Deploying WebLogic Application Server Solution Templates

The SiteScope WebLogic Application Server Solution facilitates the implementation of best-practice monitoring of WebLogic Application Servers with a minimum of configuration. This solution applies to WebLogic Application Server versions 6.x, 7.x, and 8.x.

This solution template will deploy a set of monitors that test the health, availability, and performance of a WebLogic Application Server and its deployed applications and components. The deployed monitors will monitor server-wide statistics, such as memory usage, as well as metrics specific to individual J2EE components, such as the number of activates and passivates of a particular EJB. An indepth description of the WebLogic Solution is available in SiteScope_WebLogic_Best_Practices.pdf. (Note: This is a password protected document. The password is provided along with the WebLogic Solution license key from Mercury.)

Usage Guidelines

Use the WebLogic Application Server Solution to monitor statistics from WebLogic 6.x, 7.x, and 8.x servers. This solution will automatically create several groups by default which monitor important application server metrics, but it also provides a user interface which allows you, the user, to select all or some of the many individual components that are available for monitoring.

The WebLogic Solution deploys a WebLogic Application Server Monitor for each module that is selected from the user interface. This monitor uses the Java JMX interface to access Runtime MBeans on the WebLogic server. An MBean is a container that holds the performance metrics. You may need to set certain permissions on the WebLogic server for SiteScope to be able to monitor MBeans. For an overview on configuring access to WebLogic servers for SiteScope monitors, see the WebLogic Monitor Help Page.

Deploying the WebLogic Application Server Solution Template

You use the following steps to deploy the WebLogic Application Server Solution Form.

To deploy the WebLogic Application Server Solution Template:

Create a new SiteScope monitor group into which you will deploy the WebLogic Application Server Solution Template.
Within the new monitor group, click the Solution Template link below the Monitor Detail Table. The Solution selection screen opens.
Click the WebLogic Application Server 6.x/7.x/8.x link in the table of solutions. The Solution Properties for WebLogic Application Server 6.x/7.x/8.x form opens.
Complete the properties needed for SiteScope to connect to the WebLogic Application Server in the form as described in the following sections.
Click the Show Applications button. SiteScope queries the WebLogic Application Server and retrieves a list of modules that are available on the server. The module selection window opens with a reduced listing of modules.
Select the modules and parameters that you want to monitor. See the section on Selecting Modules for Monitoring for more information on the module types.
After selecting the desired modules, scroll down in the module selection window and click the Select Modules button. The selection window closes and the Solution Properties for WebLogic Application Server 6.x/7.x/8.x form is displayed populated with a check list of the selected modules.
If necessary, use the check boxes in the selected modules list to deselect any parameters that you do not want to monitor. Click the Submit button to continue. The Property and Syntax Check screen opens. See the section on Verifying Monitor Values for more information.
Click the Create Solution button to initiate the deployment of the monitors. A monitor creation screen is displayed.
As the monitors are created, the monitor type and name are displayed along with messages of any errors found. A "success" message is shown if the monitors are created successfully. The process does not run the monitor.

Note: Errors detected during the creation of monitors using a solution template are independent of the status returned when the individual monitors are run. This means that the monitors may be created successfully but that the configuration settings may be incorrect or that the system being monitored is unavailable.
After the monitors have been created, you can select the Return link to return the group detail page to view the status of the monitors.

After deploying the monitors, you should review the Error and Warning status thresholds and adjust them according to the importance of the monitored element. You should also create alerts and associate them to the newly created monitors to provide notification when an error is detected.

Note: Solution Templates do not configure any automated alerts for the monitors created. You must create and associate one or more alert definitions to the monitors or monitor groups created by solution templates.

Settings in the WebLogic Application Server Solution Form

The following describes the settings on the WebLogic Application Server Solution Form:

Server

Enter the name or address of the server where WebLogic is running.

Port Number

Enter the port number that the WebLogic server is responding on. The default port is 7001.

User Name

Enter the username required to log into the WebLogic server.

Password

Enter the password required to log into the WebLogic server.

WebLogic Jar File

Enter the absolute path name to the weblogic.jar file on the SiteScope machine. This file must be installed on the SiteScope server and can be downloaded from the WebLogic server. An example path is: c:\bea\weblogic7\ebcc\lib\ext\weblogic.jar. This file is not strictly required for monitoring some earlier versions of WebLogic 6. In this case, leaving this box blank will normally cause any necessary classes to be downloaded directly from the WebLogic server. Note that this is not as efficient as loading the classes from the a *.jar file on the server where SiteScope is running.

