is oc4jadmin)
  • Password (Password you set during the first initialization of OC4J)
  • Protocol Provider Package (Default value is "oracle.oc4j.admin.jmx.remote")
  • Application Name (Optional)

Note : AppPerfect needs to load few jar files from the Jetty server hence its very important that correct Oracle HOME directory is provided. In case Oracle is running on remote machine then you should create a folder on local machine (on which monitor is running) and should copy all the jars on local machine maintaining the folder structure.

Oracle HOME should contain folders like,
%ORACLE_HOME%/ant
%ORACLE_HOME%/bin
%ORACLE_HOME%/diagnostics
%ORACLE_HOME%/j2ee
%ORACLE_HOME%/javacache
%ORACLE_HOME%/javavm
%ORACLE_HOME%/jdbc
%ORACLE_HOME%/jlib
%ORACLE_HOME%/lib
%ORACLE_HOME%/opmn
%ORACLE_HOME%/rdbms
%ORACLE_HOME%/sqlj
%ORACLE_HOME%/toplink
%ORACLE_HOME%/webservices
%ORACLE_HOME%/xqs