Java Management Extensions

by J. Steven Perry

Book Overview

Steve Perry has spent his time "in the trenches". "I've been paged at 3:00 am to provide support because the system wasn't doing what it should and no one had a clue how to figure out why. I've scrolled through endless logfiles to decipher system problems, when a management solution could have presented an operator with a warning message hours earlier " Wanting other developers to be able to learn from his experiences, Steve wrote Java Management...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596002459
• ISBN13: 9780596002459
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Java Management Extensions

JMX is a Java framework for managing enterprise applications in a distributed environment. The book Java Management Extensions takes the reader from a high-level mountaintop description of what JMX is in the first chapter, aimed at architects and management, who might be investigating the new technology, to a trench-digging description of how to expose a class for management through instrumenting an MBean.Perry's initial description of the JMX architecture in the first chapter does a good job describing the parts of the JMX and how they interoperate. It is a very high-level view of JMX and many abstract ideas are presented. On a personal level, my experience with the JBoss application server gave me a concrete example to refer to during this JMX introduction, which helped. Here, the reader is presented with many UML diagrams to illustrate the architecture.The next four chapters cover the nuts and bolts of how to construct JMX services. To use the JMX framework, a developer must become familiar with an object called an MBean. In a nutshell, MBeans are Java classes that implement an MBean interface (A process known as instrumenting), allowing the MBeans to be loaded into an MBean server and managed. In these chapters, Perry talks about four types of Mbeans, Standard, Dynamic, Model, and Open MBeans. After introducing each type of MBean, Perry gives simple code examples of how to build each type of MBean. Chapter 6 deals primarily with introducing the reader to the MBean server. Perry uses the reference implementation from Sun for the examples in his book. Real world MBean servers include names such as JBoss and WebLogic. The most exciting part of the book, I felt were chapters 7 and 9, where Perry talks about the JMX notification model and Monitoring classes. Firing events, filtering notifications, and creating monitors appear to be the real advantages to the JMX framework and are covered thoroughly in these chapters.Perry's no-nonsense writing style provides a succinct description of the architecture. At 312 pages, the book is the thinnest technical book on my bookshelf, making the read easier to manage.In summary, Java Management Extensions is a good book for developers who want to gain an understanding of what JMX is. Programmers new to JMX will probably find the first part of the book a good introduction to JMX and its architecture, while the last chapters focus more on how to put the framework to good use. Although Perry does not have a style of writing that entertained me, it was clear and to the point. He does cover his information thoroughly and appears to know the content well. JMX is a technology that I feel will be used heavily in the future, and for anyone who is intending to write a J2EE application that needs management or monitoring, JMX appears to be the answer.

An exceptionally useful and straightforward manual

Java Management Extensions by Java expert J. Steven Perry is a superbly organized and written reference and instructional resource to managing Java applications with JMX. Individual chapters address standard, dynamic, model, and open MBeans, dynamic loading, the monitoring class and timer service, and much more. A practical study of JMX architecture as well as a thoroughly "user friendly" how-to guide for technical managers, Java Management Extensions is an exceptionally useful and straightforward manual.

Sound primer to the JMX APIs

Java Management Extensions (JMX) enable configuration, management and monitoring of Java applications at runtime in a standardized manner. Furthermore JMX offers an exciting new approach for building component based applications. JMX makes it possible to exchange these components with new implementations or add new components without ever stopping your server. A lot of application servers, like JBoss, Apache Tomcat or BEA WebLogic, are based on this approach nowadays.The O'Reilly book "Java Management Extensions" offers a sound primer to the JMX APIs. It starts off with a high level view of the JMX concepts. The author then introduces a sample application which is used throughout the book to explain the different parts of the JMX API.For every type of MBean( standard, dynamic, model and even the brand new Open MBeans) the author devoted a whole chapter, covering the complete API of the Mbean type. Therefore, and because all the chapters are so very well structured, the book is perfectly suited for serving as a reference book.Further topics covered are the MBean server, JMX Notifications, dynamic loading with MLets and the JMX Services (monitoring service, timer service, relation service). Again there is a whole chapter for every single topic.All in all I like the book very much, especially because it is so clearly structured and because of the author's straightforward way of writing. Be aware though that, while the book covers the complete standardized JMX APIs, it does not talk a lot about the not yet standardized parts, like connectors and adaptors, except for the obligatory HttpAdaptor. But that is a reasonable decision as these parts a different for every implementation of JMX, and the best place to cover them is probably the vendors documentation.Highly recommendable.

Solid intro to an exciting technology

You will need a good working knowledge of J2EE and a background in applications and systems management (i.e., Tivoli, the ARM specification, CA-UniCenter, etc.) to fully benefit from this book. If you have these requisites you'll appreciate JMX, which in my opinion, is an exciting technology. This book is unique in that it fully explains how to use it to build real world system and application management solutions. In past engagements I've worked with Tivoli, home-grown solutions and have explored the ARM approach to application management. Each has strengths and weaknesses ranging from proprietary (Tivoli and home grown) to intrusive (ARM). JMX is an open systems approach to building management solutions in a standardized manner.The book provides a complete description of the Sun JMX APIs, including code snippets throughout as the book describes the APIs and how to call them to perform management functions. Note that JMX assumes the J2EE environment, and the extent of management includes not only applications, but devices and service parameters using a web-based environment.Topics covered in the book include: JMX concepts, a complete discussion of MBeans (static, dynamic, instrumenting resources with model MBeans), and various service types (monitoring, timing and notification). The examples, including code snippets, illustrate how each concept and service type works, giving you a solid foundation from which to begin developing management solutions.While the book will get you up-to-speed quickly, you will need to fill in some of the blanks by using Sun documentation from their web site to get the complete picture. Therein lies the value of the book - it saves you countless hours of sifting through volumes of documentation to get the essence of JMX, and points you to the relevant documentation and development tools to keep the momentum. In this respect the book shows you how to download and install the JMX reference implementation and begin using it to build adapters and management tools.