Connect visualvm to websphere 7

Question

I am trying to get visualvm and websphere 7 to work together on my local windows desktop. I try to connect through JMX but no luck. Has anybody managed to get visialvm and websphere 7 to work and ow did you do it?

Regards FF

Contraposition

Answer 1

I got it to work with the help of the VisualVM team in Praha (Thanks Tomas!):

1) On the admin console (Click on Servers -> Server types -> WebSphere application servers -> server1 -> Java and Process Management -> Process definition -> Java Virtual Machine), add the following line into the field of
Generic JVM Argument (note that the first system property is equal to
nothing and no equal sign for the second system property):

-Djavax.management.builder.initial= -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote

2) Add or uncomment the following three lines in file /opt/IBM/ WebSphere/AppServer/java/jre/lib/management/management.properties (or / lib/management/management.properties):

com.sun.management.jmxremote.port=3333
com.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false
com.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false
com.sun.management.jmxremote.local.only=false

3) Connect VisualVM!

Contraposition

Also need this: com.sun.management.jmxremote.local.only=false – Hayashi

In our case on a windows machine we need to restart the server. Good answer though. Thanks. – Cathrinecathryn

Answer 2

It is possible to set these parameters port, authenticate and ssl as JVM Arguments like -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1300

I have another issue: by using the mbean visualvm plugin I can not see any relevant Websphere mbean.

Kisangani

Answer 3

It depends on what you want to achieve and the constraints you have. What you need to know is that there are two MBean servers in WebSphere: in addition to the platform MBean server created automatically by the JRE, WebSphere also creates its own MBean server. Here are the two options you have:

1. Configure your WebSphere server as described in the answer given by user271858. This will allow you to connect to the platform MBean server. You will get access to the standard platform MBeans that provide process information (RAM, CPU, threads, etc.). On the other hand, you won't be able to access WebSphere's MBeans (implementing certain administrative actions, providing application metrics, etc.). You also need to be aware that by changing the configuration of the WebSphere server, you bypass WebSphere's security.

2. Connect to WebSphere's MBean server. WebSphere supports several protocols to do that (mainly SOAP and RMI), but none of them is completely standard. This means that you will need to add some of the WebSphere libraries (namely the admin thin client) to VisualVM. It is probably possible to do that (It works with JConsole, so in principle it should be possible with VisualVM as well), but it's tricky, especially it you need to connect to a WebSphere server that has security enabled.

   A simpler option is to install the VisualWAS plugin into VisualVM. It relies on an Open Source implementation of one of the proprietary WebSphere protocols and therefore doesn't require any additional WebSphere library.

   This will give you access to MBeans registered in WebSphere's MBean server, but not to the standard platform MBeans, i.e. the relevant parts (related to memory, CPU and threads) in VisualVM will be disabled. You can however cross-register the platform MBeans in WebSphere's MBean server, and the VisualWAS project provides a solution for this as well (in the form of a plugin to be installed into WebSphere). You will then have access to all features in VisualVM, and you don't need to bypass WebSphere's security.

Phaedrus