JBoss.orgCommunity Documentation
Version: 4.0.0
Copyright © 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 JBoss by Red Hat
JBoss Tools' JMX project is a fork of eclipse-jmx, a project by Jeff Mesnil. It was forked with permission.
JBoss JMX Tools™ allows you to setup multiple JMX connections, and provides a view for exploring the JMX tree and execute operations directly from within Eclipse.
This chapter covers the basics of working with JMX plugin™, which is used to manage Java applications (with Managed Beans) through JMX and its RMI Connector.
The table below lists the main features of JBoss JMX Tools:
Table 1.1. Key Functionality for JBoss JMX Tools
Feature | Benefit | Chapter |
---|---|---|
MBean Explorer |
MBean Explorer is a useful view with a text filter that displays domains, mbeans, attributes, and operations inside a connection. | mbean_explorer |
MBean Editor |
MBean Editor is a multi-page editor to manage MBeans. | mbean_editor |
This chapter will provide answers to common questions asked by JMX plugin users.
To start using the JMX Tools it is necessary to open MBean Explorer. Select → → , select and click the button.
The MBean Explorer lists all the domains, MBeans, attributes, and operations inside a connection. When you double-click an MBean in the MBean Explorer, it opens a multi-page editor to manage the MBean. The MBean Editor is composed of these pages:
Attributes page, to get/set the attributes of the MBean
Operations page, to invoke operations on the MBean
Notifications page, to receive notifications from the MBean
Info page, which displays general information about the MBean
In this section we will show you how to get connected to a sample Java application and run the sayHello()
method remotely from inside of the MBean Explorer.
Save the bundle of JMX API sample classes, jmx_examples.zip, to your working directory.
Unzip the bundle of sample classes.
Compile the example Java classes from within where you unpacked the files directory.
javac com/example/*.java
Start the Main
application, specifying the properties that expose Main
for remote management:
java -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=9999 \ -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false \ -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false \ com.example.Main
If everything was done correctly you will see the
Waiting for incoming requests...
message on the screen.
Now launch the Eclipse IDE, in Eclipse open the MBean Explorer. Go to → → , select , and then click the button)
Click the MBean Explorer menu bar.
icon in theIn the Create JMX Connection dialog, click the button and then click the Advanced tab.
In the JMX URL input field enter the following URL:
service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://:9999/jmxrmi
Click the
button to establish the connection with the application.
Now expand the connection you have just created, open the com.example package, and click the sayHello()
method.
Once the sayHello()
method is selected the MBean Editor is activated.
In the MBean Editor go to the Operation Details section and click the sayHello()
button.
You will get the "Operation invoked successfully" message.
The final step is to make sure the application worked as expected. Open the terminal where you launched the application in step 3. You should see output similar to the following:
[matthew@localhost jmx_examples]$ java -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=9999 \ > -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false \ > -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false \ > com.example.Main Waiting for incoming requests... hello, world
It is possible to manage Tomcat using JMX Tools.
Currently, JMX Tooling is able to connect to Tomcat without authentication or with password-based authentication.
Using SSL for authentication is not supported: you need to make sure that the System property com.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl is set to false.
More information to manage Tomcat can be found in the Tomcat management documentation.
Instructions to remotely manage Tomcat are available in Tomcat's monitoring documentation.
If you are running JBos Enterprise Application Platform 6, JBoss Application Server 7 or later, you can connect automatically to a remote server through the Server Behaviour tab in the server settings. For further information on this see the JBoss Server Manager Reference Guide for this release.
The JBoss JMX Tools allow you to easily access and manage a JBoss server remotely. In order to connect to a remote instance of a JBoss server, you need to run the server or make sure the server is launched.
Select
→ → and select the option.Switch to the MBean Explorer by selecting → → and selecting the option.
Click the MBean Explorer menu bar.
icon in theSelect the Advanced tab and set the JMX URL to:
service:jmx:rmi://localhost/jndi/rmi://localhost:1090/jmxconnector
Please note that in this example we are connected to the local host.
This section will outline how to contribute your own Server type with some default behavior.
You might be asking yourself why you would need to extend this framework if JMX is a standard. Perhaps you want a connection to be automatically created after some specific action, or perhaps you want your connection wizard to do more than simply set a host and port. JBoss, for example, requires setting some credentials on the client machine, but uses JBoss classes to do it. This requires that the connection has access to the JBoss JARs.