Note: Do not install the weblogic.jar file in the SiteScope directory tree. For example, do not install it in the <SiteScope install path>/SiteScope/java/lib/ext directory as this will cause the WebLogic monitors to fail. You must create a separate directory on the server where SiteScope is running for this file.

Secure Server

Check this box if you are using a secure server connection option. Note: If you select this option, you must enter the applicable port number used by the WebLogic server for secure connections. The default secure server port is 7002.

You must enter valid connection parameters before clicking the Show Applications button. When the correct connection information is supplied, SiteScope uses this to query the server and populate a hierarchical list of the selectable modules that you may monitor. Selecting a module will cause a monitor to be deployed against it. The metrics for each monitor are automatically created according to the type of module that is being monitored.

Selecting Modules for Monitoring

The WebLogic Solution presents a hierarchical list from which the user can select the modules to deploy WebLogic Monitors against. This list is broken down into two main sections:

per-server resources
J2EE components organized by application

Some of the modules in these categories are automatically selected by default because they represent critical components in the system (for example, the JVM statistics for the application server). The remainder of the modules are not automatically selected. This allows the user may to customize the deployment of this solution in order to focus on one application, a particular type of EJB, a set of servlets and web applications, or some other aspect of the application server.

For the most part, the organization of this list of modules is intuitive. The hierarchy of applications, EJBs, web applications, and servlets is very similar to the organization of these entities in the WebLogic Administration Console. In almost every case, selecting a module will cause a monitor with all relevant metrics to be deployed against that part of the WebLogic server. However, when selecting EJBs to monitor, you will notice that they are broken down according to three types of metrics: Pool, Transaction, and Cache. The reason for this is twofold: (1) it is more useful to be able to monitor one aspect of a particular EJB instead per WebLogic Monitor for purposes of alerting and organization, and (2) not all three of these types of metrics are available for all EJBs. Below is a brief description of the metrics that are monitored for each type of EJB monitoring:

Per-EJB Transaction Statistics This category of EJB monitor contains metrics related to transactions made for the EJB. These metrics include the number transactions rolled back, the number of transactions which timed out, and the number of transactions that were successfully committed.
Per-EJB Pool Statistics This category of EJB monitor contains metrics related to the pool for the EJB. When the user selects an EJB under this heading, many useful metrics are monitored, including the number of times an attempt to get a bean instance from the pool failed, the number of current available instances in the pool, the number of threads currently waiting for an instance, and the number of times a bean instance was destroyed due to a non-application Exception.
Per-EJB Cache Statistics The cache statistics include any metrics relating to the caching of the particular EJB. Metrics like the number of cache hits and misses, and the number of activates and passivates of the EJB are monitored when an EJB under this heading is selected for monitoring.

When you have finished making your module selections in the popup window, scroll to the bottom of the Module Selection window and click the Select Modules button. This will update the main browser window with a list of the modules you selected. You can then review your selections and remove any modules that you don't want a monitor to be created for.

When you are satisfied with the list of selected modules in the main browser window, you may hit the Submit button to proceed to the next step in deploying the WebLogic Solution.

Verifying Monitor Values

During the deployment of the Solution template, each monitor configuration is displayed in the Property and Syntax Check table. The solution type is displayed above the table. The first column shows the monitor's property name. The next column shows the value for that property. Values that contained variables are shaded with green. Values that are not affected by variables show no shading. The final column is for displaying errors that SiteScope has found while verifying the values. Errors are shaded in red. Errors should be corrected before proceeding to the next step, but SiteScope does not require it, however doing so may create monitors that do not function properly.

The following is an example section from the Property and Syntax Check page for a WebLogic Application Server Solution Template.

Property and Syntax Check for Solution: WebLogic Application Server

Monitor Type: WebLogic6xMonitor Monitor Name: ServerRuntime: MedRecServer

Property	Value	Property or Syntax Errors
Port	7001
target	dfales-lt2
secure	false
frequency	600
server	dfales-lt2
WeblogicJar	c:\WebLogic8.1\weblogic.jar
Username	weblogic
Metric 1	MedRecServer/SocketsOpenedTotalCount
Metric 2	MedRecServer/ActivationTime
Metric 3	MedRecServer/AdminServerListenPort
Metric 4	MedRecServer/RestartsTotalCount
Metric 5	MedRecServer/ListenPort
name	ServerRuntime: MedRecServer