WLSDM Help

Summary:

• Add wlsdm_agent.jar to managed server's JVM Arguments ${JAVA_OPTIONS}*
• Copy wlsdm.war file to WebLogic domain's console-ext folder.
• (Re)start WebLogic admin server and managed server(s).
• That's all! WLSDM console will deploy automatically.
• Login to WLSDM Console then complete configuration wizard for once.
• Start proactive monitoring and move forward your WebLogic management infrastructure and team!

Detailed Step by Step Installation Guide (Already Running Domain)

 1. copy $wlsdm_package/jar/wlsdm_agent.jar to /path/to/wlsdm_agent.jar on the managed server machine(s)

            [user@machine]$ mkdir $DOMAIN_HOME/wlsdm_agent
            [user@machine]$ cp $wlsdm_package/jar/wlsdm_agent.jar $DOMAIN_HOME/wlsdm_agent/wlsdm_agent.jar

 2. add wlsdm_agent.jar to WebLogic managed server´s JVM Arguments as below: --> *${JAVA_OPTIONS}
   (Recommended at least one...)

  *2.1. JRockit and JDK 1.6: Add the following WLSDM JVM parameters to WebLogic managed server´s JVM Arguments:

    -javaagent:/path/to/wlsdm_agent.jar -Dwlsdm.agent.logger.level=INFO

  *2.2. Lower JDK 1.7.0_40: Add the following WLSDM JVM parameters to managed server´s JVM Arguments:

    -javaagent:/path/to/wlsdm_agent.jar -Dwlsdm.agent.logger.level=INFO

  *2.3. JDK 1.7.0_40 and Higher and JDK 1.8: Add the following WLSDM & JFR JVM parameters to managed server´s JVM Arguments:

    -javaagent:/path/to/wlsdm_agent.jar -Dwlsdm.agent.logger.level=INFO -XX:+UnlockCommercialFeatures -XX:+FlightRecorder

  How to add WLSDM JVM Parameters to WebLogic managed server arguments?

 1- With WebLogic NodeManager:
    To instrument managed server instances started and stopped through the Node Manager, use the administration console.

    From the administration console, navigate to "Environments > Servers > (select your server) > Server Start > Arguments"
    Add the above suitable JVM entry under Arguments and save the page:

    Environments > Servers > (select your server) > Server Start > Arguments
    
 2- Without WebLogic NodeManager:
    Add the following entry (add before Java executes) to the "startManagedServer" file

 UNIX / LINUX / MAC OS X:"startManagedServer.sh"  
export JAVA_OPTIONS="$JAVA_OPTIONS -javaagent:/path/to/wlsdm_agent.jar -Dwlsdm.agent.logger.level=INFO -XX:+UnlockCommercialFeatures -XX:+FlightRecorder"
 WINDOWS:"startManagedServer.cmd"
set JAVA_OPTIONS=%JAVA_OPTIONS% -javaagent:"C:\path\to\wlsdm_agent.jar" -Dwlsdm.agent.logger.level=INFO -XX:+UnlockCommercialFeatures -XX:+FlightRecorder
 NOTE: There is no need to install "wlsdm_agent.jar" to the WebLogic Admin Server!
                        

 3. (re)start WebLogic managed server(s) which wlsdm_agent.jar is installed. after restarting managed server(s),
    below logs must be seen in managed server log files. this means WLSDM agent is deployed successfully.

  Managed Server Log:
<Mar 4, 2015 1:13:24 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <WLSDM agent loaded successfully.>
<Mar 4, 2015 1:13:24 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <RJVM operation is bound in the registry with the name wlsdm_agent_remote_operation.>

 4. copy $wlsdm_package/war/wlsdm.war to ${WEBLOGIC_DOMAIN_HOME}/console-ext/. folder on the admin server machine

 5. then (re)start WebLogic admin server. that is all, WLSDM console will deploy automatically.
    after restarting admin server, below logs must be seen in admin server log files.
    this means WLSDM console is deployed successfully and WLSDM console is ready to monitor WebLogic domain.

