1. System Administrator's Guide
  2. Tools for Performance Testing, Tuning, and Troubleshooting

B Tools for Performance Testing, Tuning, and Troubleshooting

This appendix presents information about the tools that are available for performance testing, tuning, and troubleshooting for your Oracle Communications Order and Service Management (OSM) system.

WebLogic Server Administration Console

Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console is a web-based, graphical user interface that enables you to monitor the WebLogic server.

For more information, see "About Monitoring and Managing OSM" and WebLogic Server documentation.

Java VisualVM

Java VisualVM is a Java virtual machine (JVM) troubleshooting tool that integrates the functionality of several JDK tools, including JConsole, JStack, and JMap. VisualVM helps generate and analyze thread dumps and heap dumps, track down memory leaks, perform and monitor garbage collection, and do lightweight memory and CPU profiling.

Java VisualVM is part of the JDK. For example, on Linux systems, you can start VisualVM using the following command:

JDK_home/bin/jvisualvm

For more information about Java VisualVM, see the following website:

https://visualvm.github.io/

JStack

Use the JStack utility to generate a thread dump. You can use VisualVM to view the thread dumps that you generate using JStack. Ensure that there is adequate space in the directory where you want to save the thread dump.

JStack is part of the JDK. For example, on Linux systems, you can start JStack using the following command:

JDK_home/bin/jstack -l processid

Note:

The advantage of using JStack instead of VisualVM to generate thread dumps is that JStack can be scripted. For example, the attached jstackscript.sh shell script generates count thread dumps every delay seconds.

OSM Task Web Client

The OSM Task web client provides a web-based user interface for order tracking and reporting. For more information, see OSM Task Web Client User's Guide.

Enterprise Manager

Oracle Enterprise Manager is a web-based management tool for database performance diagnostics and tuning.

There are two versions of Enterprise Manager that you can use to manage Oracle 11g databases:

  • Database Control: Manages a single database, including Oracle RAC databases, and is installed with the Oracle database.

  • Grid Control: Manages multiple databases and offers enhanced Oracle RAC support. This is a separately licensed product. You can also use Grid Control to manage WebLogic Server and coherence.

For more information, see Enterprise Manager documentation.

SoapUI

SoapUI is a tool that you can use to submit an XML order to a run-time OSM environment. Doing this confirms that OSM is able to receive and respond to order requests. In this case, you can submit test orders associated with a test cartridge.

When submitting sample orders to run-time environments, the root level of the sample order XML document must be either a CreateOrder or CreateOrderBySpec request.

For more information about submitting orders with SoapUI, see OSM Developer's Guide.

For more information about SoapUI, and to download the software, see the following website:

http://www.soapui.org/

Compliance Tool

The Oracle Communications Product Compliance Tool captures configuration data for OSM and its platform components. The tool then evaluates product compliance against documented configuration requirements, best practices, and guidelines.

The compliance tool uses a set of compliance rules to determine if a configuration value is properly set or, if it allows a range of valid values, whether the configured value falls within that range. The tool also verifies that required or recommended patches have been applied.For every compliance rule, reports include a description of the rule, an indication of whether the rule passed or failed, and the rationale for the compliance rule. For non-compliant results, a severity level and the reason for the failure are also included.

For more information about the compliance tool, see OSM Installation Guide.

Design Studio

Design Studio is an Eclipse-based design environment for OSM cartridge development. The Cartridge Management view displays a list of the cartridges that are deployed to your OSM system. The Deployed Versions table lists which cartridge version and build combination is currently deployed in the target environment for the selected cartridge.

For more information, see Design Studio Concepts.

Software Load Balancer

Oracle HTTP Server is the recommended standalone software load balancer for OSM in production environment.

For more information about setting up an HTTP server for OSM, see the knowledge article [Doc ID 1618630.1], available from the Oracle support website:

https://support.oracle.com

For a simpler alternative, you can install the WebLogic proxy plug-in for OSM managed servers and use it for load balancing for performance testing.

GCViewer

GCViewer is a free open source tool to view data that is produced by verbose garbage collection. For more information about GCViewer versions and to download, see the following websites:

http://www.tagtraum.com/gcviewer.html

https://github.com/chewiebug/GCViewer

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gcviewer/files/gcviewer-1.36.jar/download

https://github.com/chewiebug/GCViewer/wiki/Changelog

ThreadLogic

ThreadLogic is an open source visual thread dump analyzer that provides an in-depth analysis of WebLogic Server thread dumps. ThreadLogic can also merge and analyze multiple thread dumps and provide enhanced reporting that lets you view whether threads are progressing across thread dumps.

