Version

Argent Advanced Technology 3.1A-1601-T6 and later

Date

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Summary

Argent for Java has been enhanced with a new Rule category ‘Custom MBeans Attributes Rules’ to monitor the Java applications runs in following Application/Web servers

• Apache Tomcat
• Jboss
• Glassfish
• WebLogic
• WebSphere

Technical Background

Argent for Java uses Java Management Extensions (JMX) technology to monitor an application running in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

The Managed Bean or MBean is the fundamental concept of the JMX API

The MBeans are Java objects that represent the manageable resources in the application running in the Java Virtual Machine

Each MBean is a collection of named and typed attributes that can be read and written

We can read the values of required attributes on concerns like performance, resources usage or problems

The ‘Custom MBeans Attributes Rules’ in Argent for Java enables you to monitor the JVMs running in different Application/Web servers

Each running application has its own collection of MBean objects

The monitoring is achieved by reading the required attribute values of JMX MBean object

All you need is to specify the MBean object name and attribute name in the Rule screen

Following is the screenshot of the Rule:

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There is an option to specify the Object, Counter and Instance name of Argent predictor data

Note: ‘Custom MBeans Attributes Rules’ monitors the values of numeric type MBean object attributes

How To Get JMX Object Name And Attribute Name:

It is important to specify the correct object name and attribute name in the Rule screen

We can use a tool named Jconsole to get JMX MBean object names and its attributes

Jconsole is a GUI tool and comes as part of Java Development Kit (JDK)

Jconsole lists all available JMX MBean object names, attribute names, attribute values etc

Jconsole can be started using “jconsole” command:

The Jconsole GUI will start as following:

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Get the hostname and port in which JVM is running from the License Node property screen of Argent for Java

Specify the hostname and port number in Jconsole GUI shown below:

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Select ‘MBeans’ tab, there you can see a list of MBean object categories

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Some MBean object categories are specific for some platform

For example, the object category Catalena is specific for Apache Tomcat

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Following highlighted object categories are specific for Jboss

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You can get a particular object name from the category

For example, if you want to monitor the number of threads created on the Apache Tomcat container, go to category ‘Catalina -> ThreadPool – > Select object name’ as shown below:

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Copy the value of field ‘ObjectName’ from the right pane and paste to the ‘JMX Object Name’ input box of Rule screen of Argent for Java

Select the attribute ‘currentThreadCount’ under ThreadPool object name as shown below:

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Copy the attribute name from the right pane and paste to the ‘Attribute Name’ input box in the Rule screen of Argent for Java

Resolution

Upgrade to Argent Advanced Technology 1601-T6 or later