Managing Applications with HP OpenView

by Grace Lin
02/20/2006

Abstract

Your application is finally deployed and running in a production environment. However, the deployed application contains problems that require fixes. How do the developers and IT staff who coded the application identify and resolve the problems in the deployed application? As a developer you do not want your developed application becoming an unmanaged entity in a production environment. Likewise, if you're in IT management, you certainly want to quickly identify what's going wrong in any of the deployed applications so that you can resolve problems as quickly as possible and minimize any downtime.

One approach to solving this dilemma is to have manageability built into the application. This tutorial focuses on JMX (Java Management Extensions) for the design of manageability of J2EE applications. I cover JMX basics and show how to instrument a simple J2EE application through JMX inside the BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 environment. I also introduce JMX Metric Builder, a tool that helps J2EE developers to configure their MBeans into a manageable metric, managed by a management application that is an HP OpenView BEA WebLogic SPI (Smart Plug-in). The end-to-end management solution provided by HP OpenView not only prevents application downtime but also makes line-of-business (LOB) managers aware of the business impact of an application's running status.

Applications Manageability

Manageability refers to the ability to exercise administrative and supervisory actions and receive information relevant to such actions on a component. Application manageability allows an application to be managed and controlled in the production management.

Figure 1. Application availability affects business profitability

Look at Figure 1. In the past, applications used to log a simple "Database is down" error message as their communication to IT. Primitive manageability! Today, applications need to provide advanced manageability for LOB, with messages like "We are losing 10 thousand dollars per hour in orders because the database is down." With this valuable information, business can adjust processes to maximize profit and minimize loss. The benefits of manageable applications extend across the whole enterprise. The information does not need to be infrastructure health-related. It can be a signal of a business transaction problem as well.

Basics of JMX

JMX is a specification defining how Java resources can be managed through a common interface. This specification includes the architecture, design patterns, APIs, and services for application and network management and monitoring in the Java programming language.

The JMX architecture, illustrated in Figure 2, consists of four layers:

• Instrumentation layer
• Agent layer
• Distributed layer
• Manager layer

Figure 2. JMX architecture

I'll quickly review each of these in turn.

Instrumentation layer

The instrumentation layer is the level to manage resources, such as applications, devices, or services. You use Java objects called Managed Beans (MBeans) to implement the access to the instrumentation of management resources. Management resources are application attributes that will help in determining the state of the application. These include system-level information (like database is down), business logic-related information (like losing 10K/hour in order), and service-level information (like availability and response time).

MBeans encapsulate a resource and expose their management interfaces through a JMX agent for remote management and monitoring. There are four types of MBeans: Standard, Dynamic, Open, and Model MBean.

Agent layer

The agent layer defines a JMX agent that contains the MBean server and the agent services. The MBean server is the main component of a JMX agent in which MBeans are registered. MBeans must register with this server so that the management framework can detect them. The MBean server also handles the management messages that are sent among registered MBeans. MBean servers can run on most devices enabled for the Java programming language.

The agent services represent a JMX agent that includes a set of services for handling MBeans. JMX agents directly control resources and make them available to remote management agents. The agent services include dynamic class loading, monitors, timers, and relation.

Distributed layer

The distributed layer has the protocol adaptors and connectors. Protocol adaptors and standard connectors make a JMX agent accessible from remote management applications outside the agent's Java Virtual Machine. Protocol adaptors provide a view through a specific protocol of all MBeans registered in the MBean server.

Connectors include a remote component that provides end-to-end communications with the agent over a variety of protocols (for example HTTP, HTTPS, IIOP). The J2SE platform includes the standard RMI connector for an application running in a remote location. Since JMX connectors using different protocols provide the same Java technology-based interface, management applications use the connector that best fits their networking environment and even change connectors transparently as needed. JMX agents can also be used by systems or applications that are not compliant with the JMX specification but that support JMX agents.

Manager layer

The manager layer includes remote management applications outside the JMX agent's Java Virtual Machine. The possible examples in this layer are BEA WebLogic Server's Administration Console, JMX Metric Builder, HP OpenView SPIs, an HTML browser, and JConsole.

For a more in-depth introduction to JMX, visit the WebLogic Server product documentation.