Chapter 37. Configuring Management Applications with JMX Services
by Joe McGuire and Gurpreet Singh Bhasin
IN THIS CHAPTER
Distributed enterprise computing environments are comprised of many different physical and virtual resources, such as the network, the servers, as well as the application components running in the environment. Success is dependent on all of these resources working together at their most efficient capacity. A major strength of distributed computing environments is their capability to scale; however, as the number of resources increases, so does the number of possible points of failure.
To avert failure, system administrators require a means to manage and monitor these resources. Those who have been doing so usually employ a variety of different protocols and services, such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), to monitor and manage their physical devices. They might also use a variety of off-the-shelf or custom-built applications and services to monitor and manage applications and systems.
This has meant that developers and system administrators have had to become proficient in a number of different protocols and systems tools that normally have a steep learning curve and/or high price tag. Fortunately, the J2EE specification provides an easy and inexpensive Java-based solution that can be applied to every resource in a distributed environment—both hardware and software.
In this chapter, we explore the Java Management Extensions (JMX) API, how it's used by WebLogic Server, and how you can use it for your own resources.
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