JMX, SNMP, Java, etc...

How to use JMX to programatically retrieve the information that JConsole displays is easy. Here is a small JMX Client Program that shows how you can programatically retrieve the JVM Management and Monitoring information from a remote JVM.

Since Java^TM SE 5.0, the JRE provides a means to manage and monitor the Java Virtual Machine. It comes in two flavors: one is based on the Java Management Extension (JMX^TM), the other is a small SNMP agent that builds upon the Management and Monitoring API of the Java SE platform and exposes the same information through SNMP.

A legitimate question that often arises to newcomers to the JMX and SNMP technologies is:

Which technology should I use to monitor my JVM? JMX, or SNMP?

In this blog I will try to provide some guidance on this subject.

... In a comment to one of my recent blogs, Matthias Ernst asked what's so special about management... Well, as an eager reader of Scott Adams' Dilbert, I could certainly find a few amusing answers. However I doubt they would be found quite apropos... Instead, I'm going to replace the Java Management Extensions into some of their historical perspective.

... I've seen a few posts in the Java and JMX forums from developers who were wondering how to find out why JConsole wouldn't connect to their application. So I have decided to write this short blog entry in order to outline a few diagnosing tips ...

In a future blog, I'll tell you more about managing Tiger or Mustang JVMs through SNMP. But for the time being, here are a very few words to clarify what is the Tiger and Mustang JVM SNMP Agent.