To create your own JMX Connection type, you must use the org.jboss.tools.jmx.core.MBeanServerConnectionProvider
extension point. This point takes one child, a connectionProvider with a class that implements org.jboss.tools.jmx.core.IConnectionProvider
.
An IConnectionProvider
is responsible for creation and deletion of IConnectionWrapper
objects. It must also keep a list of listeners that it is expected to notify when a connection is added or removed from its list.
Each IConnectionWrapper
is expected to be able to run arbitrary JMX runnables or getting a "Root" object representing all JMX nodes. There are some utility methods the IConnectionWrapper
can make use of.
There are two extension points currently approved for use in the UI
org.jboss.tools.jmx.ui.providerUI
- provide an icon, id, displayable name, and wizardPage class for creation of new connections
org.jboss.tools.jmx.ui.attribute.controls
- allows you to map class types to some Control to present them in the MBean Editor
The MBean Explorer supports several different types of connections. The tooling itself comes only with a default connection type, however other adopters can provide additional connection types that may require additional or non-spec behavior. Connections can be in either the connected state or the disconnected state. Some connection types (such as the default connection type) allow you to control the current state. Other connection types may not.
Similarly, some connection types may be able to be created, and others may not. The default connection type, for example, can be created and deleted at will. The AS Tools connection type, which represents a JBoss server, does not allow you this level of control. A JBoss JMX connection is created when a JBoss server is created in the server's view, and deleted when said server is deleted. The JMX connection for this server is in the connected state only when the server is started.
There are two ways to connect to an application with remote management enabled:
The first step is the same for both methods - to connect to a MBean Server, click the MBean Explorer menu bar.
icon in theThe simple method is to specify the host, port (and optionally user name and password) and click the
button.On the Advanced tab you can set the server name (it will be displayed in MBean Explorer), and a URL to the remote server. For example, to connect to JBoss AS you need to set the JMX URL to
service:jmx:rmi://localhost/jndi/rmi://localhost:1090/jmxconnector
If it is required you can enter user name and password for the server connection.
Only JMX URL based on RMI are supported.
The MBean Explorer displays the MBean features (both attributes and operations) in its hierarchy. Double-clicking on a feature will open an MBean Editor, displaying the page corresponding to the feature type and select the feature.
Since it is possible to have many MBean Editors opened at the same time, the MBean Explorer has the button to synchronize selections between the active MBean Editor and the MBean Explorer (and vice versa).
The MBean Explorer has also a filter that can be used to filter the available MBeans to show those that interest you.
For example, if you are only interested by MBeans related to memory, typing "memo" will show any node (domain, mbean, attribute, or operation) that matches that text, as well as that node's parents and children. So if an MBean matches, all attributes and operations from that bean will be displayed. If, however, an attribute or operation name (a leaf node) matches, only that node and its parents in the tree will be displayed.
The MBean Explorer toolbar is used to collapse all the MBeans and display only the domains. It is also possible to double click on a node to expand or collapse it.
button on theThe MBean Editor is composed of several pages:
the Attributes page
the Operations page
the Notifications page
the Info page
The Attributes and Operations pages display a list for either the MBean attributes or operations, as well as details about the selection.
It is possible to toggle the layout between the list and the details either vertically (by default) or horizontally with the help of the special icons in the right top corner of the editor.
The Notifications page provides the ability to subscribe or unsubscribe to an MBean to receive its notifications by checking or unchecking the button in the right top corner.
The list of notifications is refreshed every time a new notification is received:
It is only possible to subscribe to an MBean that emits notifications (i.e. they must be a NotificationBroadcaster).
This document has provided an overview of the functionality included with JXM Tools, as well as walking you through the steps on managing Tomcat, Eclipse Equinox or JBoss Instances and how to create new JMX connections. If you have questions or suggestions concerned both the documentation and tools behavior, you are welcome to JBoss Tools Users forum. Please, use Jira to report bugs and requests on documentation.
You can find the JBoss Developer Studio/JBoss Tools release documentation at http://docs.jboss.org/tools in the corresponding release directory.
The latest documentation builds are available at http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/nightly-docs.
The JBoss JXM Wiki can be found at http://www.jboss.org/community/wiki/JBossMX
For more information about JMX technology please visit JMX Technology Home Page