JMX Based Monitoring - Part Three - Web App Server Monitoring
- by Anthony Shorten
In the last blog entry I showed a technique for integrating a JMX console with Oracle WebLogic which is a standard feature of Oracle WebLogic 11g. Customers on other Web Application servers and other versions of Oracle WebLogic can refer to the documentation provided with the server to do a similar thing.
In this blog entry I am going to discuss a new feature that is only present in Oracle Utilities Application Framework 4 and above that allows JMX to be used for management and monitoring the Oracle Utilities Web Applications. In this case JMX can be used to perform monitoring as well as provide the management of the cache.
In Oracle Utilities Application Framework you can enable Web Application Server JMX monitoring that is unique to the framework by specifying a JMX port number in RMI Port number for JMX Web setting and initial credentials in the JMX Enablement System User ID and JMX Enablement System Password configuration options. These options are available using the configureEnv[.sh] -a utility.
Once this is information is supplied a number of configuration files are built (by the initialSetup[.sh] utility) to configure the facility:
spl.properties - contains the JMX URL, the security configuration and the mbeans that are enabled. For example, on my demonstration machine:
spl.runtime.management.rmi.port=6740
spl.runtime.management.connector.url.default=service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:6740/oracle/ouaf/webAppConnector
jmx.remote.x.password.file=scripts/ouaf.jmx.password.file
jmx.remote.x.access.file=scripts/ouaf.jmx.access.file
ouaf.jmx.com.splwg.base.support.management.mbean.JVMInfo=enabled
ouaf.jmx.com.splwg.base.web.mbeans.FlushBean=enabled
ouaf.jmx.* files - contain the userid and password. The default setup uses the JMX default security configuration. You can use additional security features by altering the spl.properties file manually or using a custom template. For more security options see the JMX Site.
Once it has been configured and the changes reflected in the product using the initialSetup[.sh] utility the JMX facility can be used. For illustrative purposes, I will use jconsole but any JSR160 complaint browser or client can be used (with the appropriate configuration).
Once you start jconsole (ensure that splenviron[.sh] is executed prior to execution to set the environment variables or for remote connection, ensure java is in your path and jconsole.jar in your classpath) you specify the URL in the spl.management.connnector.url.default entry and the credentials you specified in the jmx.remote.x.* files. Remember these are encrypted by default so if you try and view the file you may be able to decipher it visually. For example:
There are three Mbeans available to you:
flushBean - This is a JMX replacement for the jsp versions of the flush utilities provided in previous releases of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. You can manage the cache using the provided operations from JMX. The jsp versions of the flush utilities are still provided, for backward compatibility, but now are authorization controlled.
JVMInfo - This is a JMX replacement for the jsp version of the JVMInfo screen used by support to get a handle on JVM information. This information is environmental not operational and is used for support purposes. The jsp versions of the JVMInfo utilities are still provided, for backward compatibility, but now is also authorization controlled.
JVMSystem - This is an implementation of the Java system MXBeans for use in monitoring. We provide our own implementation of the base Mbeans to save on creating another JMX configuration for internal monitoring and to provide a consistent interface across platforms for the MXBeans. This Mbean is disabled by default and can be enabled using the enableJVMSystemBeans operation. This Mbean allows for the monitoring of the ClassLoading, Memory, OperatingSystem, Runtime and the Thread MX beans.
Refer to the Server Administration Guides provided with your product and the Technical Best Practices Whitepaper for information about individual statistics.
The Web Application Server JMX monitoring allows greater visibility for monitoring and management of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework application from jconsole or any JSR160 compliant JMX browser or JMX console.
