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Hit the ground running with AIDE, Part 5: Build an autonomic computing system

Database engine management with autonomic touchpoints

Stephen B. Morris, CTO, Omey Communications

Stephen is the CTO of Omey Communications in Ireland. For the past 20 years, Stephen has worked for some of the world's largest networking companies on a wide range of software projects, including J2EE/J2SE-based network management systems, billing applications, porting and developing SNMP entities, network device technologies, and GSM mobile networking applications. He is the author of Network Management, MIBs and MPLS: Principles, Design and Implementation (Prentice Hall PTR, 2003) as well as several articles on network management and other topics for InformIT and OnJava.com. You can reach Stephen at stephenbjm@yahoo.com.
(An IBM developerWorks Contributing Author)

Summary: This tutorial -- the fifth in the series -- illustrates the management of Apache Derby databases using touchpoint technology. Learn how to use a touchpoint that contains a working instance of Derby, and work through a management interface to a Derby database instance as a Web service-based managed object. You interact with this touchpoint using the IBM® Autonomic Integrated Development Environment (AIDE) resource browser and a Derby Java™ client program.

Date: 05 Sep 2006
Level: Intermediate
PDF: A4 and Letter (137 KB | 22 pages)Get Adobe® Reader®

Activity: 18247 views
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Before you start

Learn what to expect from this tutorial series and how to get the most out of it.

About this series

This tutorial is the fifth in a series that describes the IBM AIDE toolkit and key elements of IT management, from the managed elements all the way up to and including the autonomic management application, with all the elements shown in Figure 1. Derby is an example of a managed element, and this series examines it closely.

Previously, this series covered code-level descriptions for incorporating the Java Management Extensions (JMX) application programming interface (API). This API provides a convenient mechanism for extracting data from JMX-instrumented entities and presenting it as part of an autonomic touchpoint. JMX is an important technology because it facilitates management of any Java entity, from Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) and Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) all the way up to Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

The main emphasis in this tutorial is on the use and management of Derby instances. You might ask, "What makes Derby so interesting?" Well, it's a completely Java-based, Structured Query Language (SQL)-based, lightweight database engine. If required, Derby can run in embedded mode (everything inside one Java Virtual Machine, or JVM) or network mode (clients and engine in separate JVMs). In other words, it's a flexible tool that can provide advanced database services on a single machine or across a network. Because of this, Derby (like any other similar product) can consume a lot of resources.

As with the earlier tutorials in this series (see Resources), this tutorial uses and builds upon the examples bundled with the AIDE toolkit. In this tutorial, you learn how to use AIDE to interact with an instance of Derby. So, you should learn a little about Derby. The major takeaway is an end-to-end understanding of management of an important application class.

This series is for anyone who knows some Java programming and wants to be able to use AIDE technology to create key components (instrumented entities, touchpoints, and managers) of IT management systems.

About this tutorial

This tutorial describes how to use and manage Derby in conjunction with the AIDE toolkit. This tutorial takes you beyond the basics you learned in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 and introduces a concrete managed application. The ongoing aim of this tutorial series is to provide you with a solid foundation on issues relating to manager applications, touchpoints, and managed entities.

For this fifth tutorial, the platform is still quite generic: Any platform that supports Eclipse, the AIDE toolkit, and J2SE V5.0. For example, Microsoft® Windows® XP is more than adequate. All the example code was written and tested on a computer running Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (SP2).

For this tutorial, you'll be running Derby in network mode. This doesn't actually require you to have access to a network. I tested all the code on a single computer running Windows XP Professional SP2. For the more adventurous reader, you can run the various elements on separate computers, and the results should be the same as described in this tutorial.

Prerequisites

This tutorial is written for programmers who have a reasonable knowledge of Java programming, Eclipse, and IT systems management. The ability to use an integrated development environment (IDE) such as Eclipse and the various tools and plug-ins that go with it is helpful but not necessary. Detailed directions are provided throughout the tutorial. Likewise, a basic understanding of the following components and technology is useful:

JMX
Managed entity instrumentation
Web service orchestration
Monitoring and management

All concepts are described and illustrated with working code examples. If you've been following the series, you should have a fairly solid knowledge of these issues. Nearly all the example touchpoints and Java classes mentioned in this tutorial are part of the AIDE distribution. I also provide an example Java client program for accessing Derby. The unmodified version of this program is part of the Derby distribution and is available for download from the indicated location.

System requirements

To run the examples in this tutorial, the minimum platform requirements are a computer running Windows XP on which you've installed the AIDE software and Apache Tomcat V5.

Note: You can use Apache Tomcat V4, but you must use the compatibility package as well.

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