  Admin Server Log:
<Mar 4, 2015 1:12:12 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <WLSDM console deployed successfully.>
<Mar 4, 2015 1:12:12 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <WLSDM metric monitoring initialized successfully.>
<Mar 4, 2015 1:12:12 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <WLSDM health monitoring initialized successfully.>
<Mar 4, 2015 1:12:12 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <WLSDM performance monitoring initialized successfully.>
<Mar 4, 2015 1:12:12 PM PDT> <Info> <WLSDM> <BEA-000000> <WLSDM back-end monitoring initialized successfully.>

 6. make sure all your WebLogic domain resources (wl servers, deployments, data sources, jms servers... etc.)
    are RUNNING and ACTIVE

 7. access WLSDM console: http://$IP:$PORT/console/WLSDM
   How to access WLSDM console?
    

 8. complete WLSDM quick configuration wizard carefully according to WebLogic domain characteristic
   How to complete WLSDM wizard?
    

Optional: There is no need to install wlsdm_agent.jar for monitoring JMX MBean Objects, WebLogic Logs and Application Response Times. $wlsdm_package/jar/wlsdm_agent.jar must be installed for back-end monitoring and remote JVM actions. It is highly recommended to install at least on one managed server.

Important Note: WLSDM agent has almost zero overhead on managed server resources and it is only used for RJVM operations. Its cost is negligible. WLSDM injecting nothing to runtime codes.

After the installation, login to WebLogic admin console then WLSDM portlet will be visible under WebLogic domain structure.

Important Note: All WebLogic users and user groups can login to WLSDM console. Only default "Administrators" group members or users who have global "Admin" role can access to WLSDM Configuration pages and Domain Summary page, remaining cannot access these pages, will be redirected to default WebLogic admin console 403 forbidden page.

Step 1: Welcome: Wizard introduction

Step 2: License Information

After accepting the license agreement, WLSDM offers two options:

1. Evaluate for 15 days:

If you do not have a valid WLSDM license key, choose this option for the evaluation. After 15 days WLSDM will ask for a valid license.

2. Enter license key:

If you have a valid WLSDM license key, choose this option and enter the appropriate license information. The license key will be checked off-line and activated instantly if it is a valid key.

Step 3: Alarm Configuration

Optional, Highly Recommended

In step 3, the SMTP settings and email recipients can be configured easily. These settings can be left blank, but it is highly recommended to configure these settings successfully.

By setting up email configuration WLSDM will send notifications and HTML email alerts.

Use "Send" button for testing SMTP settings. If you configured the SMTP settings successfully, you will get a test email as below.

If any error occurs then check wlsdm.log file which is located under $WL_DOMAIN_HOME/WLSDM/logs folder.

Step 4: Reading Domain

WLSDM reads WebLogic domain and lists the domain resources to configure monitoring settings.

Step 5: Domain Resources

There are four main groups which WLSDM offers to monitor: Servers, Deployments, Data Sources and JMS

Select domain resources to monitor. All important domain resources are selected by default. These can be unselected in this step.

Step 6: Metric Configuration

This is most important step and highly recommended to complete carefully. WLSDM offers important WebLogic MBean metrics to monitor according to domain’s available resources.

Complete Step-6 settings as:

1. Check metric values

All available metrics are grouped by WebLogic servers. All the sub instance threshold values can be set on main metric record. Click on threshold edit-box and see current instance values.

2. Set threshold values	Give reasonable threshold values according to the WebLogic domain characteristic.
3. Enable/Disable alarm	It can be done by using ON/OFF button on "Alarm" column.
4. Delete metric instance	It is also possible to remove the metric instance.
5. Reset values and configurations	All the configurations, values and deletion processes can be reset by clicking on refresh icons on metric group tabs.

Step 7: Monitoring & Diagnostics

There are three Monitoring&Diagnostic settings in this step. These are "Log Inspector", "Response Times Monitoring", "Back-end Systems" monitoring configurations.

Firstly, select profiling servers for Monitoring & Diagnostics.

