There are a number of presentations, articles and entries in this (and other) blogs that talk about how to use the IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™ (Health Center, Memory Analyzer (and IBM Extensions!), GCMV, etc), but there's nothing like learning to use the tools by solving real problems - and preferably in an environment where there's no time pressure to get the problem fixed!
As a result, we've created a hands on exercise which we termed the "Troubleshooing Masterclass" which was used at IMPACT 2011, the European WebSphere Technical Conference and a number of other places. This exercise is now available online for anyone to run via the "SOA Sandbox".
What is the Troubleshooting Masterclass?
The Troubleshooting Masterclass is an exercise in debugging problems with a faulty application running in WebSphere Application Server. You will be using the tooling included in the IBM Support Assistant -- the Health Center, the Garbage Collection Memory Visualizer, and the Memory Analyzer -- to overcome common problems caused by a poorly implemented application: memory leaks, unexpected garbage collection cycles triggered by the system, and the performance hit from large application objects and HTTP session sizes. The tools in the IBM Support Assistant are included in the IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™
What is the SOA Sandbox?
The SOA Sandbox is a cloud offering that provides a dedicated, hosted environment with IBM products already installed just for you. Each SOA Sandbox activity is centered around a simple, realistic customer exercise. You simply install a (provided) Citric client, and request to run an exercise. You then log into the exercise and run it remotely - everything is provided for you!
How long will it take?
The exercise should take between 1hr and 1hr 30 minutes.
Where do I find it?
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/soasandbox/was4dev.html