User Guide

Using Advanced Features of the Management Console

This section describes the more advanced features of the Management Console. Some of these are only available when running in the Developer mode, described in Mode of Operation.

This section is divided into the following topics:

Historical Data

The historical data window displays a chart where historical data for an attribute subscription can be viewed. This is useful for observing trends over time and, for example, finding when a server running with BEA JRockit JVM has its peak loads.

Viewing Historical Data

Select the connection for which you want to view historical data.

Click View > View Historical Data.

The Historical Data Chart appears (see Figure 7-1).

Figure 7-1 Historical Data Chart

Right-click on the Historical Data graph.

The Edit Graph Attributes window appears.

Add an attribute subscription to the Historical Data Graph (see Customizing Graphs for information on how to change the graph.

Set a start date and start time for when you want to view the data.

Select a viewing range.

Scroll, using the arrow buttons below the graph, to find the time period of interest.

Thread Stack Dump

The thread stack dump contains a list of all running threads in BEA JRockit JVM with a method call stack trace for each thread.

Viewing the Thread Stack Dump

Click Tools > View Thread Stack Dump.

The Thread Stack Dump window appears (see Figure 7-2).

Figure 7-2 Thread Stack Dump

Click Copy to Clipboard if you want to paste the stack dump info into; for example, MSNotepad.

Click OK to close the file.

Starting and Running the Console in Headless Mode

You can run the Management Console, its notification subsystem, and the user actions without using a GUI. This function is referred to running the console in a "headless" mode and can greatly reduce the amount of system overhead required to run BEA JRockit.

Look into the information on:

Running a Headless Management Console

To run the Console in the headless mode, start the console as you normally would (see Start the BEA JRockit Management Console for details) but add the -headless command-line option; for example:

java -jar ManagementConsole.jar -headless

You can control the console's behavior by using the command-line options described in Table 7-1.

As it runs, the JVM statistics normally associated with the Management Console can be written to file. The file to which statistics are written will be automatically created, but only if you choose to save, or "persist" data. It will be created in a directory of your choosing.

You can control which JVM statistics are persisted by specifying them in an XML settings file. The settings file is also created automatically, when you exit the application when it is running in GUI mode. By default, it will be created in the <user_home>/.ManagementConsole directory. You can specify another file at another location by using the -settings command-line option.

Controlling the Console with Command Line Options

You can use one of the command line options listed in Table 7-1to control the behavior of the headless Management Console.

Note: These options are not specific to running the Console in the headless mode; they are also valid when running it with a GUI.

Table 7-1 Headless Management Console Command-line Options

Option	Description
`-headless`	Starts the console in the headless mode (won't load GUI related classes).
`-settings <settings file>`	Starts the console using the specified settings file. If you are starting in the GUI mode and this file doesn't exist, it will be created when you close the application.
`-connectall`	Makes all connections available in the settings file (that is, previously added by using the GUI).
`-connect <connection 1> <connection 2> <...>`	Connects to the named connections available in the settings file previously added by using the GUI.
`-autoconnect`	Automatically connects to any JVM running the management server with JDP turned on.
`-uptime <time in seconds>`	Runs the Console for the specified amount of time, and then automatically shut it down.
`-useraction <name> <delay in seconds> <period (optional)>`	Runs the named user action after the specified delay. If no period has been specified, the action will be run once. If the period has been specified it will be run every `<period (optional)>` seconds.
`-version`	Prints the version of the ManagementConsole and then exits.

For example:

java -jar ManagementConsole.jar -headless -settings
   C:\Headless\consolesettings.xml -connectall -autoconnect -uptime 3600
   -useraction ctrlbreak 30 60

This example:

Starts the management console in headless mode (-headless).
Reads the specified settings file (-settings C:\Headless\consolesettings.xml).
Tries to connect to all previously specified JVMs (-connectall).
Actively searches for new connections using JDP (-autoconnect).
After an hour it will automatically shut down (-uptime 3600).
After running 30 seconds, it will start issuing control breaks to all connected JVMs every minute (-useraction ctrlbreak 30 60).

All notification rules that have been previously added to specific connections will be active.

JRA Recordings

The BEA JRockit Runtime Analyzer (JRA) is an internal tool used by the BEA JRockit development team to analyze runtime performance of BEA JRockit and Java applications running on it. This tool provides information on internals in BEA JRockit that are useful to the development team and BEA JRockit in general.

One part of the JRA runs inside the JVM, recording information about it and the Java application currently running. You start the recording in the Management Console and view the recorded result in the JRA. For information on how to use the JRA, see Using the BEA JRockit Runtime Analyzer.

Creating a JRA Recording

Click Plugins > Start JRA Recording.

The JRA Recording dialog appears (Figure 7-3).

Figure 7-3 JRA Recording Dialog

Type a descriptive name for the recording in the File name field. This is the name by which the file is saved.

Type in the duration of the recording.

Select the type(s) of recording you want.

Enable method sampling
Enable GC sampling
Enable native sampling

Click Start recording.

The JRA Recording Progress box appears (Figure 7-4).

Figure 7-4 JRA Recording Progress Box

When the recording is complete, click Done.

You can cancel the recording at any time by clicking Abort.