Type	Description	Production Systems Best Practice
Log Inspector	Select at least one profiling server.	Select only one managed server among managed servers has same duty and settings. (i.e. cluster members)
Response Times	Select at least one profiling server.	Select only one managed server among managed servers has same duty and settings. (i.e. cluster members)
Back-end Systems	WLSDM agent must be installed. Only supported and WLSDM agent installed servers are listed. Select at least one profiling server.	Select only one managed server among managed servers has same duty and settings. (i.e. cluster members)

All the Monitoring & Diagnostics settings (thresholds, WLDF queries, back-end events... etc.) can be edited on "Configuration > Monitoring & Diagnostics" page later.

Step 8: Finish

It is unable to access to the wizard page after completing WLSDM Quick Configuration Wizard steps. But all the configurations and values can be listed or updated on Smart Dashboard, "Configuration > Metric Browser", "Configuration > Monitoring & Diagnostics" pages.

When WLSDM installed to a WebLogic domain, it creates "WLSDM" folder under WebLogic domain's home folder. Directory layout of WLSDM folder:

Folder Name	Relative Path	Description
db	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/db	WLSDM's embedded database folder. WLSDM uses embedded Apache Derby Database which comes with wlsdm.war file. There is no operational cost for maintaining WLSDM database, the console extension takes care everything.
config	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/config	Configuration folder which consists of html email "templates" folder and main WLSDM config file wlsdm.config.xml
config/templates	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/config/templates	HTML email templates folder. Edit these files for your HTML customizations.
logs	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/logs	WLSDM default log folder. There are two log files, one is wlsdm.db.log the other one is wlsdm.log which is the main log file.
temp	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/temp	This folder is using by WLSDM log inspector module for sending alert emails which have log attachments.
dumps	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/dumps	WLSDM pofiling dump files are stored in this folder. Sub folders are: threaddump, jfr, heap, diagnostic_images
scripts	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/scripts	Used by WLST Web Console and WLST scripts are stored in this folder.
archive	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/archive	WLSDM archive folder. Purged data are stored in this folder.
monitorWLAdmin	${WL_DOMAIN_HOME}/WLSDM/monitorWLAdmin	Standalone Java application for monitoring WebLogic Admin Server. Works as plug and play!

Main WLSDM menu is located on the left side and default is collapsed. It can be expand/collapse by menu icon.

Page operations icon is located on the right top of every pages. Visual page settings and page functions can be list on page operations menu.

Summary metric notification window is located on the right top of every page.

Health Dashboard

Health dashboard page is the home page of WLSDM and lists all the WebLogic domain resources at one page. All the states and health values is listed for per WebLogic server instance.

Health Notifications

WLSDM checks these health and states periodically. If the health is not "OK" and state's value is not "RUNNING" for any resource, WLSDM generates "Health ALARM" and sends email notifications as below.

Using Health Dashboard

Health alarm notifications can be enabled/disabled for each resources (Servers, Applications, Data Sources and JMS) by clicking on alarm icon on the lists.

Default Dashboards

Servers, Deployments, Data Sources and JMS Servers dashboards are default dashboards which are created at wizard steps.

Dashboard page operations are as below:

• Can update dashboard name
• Can change "Metric Load Range" historically (Minimum 1 minute)
• Can change automatic "Page Refresh Frequency" (Minimum 30 seconds)
• Can change number of charts per line (Minimum 1 chart)
• Can change chart heights (Minimum 100px)
• Can change grid display status (Show / Hide)

Chart Usage on Dashboard Pages

All metric and chart operation icons are located on the top right of charts.

• Metric & Chart Options: Opens metric options window
• Print: Print window is opened and it is possible to save the charts as PDF document
• Show/Hide: Opens/Closes chart display
• Reload: Reloads metric values for the current chart (Loads the current values of WebLogic MBeans)
• Close: Removes the chart occurrence on the page. When page refreshes the chart is loaded again.

Metric and Chart Options

Opens the "Metric and Chart" Options window. All the operations can be done on this window easily.

• Can change "Metric Chart Type"
• Alarm settings (ON / OFF)
• Action settings (Thread Dump, Heap Dump, Java Flight Recorder Dump, WLDF Diagnostic Image)
• Synchronization settings (Controlling extended WebLogic servers)
• Monitoring metric instance health
• Can change metric's dashboard settings to show on which dashboard to display
  Important Feature: A metric can be assign multiple dashboard on "Edit Dashboards" modal window as below.