Introduction to Monitoring Tools

There are five tools (or interfaces) for monitoring Message Queue information, as described briefly below:

Log files provide a long-term record of metrics data, but cannot easily be parsed.
The Command Utility (imqcmd metrics) lets you interactively sample information tailored to your needs, but does not provide historical information or allow you to manipulate the data programmatically.
The Java Management Extensions (JMX) Administration API lets you perform broker resource configuration and monitoring operations programmatically from within a Java application. You can write your own JMX administration application or use the standard Java Monitoring and Management Console (jconsole).
The Sun Java Enterprise System Monitoring Framework (JESMF) and Monitoring Console offers a common, Web-based graphical interface shared with other Java ES components, but can monitor only a subset of all Message Queue entities and operations.
The Message-based Monitoring API lets you extract metrics information from messages produced by the broker to metrics topic destinations. However, to use it, you must write a Message Queue client application to capture, analyze, and display the metrics data.

The following tabel compares the different tools.

Table 13-1 Benefits and Limitations of Metrics Monitoring Tools

Metrics Monitoring Tool	Benefits	Limitations
Log files	Regular sampling Creates a historical record	Local monitoring only Data format difficult to read; no parsing tools Need to configure broker properties; must shut down and restart broker to take effect Broker metrics only; no destination or connection service metrics No flexibility in selection of data Same reporting interval for all metrics data; cannot be changed on the fly Possible performance penalty if interval set too short
Command Utility (`imqcmd metrics`)	Remote monitoring Convenient for spot-checking Data presented in easy-to-read tabular format Easy to select specific data of interest Reporting interval set in command option; can be changed on the fly	Difficult to analyze data programmatically No single command gets all data No historical record; difficult to see historical trends
JMX Administration API	Remote monitoring Data can be analyzed programmatically and presented in any format Easy to select specific data of interest Can use standard Java Monitoring and Management Console (`jconsole`)	Might need to configure broker's JMX support
Java ES Monitoring Console	Web-based graphical interface Data presented in easy-to-read format Common interface shared with other JES components No performance penalty; pulls data from broker’s existing data monitoring infrastructure	Limited subset of data available Data cannot be analyzed programmatically No historical record; difficult to see historical trends
Message-based Monitoring API	Remote monitoring Data can be analyzed programmatically and presented in any format Easy to select specific data of interest	Need to configure broker properties; must shut down and restart broker to take effect Same reporting interval for all metrics data; cannot be changed on the fly

In addition to the differences shown in the table, each tool gathers a somewhat different subset of the metrics information generated by the broker. For information on which metrics data is gathered by each monitoring tool, see Chapter 21, Metrics Information Reference.

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