GlassFish Requests Test

The true test for the efficiency of a web application server, such as the GlassFish Enterprise server, is the speed with which it processes requests to its web applications. The GlassFish Requests test enables administrators to judge the efficiency of GlassFish by monitoring the requests to each web application deployed on it, and proactively alerting them to current or potential bottlenecks in request processing. This way, overloaded applications and the least responsive applications can be isolated. In the process, the test also promptly captures errors (if any) that the server may have experienced during request processing.

Target of the test : A GlassFish server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each web application deployed on the GlassFish Enterprise server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port number at which the specified host listens
JMX Remote Port	To collect metrics from a GlassFish Enterprise server, the eG agent monitoring that server should be configured to use JMX to connect to the JRE used by the server and pull out the metrics of interest. By default, JMX support is enabled for the JRE used by the GlassFish Enterprise Server. The JMX connector listens on port 8686 by default. Therefore, type 8686 as the JMX Remote Port. If JMX listens on a different port in your environment, then specify the same here. To know the port at which JMX listens, open the domain.xml file in the <GLASSFISH_INSTALL_DIR>\Sun\AppServer\domains\domain1\config directory and look for the code block shown below: <jmx-connector accept-all="false" address="0.0.0.0" auth-realm-name="admin-realm" enabled="true" name="system" port="8686" protocol="rmi_jrmp" security-enabled="false"> The port number specified against the Port parameter in the code block above refers to the JMX Remote Port.
JMX User, JMX Password, and Confirm Password	By default, the JMX connector on the GlassFish Enterprise Server requires authentication. To enable the eG agent to use JMX therefore, you need to configure the agent with the credentials of a user who is authorized to use JMX. Typically, the GlassFish administrator has the right to use JMX. You can hence configure the JMX User and JMX Password parameters with the credentials of the administrator. However, if you prefer not to expose the credentials of an administrator owing to security considerations, you can use the credentials of any other user with access rights to JMX. To know the name of such a user, open the domain.xml file in the <GLASSFISH_INSTALL_DIR>\Sun\AppServer\domains\domain1\config directory and look for the code block shown below: <jmx-connector accept-all="false" address="0.0.0.0" auth-realm-name="admin-realm" enabled="true" name="system" port="8686" protocol="rmi_jrmp" security-enabled="false"> The user name specified against the auth-realm-name parameter in the code block above can be configured as the JMX User, and the Password of that user can be specified against JMX Password. Confirm the JMX Password you specify by retyping that password in the Confirm Password text box.
JNDIName	The JNDIName is a lookup name for connecting to the JMX connector. By default, this is jmxrmi. If you have registered the JMX connector in the RMI registry using a different lookup name, then you can change this default value to reflect the same.
JMX Provider	This test uses a JMX Provider to access the MBean attributes of the GlassFish Enterprise server and collect metrics. Specify the package name of this JMX Provider here. By default, this is set to com.sun.jmx.remote.protocol.
Timeout	Specify the duration (in seconds) for which this test should wait for a response from the GlassFish Enterprise server. If there is no response from the server beyond the configured duration, the test will timeout. By default, this is set to 240 seconds.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Requests processed	Indicates the number of requests to this application that were processed during the last measurement period.	Number	This measure is a good indicator of the load on each application. Compare the value of this measure across applications to identify which application is experiencing very high load.
Average processing time	Indicates the time taken by this application to process the requests to it.	Secs	A low value is desired for this measure. A consistent rise in the value of this measure could indicate a processing bottleneck, which in turn may affect application performance. Compare the value of this measure across applications to know which application is the least responsive to user requests.
Maximum time	Indicates the maximum time taken by this application to process requests.	Secs
Errors	Indicates the number of error responses that were sent by this application during the last measurement period.	Number	This count includes the following: The number of requests for which responses with response code that is greater than or equal to 400 were sent; The number of requests for which a response could not be sent at all. Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.
Error	Indicates the percentage of error responses that were sent by this application during the last measurement period	Percent	Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.