About Smart WebLogic Server Monitoring and Diagnostic Tool WLSDM by Govindan Padmanaban
Author: Govindan Padmanaban
I have been working on WebLogic server for more than 9 years. Often, I monitor server log files, Server status, Testing Data source connections, JMS servers, deployed application status, CPU/Memory usage and much more. If any of these objects got down or broken, then the associated deployed application will get into trouble. For example, a web application dependent will go down if the associated Data source (DB Connection) goes down, or a deployed application give a poor response if the CPU/MEMORY is full.
Many times I thought, what if a tool available in the market to monitor and analyze the WebLogic server resources (logs, Data source, servers etc) and it would be awesome if it alerts me as well on anything wrong goes on the WebLogic server.
The WLSDM is the tool that I have been looking for so long. It’s a complete WebLogic server monitoring and diagnostic tool. The WLSDM will monitor your WebLogic domain and alert us any wrong thing happens on the server. WLSDM can save plenty of our productive time. It does not have or store anything in the database, it’s a lightweight and responsive UI layer. Before diving into this tool, I would say why I like the WLSDM too much
- Very easy to install and use
- Rich Graphical user interface
- It has all the things we want to monitor the WebLogic server and resources
I installed the WLSDM on my Oracle BPM domain on my personal laptop and result is impressive. Here below is a list of items why WLSDM is a must having tool for WebLogic, BPM, SOA or other Fusion middleware application server.
- Monitor the WebLogic server resources, DB connections, EJB, Servlets, IO’s, Webservices, Servers JMS, Deployment, JVM, Memory/CPU usage. etc.
- Log Inspector: Inspect all WebLogic server log files for any errors like Out of Memory, Out of space, Stuck Thread etc. and more
- Notification, WLSDM will send alerts through EMAIL
- Analytics: WLSDM stores all the JMX metric data and back-end data historically. Using this data, we can see our old errors and we will take care to not to produce the same error in the future.
- Thread Dump Analyzer: WLSDM able to get thread dumps when Hugger and Stuck threads occur. We can see the stack traces and much more.
- Scheduler: Add any kind of script and schedule it
- Responsive UI and the WLSDM is present inside the WebLogic console so the admin can open the WLSDM dashboard from the WebLogic console
About WLSDM Installation:-
If you are familiar with the following points than you can install WLSDM alone. The WLSDM installationprovided by the WLSDM is straightforward. Any WebLogic beginner can do this installation with or without little research in google. The WLSDM Readme file also has the clear installation instruction.
- Where is the WebLogic Domain home directory
- How to set Java Option in WebLogic server
- Stop and start WebLogic servers
I did the WLSDM installation in less than 5 minutes in my Oracle BPM domain parallel watching a movie on Netflix. That simple it is.
How to access WLSDM
The WLSDM links are available inside the WebLogic console. Log in to the WebLogic admin console and the WLSDM is available in bottom left corner as shown below
Now click on the Smart Dashboard console above. It will take you to a WLSDM Configuring page if it is the first time you clicked. It’s a train process, you need to configure one by one. The cool thing is, the WLSDM reads your WebLogic domain and ask you what are all the WebLogic resources you want to monitor. Look at the screen below, it separates each WebLogic resource in a separate category. You can check the resources you want the WLSDM to monitor
WebLogic Servers => Admin and other Managed servers
Deployments =>Our custom Java applications, and other built-in WebLogic application like WAR, EAR, SAR, JAR etc.
Data Sources => Database connections
JMS Servers => Java Messaging services.
I hope the WLSDM segregates the below table renders dynamically depend on the resource available in the WebLogic domain it got installed.
On clicking multiple next (present in the bottom) will navigate to the Metric page where we can set WebLogic metrics. If you are not familiar with the metric, click on the info icon which displays a simple detailed information about the metric. Also, WLSDM suggest the optimal parameters for your domain. Just, multiple clicks on the button Suggest Metric Thresholds as shown below, it will set the optimal parameters for your domain.
The below GIF file represents the health of your WebLogic domain. This shows the status of the WebLogic servers, JMS servers, Data source connection status, and Deployed applications, So we don’t need to navigate to multiple pages in Weblogic console or em to check the status of a WebLogic resource.
This is another page in WLSDM dashboard. It displays the CPU and memory usage of the WebLogic domain. WLSDM also displays each server CPU, Memory. Look at the bottom two arrow marks, it displays the usage of the admin server
The Below WLSDM page displays the composite performance. This page not displayed anything as I don’t have any BPEL, BPM or SOA composite deployed in the BPM domain
The below WLSDM page display the Weblogic application timeout settings
The below WLSDM displays the domain summary, the WebLogic domain name, version, deployments etc
There are so many modules I like to cover about WLSDM but this page is not enough. The major advantage is WLSDM saves tons the production time of WebLogic server administrators. WLSDM alert you when it crosses the metrics thereshol, example memory is too low. If you are looking for an external Weblogic server monitoring tool, than WLSDM is the one which best suits your needs. Below are some of the useful links about WLSDM
Author: Govindan Padmanaban
Website: www.catgovind.com
Original Post: http://www.catgovind.com/weblogic/about-smart-weblogic-server-monitoring-and-diagnostic-tool-wlsdm/
