Troubleshooting JAX-WS/JAX-RPC Web Services Performance Problems In IBM WebSphere Application Server with Web Services Performance (WSPerf) Trace

For message traffic analysis, the best way to analyze all of your WSPerf trace files is use IBM Trace and Request Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server (TRA). TRA is a freely available tool that automates the trace analysis task. To demonstrate how powerful the WSPerf trace points really are, open a WSPerf trace file with TRA.

What follows is specific to our WSPerf topic. Note however, TRA is very generic; it can handle any trace pattern you define. If you can define a pattern in a trace, then you can use TRA to help with the analysis. The pattern could be anything, a WebSphere component (EJB, J2C, Transactions, web container, etc.), or the pattern could be defined by your application code's debug/print statements.

TRA is an excellent time-saving tool. TRA can automatically analyze each thread in your WebSphere trace files. All you need is WebSpghere trace files and knowledge of your trace pattern. Follow the instructions to create and analyze with a WSPerf custom pattern:

1. Start TRA
   
   
2. In TRA Main Menu. Go to, View -> Pattern Manager
   Your TRA patterns configuration will be under " Trace Pattern from local repository"
   
   
3. In the Pattern Manager Window. Pattern -> New
   This should open "New Trace Pattern" dialog box.
   
   
4. Create a pattern to measure how much time was spent in a web service provider application's business logic:
   
   Name: Give this any name you like. For example "WSPerf-Service-Provider-BusLogic"
   Mnemonic: Leave empty (optional)
   Entry Keyword: invokeTargetOperation JavaDispatcher.invokeTargetOperation() calling
   Exit Keyword: invokeTargetOperation JavaDispatcher.invokeTargetOperation() returned
   Description: Leave empty (optional)
   Press Ok
5. You now have created a TRA custom pattern on your local repository (local TRA configuration). Once created, you can now use this pattern to analyze WebSphere web services trace(s). The key parts are the entry and exit keywords. If you want to analyze the time it takes for the application business logic, use the custom "WSPerf-Service-Provider-BusLogic" pattern.

  SlowPersonSearchPortProxy slowService = new SlowPersonSearchPortProxy();  System.out.println("Service call. getPerson method call");  Person p = slowService.getPerson(delaySec);  System.out.println("Service call. getPerson method return");

      @WebService(serviceName = "SlowService")      public class SlowPersonSearch      {               @WebMethod(exclude = false)        public Person getPerson(@WebParam(name = "delayTime", targetNamespace = "") int delayTime)       {        System.out.println("TOP getPerson method");        /* ... Business Logic ... */        System.out.println("END getPerson method");        return getRandPerson();       }      }

      URL url = null;      /* Sample Request        <soapenv:Envelope        xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">        <soapenv:Body>        <a:getPerson xmlns:a="http://wascet.ibm.com/">        <delayTime>0</delayTime>        </a:getPerson>        </soapenv:Body>        </soapenv:Envelope>      */      try      {        url = new URL("http://{host}:{port}/SlowService/SlowService/SlowService.wsdl");        QName serviceName = new QName("http://wascet.ibm.com/", "SlowService");        QName portName = new QName("http://wascet.ibm.com/", "SlowPersonSearchPort");        Service service = Service.create(url, serviceName);        Dispatch<SOAPMessage> dispatch =        service.createDispatch(portName, SOAPMessage.class, Service.Mode.MESSAGE);        SOAPMessage soapRquest = MessageFactory.newInstance().        createMessage(null, new FileInputStream("slowrequest.xml"));        SOAPMessage soapResponse = dispatch.invoke(soapRquest);        return soapResponse;      }      catch (Exception) {...}

      javax.naming.InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();      SlowServiceLocator locator = ( SlowServiceLocator) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/service/SlowService");      System.out.println("Service call. getPerson method call");      Person p = (Person) locator.getSlowPersonSearchPort().getPerson(delaySec);      System.out.println("Service call. getPerson method return");