About Monitoring

Monitoring is the process of reviewing the statistics of a system to improve performance or solve problems. The monitoring service can track and display operational statistics, such as the number of requests per second, the average response time, and the throughput. By monitoring the state of various components and services deployed in Enterprise Server, you can identify performance bottlenecks, predict failures, perform root cause analysis, and ensure that everything is functioning as expected. Data gathered by monitoring can also be useful in performance tuning and capacity planning.

For this release of Enterprise Server, monitoring is exposed in a modular way so that many client modules can access and display the monitoring statistics. These clients include the Administration Console, the asadmin utility, AMX, and REST interfaces.

The following topics are addressed here:

• How the Monitoring Tree Structure Works

• About Monitoring for Add-on Components

• Tools for Monitoring Enterprise Server

How the Monitoring Tree Structure Works

A monitorable object is a component, subcomponent, or service that can be monitored. Enterprise Server uses a tree structure to track monitorable objects. Because the tree is dynamic, the tree changes as Enterprise Server components are added or removed.

In the tree, a monitorable object can have child objects (nodes) that represent exactly what can be monitored for that object. All child objects are addressed using the dot (.) character as a separator. These constructed names are referred to as dotted names. Detailed information on dotted names is available in the dotted-names(5ASC) help page.

The following command lists the monitorable child objects of the instance server:

asadmin> list --monitor "server.*"

server.applications
server.connector-service
server.http-service
server.jms-service
server.containers.jruby
server.jvm
server.network
server.orb
server.resources 
server.security
server.thread-pool
server.transaction-service
server.web

Each object is represented by a dotted name. Dotted names can also address specific attributes in monitorable objects. For example, the jvm object has a memory attribute with a statistic called maxheapsize. The following dotted name addresses the attribute:

server.jvm.memory.maxheapsize

Although an object is monitorable, it is not necessarily being actively monitored. For instructions on activating monitoring, see Configuring Monitoring.

Tree Structure of Monitorable Objects

Each monitorable object has a hierarchical tree structure. In the tree, a replaceable such as *statistics represents the name of the attribute that you can show statistics for.

The following node tree hierarchies are addressed here:

• Applications Tree Hierarchy

• Connector Service Tree Hierarchy

• HTTP Service Tree Hierarchy

• JMS/Container Service Tree Hierarchy

• JRuby Tree Hierarchy

• JVM Tree Hierarchy

• Network Tree Hierarchy

• ORB Tree Hierarchy

• Resources Tree Hierarchy

• Security Tree Hierarchy

• Thread Pool Tree Hierarchy

• Transactions Service Tree Hierarchy

• Web Tree Hierarchy

Applications Tree Hierarchy

The applications tree contains the following nodes:

server.applications
   |--- application1
   |    |--- ejb-module-1
   |    |        |--- ejb1 *
   |    |                  |--- bean-cache (for entity/sfsb) *
   |    |                  |--- bean-pool (for slsb/mdb/entity) *
   |    |                  |--- bean-methods
   |    |                       |---method1 *
   |    |                       |---method2 *
   |    |                  |--- timers (for s1sb/entity/mdb) *
   |    |--- web-module-1
   |    |        |--- virtual-server-1 *
   |    |                       |---servlet1  *
   |    |                       |---servlet2  *
   |--- standalone-web-module-1
   |    |        |----- virtual-server-2 *
   |    |                       |---servlet3 *
   |    |                       |---servlet4 *
   |    |        |----- virtual-server-3 *
   |    |                       |---servlet3 *(same servlet on different vs)
   |    |                       |---servlet5 *
   |--- standalone-ejb-module-1
   |    |        |--- ejb2 *
   |    |                  |--- bean-cache (for entity/sfsb) *
   |    |                  |--- bean-pool (for slsb/mdb/entity) *
   |    |                  |--- bean-methods
   |    |                       |--- method1 *
   |    |                       |--- method2 *
   |    |                  |--- timers (for s1sb/entity/mdb) *
   |--- jersey-application-1
   |    |--- jersey
   |    |        |--- resources
                           resource-0
                               hitcount
                                    *statistic   
   |--- application2

An example dotted name might be server.applications.hello.server.request.maxtime.

An example dotted name under the EJB method node might be server.applications.ejbsfapp1.ejbsfapp1ejbmod1\.jar.SFApp1EJB1.

An example Jersey dotted name might be server.applications.helloworld-webapp.jersey.resources.resource-0.hitcount.resourcehitcount-count.

For available statistics, see EJB Statistics, Jersey Statistics, and Web Statistics.

Connector Service Tree Hierarchy

The connector-service tree holds monitorable attributes for pools such as the connector connection pool. The connector-service tree contains the following nodes:

server.connector-service
        resource-adapter-1
             connection-pools
                  pool-1
             work-management

An example dotted name might be server.connector-service.resource-adapter-1.connection-pools.pool-1. For available statistics, see JMS/Connector Service Statistics.

