2 Monitoring Oracle Application Server

This chapter provides an overview and presents information on monitoring Oracle Application Server and its components. Monitoring Oracle Application Server and obtaining performance data can assist you in tuning the system and debugging applications with performance problems.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console
Oracle Application Server Built-in Performance Metrics
Centralized Management of Oracle Application Server Instances
Native Operating System Performance Commands
Network Performance Monitoring Tools

2.1 Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console

Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console (Application Server Control Console) allows you to monitor Oracle Application Server and its components. Application Server Control Console shows performance metrics for Oracle Application Server components, including:

Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) and Applications running under OC4J

Using Application Server Control Console, you can also view performance metrics and other status information using Application Server Control Console.

2.2 Oracle Application Server Built-in Performance Metrics

Oracle Application Server automatically measures runtime performance and collects metrics for Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J) servers and components. The server performance metrics are measured automatically and continuously using performance instrumentation inserted into the implementations of Oracle Application Server components. The performance metrics are automatically enabled; you do not need to set options or perform any extra configuration to collect them (for performance reasons the JDBC metrics are enabled by setting options).

The Oracle HTTP Server performance metrics enable you to do the following:

Monitor the duration of important phases of Oracle HTTP Server request processing.
Collect status information on Oracle HTTP Server requests. For example, you can monitor the number of requests being handled at any given moment.

The OC4J performance metrics allow you to monitor the performance of J2EE containers and components and enable you to do the following:

Monitor the number of active servlets, JSPs, EJBs, and EJB methods.
Monitor the time spent processing an individual servlet, JSP, EJB, or EJB method.
Monitor the sessions and JDBC connections associated with servlets, JSPs, EJBs, or EJB methods.
Monitor OC4J JMS events and status.

You can use the performance metrics while troubleshooting Oracle Application Server components to help locate bottlenecks, identify resource availability issues, or help tune your components to improve throughput and response times.

Note:

You can use the commands that access the built-in metrics in scripts or in combination with other monitoring tools to gather performance data or to check application performance.

See Also:

2.3 Centralized Management of Oracle Application Server Instances

While Application Server Control Console provides standalone management for an Application Server and its components, you can centrally manage all your Application Servers through one tool rather than through several Application Server Control Consoles by using the Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Console. For example, say you have 10 Application Servers deployed on five hosts. By deploying a Management Agent on each host, Enterprise Manager automatically discovers the Application Server on those hosts and automatically begins monitoring them using default monitoring levels, notification rules, and so on.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Console contains an Application Server Home page which provides easy access to key information required by application server administrators, including the following:

Links to Oracle Application Server component home pages
Application server status, responsiveness, and performance data
Alerts and diagnostic drill-downs so you can identify and resolve problems quickly
Resource usage for the application server and its components
A single view of all Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications and web services
Links to the Application Server Control Console for administration operations such as starting and stopping components, modifying configurations, and deploying applications.

See Also:

Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts for more information on Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Grid Control Console

Oracle Application Server Administrator's Guide

Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Installation and Basic Configuration

2.4 Native Operating System Performance Commands

In order to solve performance problems or to monitor your system's activity, you can use the available native operating system commands. Native operating system commands allow you to gather and monitor CPU utilization, paging activity, swapping, and other system activity information.

See Also:

Refer to the system level documentation for information on native operating system monitoring commands

2.5 Network Performance Monitoring Tools

You can use network monitoring tools to verify the status of requests that access your Oracle Application Server components. Tools are available that allow you to examine and save network traffic information. These tools can be helpful in analyzing and solving performance problems.