IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent Builder, Version 6.2.2.3

Monitoring Java Management Extensions (JMX) MBeans

With the JMX data provider you can collect data from JMX MBeans. Each JMX data source you define must identify either a single MBean (single instance) or a certain type of MBean (multiple instances). You must know the Object Name of the MBean or an Object Name pattern for a type of MBean that contains the data you want to collect. Use an Object Name pattern to only identify a set of similar MBeans. The set of MBeans that match the pattern must all provide the data that you want to see in the monitoring table. A typical Object Name pattern looks like *:j2eeType=Servlet,*. This Object Name Pattern matches all MBeans that have a j2eeType of Servlet. You can expect any MBean matching that pattern to have a similar set of exposed attributes and operations that can be added to your data source. A data source that uses that pattern collects data from each MBean matching that pattern. The attributes that you define for this data source must be available for any MBean matching the Object Name pattern you defined for the data source.

Use the following steps to add a JMX data source to collect data from Java™ Management Extension (JMX) MBeans:

  1. On the Agent Initial Data Source page (Figure 100) or the Data Source Location page, click Data from a server in the Monitoring Data Categories area.
  2. In the Data Sources area, click JMX
  3. Click Next.
  4. On the JMX Information page (Figure 101), click Browse to see all of the JMX MBeans on the MBean server.

    After you have defined the data source, you can use the browse function to pre-populate your attribute list. You can then add to, remove from, or modify the attributes that the browser inserted. The names for these attributes can be long and difficult to type correctly. Using the Browse option is an easy way to input the correct name.

    Note:
    You can manually create JMX data sources by specifying an Object Name and clicking Next without using the browser. Manually creating JMX data sources creates two data sources. An event data source containing predefined attributes for JMX notifications is created. Also, a collection data source is defined containing one attribute that you must specify in the wizard.

    MBean pattern
    Displays the MBean pattern.
    Global JMX Options
    Displays the level of support (Figure 102).

    Support is provided for the following JMX servers:

    • Java 5 platform MBean Server. Connection is made using the JSR-160 connector. Notifications and monitors are supported.
    • WebSphere® Application Server, version 6 and later. Connectors are provided for both SOAP and RMI protocols. JMX Monitors are not supported because MBeans cannot be created by a remote agent.
    • WebSphere Community Edition and other Apache Geronimo-based application servers. Connection is made through standard JSR-160 connectors. JMX notifications and monitors are supported in versions 1.1 and later.
    • JBoss Application Server, version 4.0 and later. See the following link to an item in the Troubleshooting appendix if you need support for JMX Monitors.
    • WebLogic Server, version 9 and newer. Connector is provided for T3 protocol.
  5. The first time you run the JMX browser, there are no items in the Connection Name scroll down menu. To add connections, click the plus (+) icon. You can also use the plus (+) icon to modify or delete connections you have already defined. The connection definitions are stored in the workspace, so that, when you create a connection, it is remembered. Complete the following steps to create a connection. If you already have a connection, skip to the next step.
    1. To create a new connection to an MBean Server, click the plus (+) icon to add a new connection or to edit an existing connection. The following window (Figure 103) is displayed when no connections have been defined:
    2. After clicking the plus (+) icon to add a connection, the JMX Connection Selection page (Figure 104) is displayed:
    3. Use the MBean Server Connection Wizard to connect to an MBean server. The new connections listed on the page are selections you can make to create a new connection. You can use the list of existing connections to reconfigure an existing connection. Select one of the new connection types and click Next to begin creating a new connection.
    4. After selecting a connection type, you might be asked to select a more specific type of connection. On the page above, two templates based on the "Standard JMX Connections (JSR-160)" connection type are shown. Select the template that is most appropriate for your MBean server and click Next.

      The Connection Properties page (Figure 106) contains the details on how to connect to an MBean server. This page needs to be completed with details about your MBean server.

      (Optional) Select Set as agent configuration defaults if you want the defaults for JMX to be copied from these properties. For example, the default JBoss base paths is C:\jboss-4.0.2.

