veithen / visualwas

WebSphere plugin for VisualVM

VisualWAS - WebSphere plugin for VisualVM

Introduction

The VisualWAS project provides a VisualVM plugin to connect to WebSphere Application Server. It is based on a GPL licensed implementation of WebSphere's proprietary JMX/SOAP protocol and therefore doesn't require any additional libraries from the WebSphere runtime.

Also provided is a WebSphere plugin that registers the platform MXBeans in WebSphere's MBean server so that memory and thread statistics are available in VisualVM.

Compatibility

VisualWAS >= 4.0.0 is designed to work with VisualVM >= 2.0. Older versions of VisualWAS work with VisualVM 1.3.x and 1.4.x.

Installation

VisualVM plugin installation

1. Download the VisualWAS-x.y.z.nbm file for the latest VisualWAS release from the Releases page.

2. Choose Tools > Plugins from the main menu in VisualVM.

3. In the Plugins dialog that opens, switch to Downloaded tab, then click Add Plugins....

4. Select the downloaded .nbm file and click the Open button.

5. Click the Install button, review and accept the plugin license and wait for the plugin to be installed.

WebSphere plugin installation

Perform the following steps if you want to access process statistics for your WebSphere server in VisualVM:

1. Download the com.github.veithen.visualwas.mxbeans_x.y.z.jar file for the latest VisualWAS release from the Releases page and copy it to the plugins directory of your WebSphere installation (typically /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/plugins).

2. If necessary, stop the WebSphere server. Then use the osgiCfgInit command to clear the OSGi cache, as described here.

Installation of the MBeans plugin

To access the MBeans registered in WebSphere's MBean server, you need to install the VisualVM-MBeans plugin:

1. Choose Tools > Plugins from the main menu in VisualVM.

2. In the Plugins dialog that opens, switch to Available Plugins tab and click the checkbox next to VisualVM-Beans.

3. Click the Install button, review and accept the plugin license and wait for the plugin to be installed.

Usage

In order to connect to a WebSphere instance, select Add JMX Connection as usual, but then select WebSphere from the Connection type list and enter the relevant information:

Use Test connection to check that a connection to the WebSphere instance can successfully be established. If security is enabled, then you may be presented with a dialog to import the server certificate or one of the certificates in the certificate chain to the trust store:

You should typically add the root certificate to avoid problems later when the server certificate is renewed. For Network Deployment cells, this also allows you to connect to all servers in a cell without importing additional certificates.

After clicking OK the new connection should appear in the Applications view and you can start monitoring the server:

If you have installed VisualVM-MBeans plugin you can also interact with the MBeans exported by the server:

visualwas's Issues

com.github.veithen.visualwas.mxbeans_1.0.0.jar is not working on J9 Java 8

When putting the com.github.veithen.visualwas.mxbeans_1.0.0.jar inside /plugins directory the plugin works only when using Java 7 on server side (WAS).

Error trying to connect on WebSphere

Hi,

I'm trying to connect VisualVM with visualwas plugin installed inside the DMGR machine (WAS 8.5.5.12 - J9 1.7). This DMGR uses a non default SSL certificate and the soap port was configured in a non-standard port too (20260). When I'm starting the VisualVM using Oracle Java 8 (jdk1.8.0_191) I accept the certificate and then I receive a error. "UndeclaredThrowableException: null". When I ran with Oracle Java 11 (jdk-11.0.1) the visualwas plugin stay stuck in the message "Connecting".

There's a way to turn on a debug to try to troubleshoot this errors ?

Thanks one more time!

Gabriel.

Visual GC dashboard implementation

Hi,

I don't know how hard it is.. but are you planning implement the Visual GC dashboard to visualwas plugin?

Thanks,

Jconsole

Do you think it would be possible to use visualwas plugin with jconsole?

Found, to make visualwas visible to jconsole is enough to create:
META-INF\services\javax.management.remote.JMXConnectorProvider:
com.github.veithen.visualwas.jmx.soap.ClientProvider

Regards

Implicit add to trust store

Req:

i'd like to use your visualwas in a non-interactive project.

It would be nice to add a properties or implement a protocol to implicit add to the truststore the certificate.

Does not work with VisualVM >= 2.0

Unfortunately the plugin is not installable in VisualVM >= 2.0.

JAVA 8 - Monitor - CPU usage: <unknown>

When using Java 8 monitor doesn't show the cpu usage, only the GC activity.

Thanks in advance.