Java Management Extensions (JMX)

Java Management Extensions (JMX) is a technology to read and write runtime information of Java processes. It allows to monitor the state of an Axon Ivy Engine with external tools, e.g. VisualVM, Java Mission Control, Nagios, Prometheus, etc.

A monitoring tool running on the same machine and with the same operating system level user as the Axon Ivy Engine can connect to Axon Ivy without additional configuration.

Activate Remote Access

You have to activate remote JMX access if the Axon Ivy Engine is running under another user than the monitoring tool or on a remote host. Remote access is protected by a user name and password of an Axon Ivy Engine administrator, so all Axon Ivy Engine administrators have access.

Activate remote access by uncommenting all lines in the JMX section of jvm.options.

Auto Discovery (JDP)

Some monitoring tools can auto-discover running JMX servers in the network. This way, a user does not have to know the JMX address and port.

You can disable this behavior in jvm.options by setting the JMX autodiscovery property to false:

-Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.autodiscovery=false

Provided MBeans

The Axon Ivy Engine provides performance and management information in a set of MBeans. They allow tools to monitor internals of the Axon Ivy Engine. Most monitoring tools provide a user interface to browse the available MBeans. Commonly, these MBeans are displayed in a tree built with the information provided in the names of the MBeans.

The Engine Cockpit also contains a built-in MBeans browser. Therefore, you do not need to install an external monitoring tool for a glance at your engine’s vital signs.

Where possible, Axon Ivy Engine MBeans names contain application, process model, process model version, or environment name.

Examples of typical Axon Ivy MBean names:

ivy Engine:type=External Web Service,application=MyApplication,name=Echo (43838347ABCD)
ivy Engine:type=Job Manager
ivy Engine:type=Process Start Event Bean,application=MyApplication,pm=MyProcessModel,pmv=1,name="MyStartEventBean (3485471349/start.ivp)"

The name and description of an MBean are available in its meta information (see the Metadata tab in the MBeans tab of VisualVM). MBeans provide information through attributes and operations. The description of the attributes and operations is also contained in the meta information (also in the tool tips in the Attributes and Operations tab of VisualVM’s MBeans tab).

Warning

Manipulating attribute values or calling operations on MBeans will immediately change the configuration of your system and can therefore harm your running applications.

If not mentioned otherwise, a manipulation only affects the currently running engine. These manipulations are not persistent. They won’t survive an engine restart.

Manipulations that survive an engine restart contain the following text in the description of the attribute or operation: (Persistent).

In addition to the MBeans provided by Axon Ivy, some third-party libraries included in Axon Ivy provide their own MBeans. One of them is Apache Tomcat, which serves as the internal web server. Its MBeans provide information about the handling of HTTP requests like request count, errors, execution time, sessions, and more. The Java Virtual Machine also provides some MBeans that contain information about memory used (Java heap), CPU load, uptime, etc.

The list below contains some of the provided information:

External Database (connections, transactions, errors, execution times, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=External Database,application=*,name=*

Web Service (calls, errors, execution time, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=External Web Service,application=*,name=*

REST Web Service (calls, errors, execution time, slow calls, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=External REST Web Service,application=*,name=*

System Database (connections, transactions, errors, execution time, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Database Persistency Service

HTTP Requests (count, errors, execution time, etc.)

*:type=GlobalRequestProcessor,name=*

Number of Sessions (HTTP sessions, Axon Ivy sessions, license relevant sessions, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Security Manager
*:type=Manager,context=*,host=*

Background jobs (name, next execution time, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Job Manager
ivy Engine:type=Daily Job,name=*
ivy Engine:type=Periodical Job,name=*

Process Start Event Beans (polls, executions, errors, execution time, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Process Start Event Bean,,application=*,pm=*,pmv=*,name=*

Process Intermediate Event Beans (polls, firings, errors, execution time, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Process Intermediate Event Bean,application=*,pm=*,pmv=*,name=*

Application, Process Model and Process Model Version, Library information (activity state, release state, name, description, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Application,name=*
ivy Engine:type=Process Model,application=*,name=*
ivy Engine:type=Process Model Version,application=*,pm=*,name=*

Cluster, Cluster Nodes, and Cluster Communication information (received and sent message, errors, execution time, etc.)

ivy Engine:type=Cluster Manager
ivy Engine:type=Cluster Channel

Thread Pool information (core, maximum and current pool size, active threads, queue size)

ivy Engine:type=Thread Pool, name=Background Operation Executor
ivy Engine:type=Thread Pool, name=Immediate Job Executor
ivy Engine:type=Thread Pool, name=Scheduled Job Executor

System Database Cache

ivy Engine type=CacheClassPersistencyService,name=* [clearCache()]
ivy Engine type=CacheClassPersistencyService,name=*,strategy=CacheAll [maxBytesToCache, maxCharactersToCache]
ivy Engine type=CacheClassPersistencyService,name=*,strategy=CacheAllRemoveUnused [maxBytesToCache, maxCharactersToCache, countLimit, usageLimit]
ivy Engine type=CacheClassPersistencyService,name=*,cache=LongBinaries [readHits, readMisses, writes, cachedLongValues, clearCache()]
ivy Engine type=CacheClassPersistencyService,name=*,cache=LongCharacters [readHits, readMisses, writes, cachedLongValues, clearCache()]
ivy Engine type=CacheClassPersistencyService,name=*,cache=ObjectsAndAssociations [objectReadHits, objectReadMisses, objectWrites, cachedObjects, associationReadHits, associationReadMisses, associationWrites, cachedAssociations, clearCache()]

Memory (Java Heap, Perm Gen)

java.lang:type=Memory

CPU Usage, Uptime

java.lang:type=Runtime
java.lang.type=OperatingSystem