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JBoss Application Server

ZenPacks.zenoss.JBossMonitor

This ZenPack allows system administrators to monitor JBoss Appliciation Servers.

This ZenPack uses the JMX Remote API and accesses MBeans deployed within JBoss that contain performance information about the components that are being managed. The collected performance information includes: pool sizes for data sources (JDBC), Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs), message queues (JMS), threads, servlets, JSPs, and classloaders. Cache information is also accessible, providing system administrators insight into the number of hits (or misses) their cache policy has produced.

This ZenPack also aggregates individual performance metrics into higher level concepts that provide a picture of the performance of the application. Cache hits and misses are combined on the same graph to provide an overall picture of cache performance. Likewise, queue metrics are combined to show the number of messages currently on the queue, being processed, and being placed on the queue. Queue subscribers and publishers are also graphed.

Each of the individual performance metrics can be trended and predicted, and thresholds can be explicitly defined. Both the predicted thresholds and explicit thresholds inform system administrators of potential future problems before they occur. Since so much of J2EE involves "managed resources", the ability to monitor pool sizes and alert administrators prior to resources being exhausted is extremely valuable and can reduce the likelihood of a fatal outage caused by resource depletion.

Most of the metrics represent combinations of individual component metrics. For example, the Thread Pool metric represents all threads in all pools. It is possible to configure this ZenPack to perform at higher granularity and have it monitor a Thread Pool with a particular name. However, since these names are application specific we have chosen to configure this ZenPack to collect at a rather coarse-grained level by default. The installer is highly encouraged to customize and configure!

One particular monitoring template that requires end-user configuration involves Servlets. If a site to be monitored is revenue generating, and credit card submissions from the website are handled via a back-end servlet, it may be critically important to monitor the resources made available by the JBoss container to the servlet container. If the number of free spaces in the servlet pool dwindles to zero it could prevent your application from making a sale.

The following are the collected metrics for JBoss servers:

  • Active Threads
  • JMS Message cache memory usage
  • JMS Message hits/misses
  • JMS Topic/Destination queue size
  • Java heap memory usage
  • JCA commit, rollback, and transaction count
  • JCA Connection pool in-use connections and available connections
  • JCA connections created/destroyed
  • JCA total connections
  • JGroups cluster messages sent/received
  • JGroups cluster bytes sent/received
  • MBean creation/removal count
  • MBean messages processed count

Commercial

This ZenPack is developed and supported by Zenoss Inc. Commercial ZenPacks are available to Zenoss commercial customers only. Contact Zenoss to request more information regarding this or any other ZenPacks. Click here to view all available Zenoss Commercial ZenPacks.

Support

This ZenPack is included with commercial versions of Zenoss and enterprise support for this ZenPack is provided to Zenoss customers with an active subscription.

Releases

Version 2.4.2- Download

  • Compatible with Zenoss Resource Manager 4.2.x, Zenoss Resource Manager 5.0.x

Configuring JBoss to Allow JMX Queries

JBoss uses the JAVA_OPTS approach for enabling remote access to MBeans. However, it requires some additional properties. To set up your JAVA_OPTS for use in JBoss see the following code segment:

JAVA_OPTS="-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=12345"
JAVA_OPTS="${JAVA_OPTS} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false"
JAVA_OPTS="${JAVA_OPTS} -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false"
JAVA_OPTS="${JAVA_OPTS} -Djboss.platform.mbeanserver"
JAVA_OPTS="${JAVA_OPTS} -Djavax.management.builder.initial=org.jboss.system\
.server.jmx.MBeanServerBuilderImpl"
export JAVA_OPTS

When you start JBoss via the run.sh you must also pass the -b 0.0.0.0 argument:

cd ${JBOSS_HOME}/bin
./run.sh -b 0.0.0.0

JMX actually uses two separate ports for MBean access: one is used for initial connection handling and authentication, and the other is used for RMI access. During the handshake between a JMX Client and the JMX Agent the agent tells the client the IP address and port number for the RMI registry. By default JBoss sets the IP address to 127.0.0.1. This works when the JMX client and the JMX agent reside on the same device, but it won't work in a distributed environment.

By passing the -b 0.0.0.0 argument you instruct JBoss to bind to all available network ports, and this results in the JMX Agent's handshaking logic using a network reachable address when informing clients of the RMI registry hostname and port.

The jmx-console Web page in JBoss allows you to view the different MBeans that are available; however, this does not mean that these MBeans are available remotely. If JConsole can view MBeans, then so can the zenjmx daemon that gathers this information.

Configuring Zenoss platform

All JBoss services must have a device entry under the /Devices/Server/JBoss device class.

Note: The zenjmx daemon must be configured and running. .

  1. Navigate to the device or device class in the Zenoss platform interface.
    • If applying changes to a device class:
      1. Select the class in the devices hierarchy.
      2. Click Details.
      3. Select Configuration Properties.
    • If applying changes to a device:
      1. Click the device in the device list.
      2. Select Configuration Properties.

  2. Edit the appropriate configuration properties for the device or devices.

    JBoss Configuration Properties

    Name Description
    zJBossJmxManagementAuthenticate This configuration property is deprecated.
    zJBossJmxManagementPassword JMX password
    zJBossJmxManagementPort The port number used to gather JMX information
    zJBossJmxManagementUsername JMX username for authentication

  3. Click Save to save your changes. You will now be able to start collecting the JBoss server metrics from this device.

  4. Navigate to Graphs and you should see some placeholders for graphs. After approximately fifteen minutes you should see the graphs start to become populated with information.

Tip: The out-of-the-box JBoss data source configuration has been defined at the macro level, but can be configured to operate on a more granular basis. For example, the Servlet Reload Count applies to all servlets in all Web applications but it could be narrowed to be Servlet /submitOrder in Web application "production server."

Change the Amount of Data Collected and Graphed

  1. Navigate to the device or device class under the /Devices/Server/JBoss device class in the interface.
  2. In the left panel, select Monitoring Templates
  3. Select Bind Templates from the Action menu.

  4. To add other templates and retain existing monitoring templates, hold down the control key while clicking on the original entries.

    JBoss Templates

    Name Description
    JBoss Core Core information about any JBoss server, including memory usage, threads, and uptime.
    JBoss JCA Connection Pool
    JBoss JGroups Channel
    JBoss JMS Cache
    JBoss JMS Destination
    JBoss JMS Topic
    JBoss Message Driven EJB

  5. Click the OK button to save your changes.

Viewing Raw Data

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Daemons

Type Name
Performance Collector zenjmx