HTTP Service Tree Hierarchy

The http-service tree contains the following nodes:

server.http-service
       virtual-server
           request
               *statistic
       _asadmin
           request
               *statistic

An example dotted name under the virutal-server node might be server.http-service.virtual-server1.request.requestcount. For available statistics, see HTTP Service Statistics.

JMS/Container Service Tree Hierarchy

The jms-service tree holds monitorable attributes for connection factories (connection pools for resource adapters) and work management (for Message Queue resource adapters). The jms-service tree contains the following nodes:

server.jms-service
        connection-factories
             connection-factory-1
        work-management

An example dotted name under the connection-factories node might be server.jms-service.connection-factories.connection-factory-1 which shows all the statistics for this connection factory. For available statistics, see JMS/Connector Service Statistics.

JRuby Tree Hierarchy

The jruby tree contains the following nodes:

server.containers.jruby.applications
         jruby-application
               *statistic
               http
                   *statistic
               runtime-pool
                   *statistic

For available statistics, see JRuby Statistics.

JVM Tree Hierarchy

The jvm tree contains the following nodes:

server.jvm
           class-loading-system
           compilation-system
           garbage-collectors
           memory
           operating-system
           runtime 

An example dotted name under the memory node might be server.jvm.memory.maxheapsize. For available statistics, see JVM Statistics.

Network Tree Hierarchy

The network statistics apply to the network listener, such as admin-listener, http-listener-1, ttp-listener-2. The network tree contains the following nodes:

server.network
          type-of-listener
              keep-alive
                    *statistic
              file-cache
                    *statistic
              thread-pool
                    *statistic
              connection-queue
                     *statistic

An example dotted name under the network node might be server.network.admin-listener.keep-alive.maxrequests-count. For available statistics, see Network Statistics.

ORB Tree Hierarchy

The orb tree holds monitorable attributes for connection managers. The orb tree contains the following nodes:

server.orb
    transport
        connectioncache
            inbound
                *statistic
            outbound
                *statistic

An example dotted name might be server.orb.transport.connectioncache.inbound.connectionsidle-count. For available statistics, see ORB Statistics (Connection Manager).

Resources Tree Hierarchy

The resources tree holds monitorable attributes for pools such as the JDBC connection pool and connector connection pool. The resources tree contains the following nodes:

server.resources
       connection-pool
           request
               *statistic

An example dotted name might be server.resources.jdbc-connection-pool1.numconnfree.count. For available statistics, see Resource Statistics (Connection Pool).

Security Tree Hierarchy

The security tree contains the following nodes:

server.security
       ejb
          *statistic
       web
          *statistic
       realm
          *statistic

An example dotted name might be server.security.realm.realmcount-starttime. For available statistics, see Security Statistics.

Thread Pool Tree Hierarchy

The thread-pool tree holds monitorable attributes for connection managers, and contains the following nodes:

server.thread-pool
                orb
                    threadpool
                            thread-pool-1
                                *statistic

An example dotted name might be server.thread-pool.orb.threadpool.thread-pool-1.averagetimeinqueue-current. For available statistics, see Thread Pool Statistics.

Transactions Service Tree Hierarchy

The transaction-service tree holds monitorable attributes for the transaction subsystem for the purpose of rolling back transactions. The transaction-service tree contains the following nodes:

server.transaction-service
         statistic

An example dotted name might be server.tranaction-service.activeids. For available statistics, see Transaction Service Statistics.

Web Tree Hierarchy

The web tree contains the following nodes:

server.web
           jsp
              *statistic
           servlet
              *statistic
           session
              *statistic
           request
              *statistic

An example dotted name for the servlet node might be server.web.servlet.activeservletsloadedcount. For available statistics, see Web Module Common Statistics.

About Monitoring for Add-on Components

An add-on component typically generates statistics that Enterprise Server can gather at runtime. Adding monitoring capabilities enables an add-on component to provide statistics to Enterprise Server in the same way as components that are supplied in the Enterprise Server distributions. As a result, you can use the same administrative interfaces to monitor statistics from any installed Enterprise Server component, regardless of the origin of the component.

Tools for Monitoring Enterprise Server

The following asadmin subcommands are provided for monitoring the services and components of Enterprise Server:

• The enable-monitoring, disable-monitoring, or the get and set subcommands are used to turn monitoring on or off. For instructions, see Configuring Monitoring.

• The monitor --type subcommand is used to display basic data for a particular type of monitorable object. For instructions, see Viewing Common Monitoring Data.

• The list --monitor subcommand is used to display the objects that can be monitored with the monitor subcommand. For guidelines and instructions, see Guidelines for Using the list and get Subcommands for Monitoring.

• The get subcommand is used to display comprehensive data, such as the attributes and values for a dotted name. The get subcommand used with a wildcard parameter displays all available attributes for any monitorable object. For additional information, see Guidelines for Using the list and get Subcommands for Monitoring.