Java Management Extensions

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 Extensions. Java Management Extensions is a practical, hands-on guide to using the JMX APIs, Sun Microsystem’s new Java-based tool for managing enterprise applications. This one-of-a kind book is a complete treatment of the JMX architecture (both the instrumentation level and the agent level), and it’s loaded with real-world examples for implementing Management Extensions. It also contains useful information at the higher level about JMX (the big picture) to help technical managers and architects who are evaluating various application management approaches and are considering JMX. The JMX technology is very new, and according to Steve, still has a few potholes in it. This book takes developers through it step by step, pointing out the gotchas before they have a chance to trip up smooth operation of the application. The author, a member of the expert group developing the JMX specification, points out that as J2EE becomes more widely adopted, the Java standard for management (JMX) becomes more and more crucial to avoid splinter standards where each vendor has their own distinct, arguably successful, way of doing things. In my own company we have already identified and are tackling the problem of managing our Java applications. It’s my belief that other companies will follow, as they come to realize the power that a standard manageability solution (ie, JMX) gives them.
The book is divided into the following sections: Part I: Introduction and overview Part II: the JMX Instrumentation Level Standard MBeans Dynamic MBeans Model Mbeans Part III: The JMX Agent Level The Mbean Server The JMX Notification Model Dynamic Loading Monitors Timer Services Relation Services Appendix: Related Technologies Index