You run ThreadLogic, version 1.1.205, using the following command:

java -jar ThreadLogic-1.1.205.jar

You can open the thread dumps or merge thread dumps by selecting several and then right-clicking and choosing Diff Selection. For an overview of ThreadLogic, see the following website:

http://www.ateam-oracle.com/analyzing-thread-dumps-in-middleware-part-4-2/

OSW Black Box

OSW Black Box is an Oracle utility that provides platform-independent, real-time analysis of a large volume of operating system data. OSW Black Box runs as a background process and collects data at 30-second intervals, logging the last 48 hours of data to archive files.

OSW Black Box has the following components:

  • OSWbb: a shell script data collector.

  • OSWbba: a Java utility that analyzes data collected by OSWbb.

You generate a text-based report that you can attach to service requests. This report also provides recommendations about resolving problems. The System Status section of the report gives a summary status for CPU, memory, input/output, and net subsystems. Statuses include: Critical, Warning, OK, or Unknown.

For more information about OSW Black Box and the analyzer tool, see the knowledge articles [Doc ID 301137.1 and Doc ID 461053.1], available from the Oracle support website:

https://support.oracle.com

To run OSW Black Box as a background process, run the following command:

nohup ./startOSWbb.sh &

To stop OSW Black Box processes, run the following command:

./stopOSWbb.sh

To generate an OSW Black Box Analyzer report, run the following command:

java -jar oswbba.jar -i oswbb_archive_directory -A

Remote Diagnostics Agent

Oracle Remote Diagnostics Agent (RDA) provides a suite of data collection and diagnostic scripts for Oracle products. RDA reports are packaged as an archive, which you upload and attach to a service request.While you can use RDA only when a problem occurs, Oracle recommends that you use RDA diagnostics regularly to help prevent problems. RDA reports include both system configuration and performance data. Taking regular RDA snapshots of the performance of your system under normal conditions might help you troubleshoot a faulty or degraded system.RDA is installed with Oracle Fusion Middleware. Oracle recommends that you define the RDA_HOME environment variable as MW_home/oracle_common/rda. RDA is written in Perl and uses a command-line script.

Set up RDA to generate reports about the operating system, WebLogic server, database, Oracle RAC cluster, or OSM.

To verify that RDA is installed on your system, on the command line, do one of the following:

  • For UNIX, run the following command:

    perl rda.pl -cv

  • For Linux, run the following command: 

    rda.sh -cv

For information about what to do if RDA is not installed in your environment, see the knowledge article [Doc ID 314422.1], available from the Oracle support website:

https://support.oracle.com

Operating System RDA Report

You set up RDA to generate an operating system report, and then you generate and package the report.

To set up RDA to generate an operating system report, on the command line, run the following command:

rda.sh -S CONFIG OS PROF PERF NET

The setup files are saved to the current directory.

To generate and package the RDA operating system report, on the command line, run the following command:

rda.sh -vCRP

The report is saved in the directory from which you ran the RDA command. An output folder and an output RDA_output_hostname.zip archive are created.

To view the RDA operating system report:

  1. Go to the RDA output folder.

  2. Double-click the RDA_start.htm file.

    The report opens in a web browser.

WebLogic RDA Report

You set up and generate a WebLogic RDA report for every WebLogic server in your OSM system.

To set up and generate WebLogic RDA report, on the command line, run the following command:

$RDA_HOME/rda.sh -s wls_report -p WebLogicServer

The report is saved in the directory from which you ran the RDA command. A wls_report folder and an RDA_wls_report_hostname.zip archive are created.

Database RDA Report

To set up and generate a database RDA report, on the command line, run the following command:

$RDA_HOME/rda.sh -s db_report -p DB11g

The report is saved in the directory from which you ran the RDA command. A db_report folder and an RDA_db_report_hostname.zip archive are created.

Oracle RAC Cluster RDA Report

The Oracle RAC Cluster RDA report includes log files, init files, and diagnostic files, as well as your network and cluster configurations.

For more information about Oracle RAC Cluster RDA reports, see the knowledge article [Doc ID 359395.1], available from the Oracle support website:

https://support.oracle.com

To set up a Oracle RAC Cluster RDA report, on the command line, run the following command:

$RDA_HOME/rda.sh -p Rac

The data collected from each Oracle RAC node is packaged in a separate ZIP file. The ZIP files are listed in the Remote Data Collection, Collected Data section of the RDA report.

OSM RDA Report

For a clustered environment, run this report on every host.

For more information about using RDA reports with OSM and other Oracle Communications applications, see the knowledge article [Doc ID 1057563.1], available from the Oracle support website:

https://support.oracle.com

To set up and generate an OSM RDA report:

  1. On the command line, run the following command:

    $RDA_HOME/rda.sh -s osm_report -p Com_OSM

  2. Run the following command:

    $RDA_HOME/rda.sh -s osm_report

    The report is saved in the directory from which you ran the RDA command. An osm_report folder and an RDA_osm_report_hostname.zip archive are created.