      After you have specified the properties needed to connect, click Test Connection to ensure that the connection can be established. If the connection is not successful, correct the necessary properties.

      When the connection is successful, click Finish to return to the browser that will begin using the connection you just configured.

      The Java class path information in the Connection Properties page contains three fields that should be completed as necessary to connect to an MBean server that requires java classes that are not included in the Java 5 runtime environment. Normally, the MBean server you need to connect to should be installed on the same system as the Agent Builder. In this case, specify the directory where the application containing the MBean server was installed as the Base Paths field. The Jar Directories field should then list the directories relative to the Base Paths directory that contain the jar files needed to connect to the MBean server. The Class Path field can be used to include specific jar files. The jar files listed in the Jar Directories field do not need to be listed separately in the Class Path field.

      Any of the fields can contain more than one reference; just separate the entries by a semicolon. These values are the same values that are needed when configuring the agent. See JMX configuration for additional information about these fields.

  6. After you have selected a connection, the JMX Browser downloads information about the MBeans from the JMX server. This information is displayed in the following four areas of the JMX Browser window (Figure 107):

    To create a data source from the JMX Browser, use the four panels described above to build an Object Name Pattern that matches a set of MBeans that each contains the monitoring data you want to collect. For example, if you wanted to monitor data from all of the ThreadPool MBeans, you would do the following:

    1. Select type from the MBean Key Properties panel. Selecting type causes the values in the Selected Key Properties Values to be updated to list all unique values from the type key of any MBean.
    2. Select ThreadPool from the list of values for the type key. After selecting ThreadPool, the type key property name is checked in the MBean Key Properties panel and the Object Name Pattern is updated to "*:type=ThreadPool,*". The list of MBeans is also updated to show only the MBeans that match this pattern.
    3. Select one of the MBeans from the MBean list to see the attributes, operations and notifications available for the MBean. If your MBean list contains more MBeans than you want to monitor, you must continue this procedure of selecting key properties and values until you have the Object Name Pattern that identifies the set of MBeans you want to monitor. You can also display a context menu in the MBean list to update the Object Pattern with key property values shown in the table.
  7. When the object name pattern is correct, select an MBean from the table. All attributes of the selected MBean will be the initial attributes in the new JMX data source. Some attributes might not contain data. After the JMX data source is created review the attributes and remove any that are not significant. If the selected MBean has no attributes, you will be warned that the data source will be created with no attributes. If the selected MBean contains notifications, an "Event" data source will also be created to receive notifications from the MBeans.
  8. Click Finish in the filled on JMX Information page. Data sources are created based on the MBean that was selected in the previous step. If no MBean was selected, an attribute group with no attributes is created and a warning is displayed, giving you a chance to select an MBean if you want to. The notification data source has the word, Event, at the beginning of the data source name to distinguish it from the data source that shows attributes.
  9. To change other JMX options for the agent, click Global JMX Options. These options allow you to do the following:
  10. Click OK after you have selected the desired option.
  11. Click Next.
  12. On the Select key attributes page, select key attributes or indicate that this data source produces only one data row. See Selecting key attributes for more information.
  13. Click Next.

    The JMX Agent-Wide Options window shows the types of application servers that the Agent Builder supports. If you previously selected Set as agent configuration defaults on the Connection Properties page, the type of application server that you browsed to is automatically selected.

  14. In the JMX Agent-Wide Options window (Figure 109), select any other types of application servers to which you want your agent to be able to connect.
  15. Do one of the following steps:
    1. If you are using the New Agent Wizard, click Next.

      --OR--

    2. Click Finish to save the data source and open the Agent Editor.
  16. If you want to change the types of application servers to which you can connect after the agent has been created, click Global JMX Options in the JMX Data Source Information area (Figure 110).
  17. In the JMX Agent-Wide Options window (Figure 111), change any selections that you want.
  18. Click OK.
  19. To view the configuration sections and properties that were automatically generated, click the Runtime Configuration tab of the Agent Editor (Figure 112).

    The default value of the property, JBoss base paths, has the same value that was entered in the JMX browser in Step Figure 107.

For more information about the attribute groups for JMX events, see (JMX Event attribute groups),

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