Learning Jmxterm

If you have been using jconsole to inspect an application perform under jvm, you might want to look for alternative in command line form. In this article, we are going to spend sometime to learn on Jmxterm . So what is a Jmxterm? Jmxterm is a command line based interactive JMX client. It's designed to allow user to access a Java MBean server from command line without graphical environment. In another word, it's a command line based jconsole.

To get started, you will of cause, needed JDK installed and an java application that you want to inspect. To start using it , go to http://wiki.cyclopsgroup.org/jmxterm/download and start to download. You should have a jmxterm-[version].jar file.

So, I'm gonna demonstrate on how to use Jmxterm by showing with examples of a terminal output.

$ java -jar jmxterm-1.0-alpha-4-uber.jar
Welcome to JMX terminal. Type "help" for available commands.
$>help;
#IllegalArgumentException: Command help; isn't valid, run help to see available commands
$>help
#following commands are available to use:
about    - Display about page
bean     - Display or set current selected MBean.
beans    - List available beans under a domain or all domains
bye      - Terminate console and exit
close    - Close current JMX connection
domain   - Display or set current selected domain.
domains  - List all available domain names
exit     - Terminate console and exit
get      - Get value of MBean attribute(s)
help     - Display available commands or usage of a command
info     - Display detail information about an MBean
jvms     - List all running local JVM processes
open     - Open JMX session or display current connection
option   - Set options for command session
quit     - Terminate console and exit
run      - Invoke an MBean operation
set      - Set value of an MBean attribute
$> bean
null
$>beans
#IllegalStateException: Connection isn't open yet. Run open command to open a connection
$>domains
#following domains are available
#IllegalStateException: Connection isn't open yet. Run open command to open a connection
$>jvms
5552     ( ) - jmxterm-1.0-alpha-4-uber.jar
$>help open
usage: open [-h] [-p <val>] [-u <val>]
Open JMX session or display current connection
  -h,--help            Display usage
  -p,--password <val>  Password for user/password authentication
  -u,--user <val>      User name for user/password authentication
Without argument this command display current connection. URL can be a <PID>,
<hostname>:<port> or full qualified JMX service URL. For example
open localhost:9991,
open jmx:service:...
$>open 192.168.0.2:7199
#RuntimeIOException: Runtime IO exception: Connection refused to host: 127.0.0.1; nested exception is:
	java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
$>open localhost:7199
#Connection to localhost:7199 is opened
$>bean
null
$>bean org.apache.cassandra.db:columnfamily=IndexInfo,keyspace=system,type=ColumnFamilies
#bean is set to org.apache.cassandra.db:columnfamily=IndexInfo,keyspace=system,type=ColumnFamilies
$>info
#mbean = org.apache.cassandra.db:columnfamily=IndexInfo,keyspace=system,type=ColumnFamilies
#class name = org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore
# attributes
  %0   - AutoCompactionDisabled (boolean, r)
  %1   - BloomFilterDiskSpaceUsed (long, r)
  %2   - BloomFilterFalsePositives (long, r)
  %3   - BloomFilterFalseRatio (double, r)
  %4   - BuiltIndexes (java.util.List, r)
  %5   - ColumnFamilyName (java.lang.String, r)
  %6   - CompactionStrategyClass (java.lang.String, rw)
  %7   - CompressionParameters (java.util.Map, rw)
  %8   - CompressionRatio (double, r)
  %9   - CrcCheckChance (double, w)
  %10  - DroppableTombstoneRatio (double, r)
  %11  - EstimatedColumnCountHistogram ([J, r)
  %12  - EstimatedRowSizeHistogram ([J, r)
  %13  - LifetimeReadLatencyHistogramMicros ([J, r)
  %14  - LifetimeWriteLatencyHistogramMicros ([J, r)
  %15  - LiveCellsPerSlice (double, r)
  %16  - LiveDiskSpaceUsed (long, r)
  %17  - LiveSSTableCount (int, r)
  %18  - MaxRowSize (long, r)
  %19  - MaximumCompactionThreshold (int, rw)
  %20  - MeanRowSize (long, r)
  %21  - MemtableColumnsCount (long, r)
  %22  - MemtableDataSize (long, r)
  %23  - MemtableSwitchCount (int, r)
  %24  - MinRowSize (long, r)
  %25  - MinimumCompactionThreshold (int, rw)
  %26  - PendingTasks (int, r)
  %27  - ReadCount (long, r)
  %28  - RecentBloomFilterFalsePositives (long, r)
  %29  - RecentBloomFilterFalseRatio (double, r)
  %30  - RecentReadLatencyHistogramMicros ([J, r)
  %31  - RecentReadLatencyMicros (double, r)
  %32  - RecentSSTablesPerReadHistogram ([J, r)
  %33  - RecentWriteLatencyHistogramMicros ([J, r)
  %34  - RecentWriteLatencyMicros (double, r)
  %35  - SSTableCountPerLevel ([I, r)
  %36  - SSTablesPerReadHistogram ([J, r)
  %37  - TombstonesPerSlice (double, r)
  %38  - TotalDiskSpaceUsed (long, r)
  %39  - TotalReadLatencyMicros (long, r)
  %40  - TotalWriteLatencyMicros (long, r)
  %41  - UnleveledSSTables (int, r)
  %42  - WriteCount (long, r)
# operations
  %0   - long estimateKeys()
  %1   - void forceMajorCompaction()
  %2   - java.util.List getSSTablesForKey(java.lang.String p1)
  %3   - void loadNewSSTables()
  %4   - void setCompactionThresholds(int p1,int p2)
#there's no notifications
$>get WriteCount
#mbean = org.apache.cassandra.db:columnfamily=IndexInfo,keyspace=system,type=ColumnFamilies:
WriteCount = 0;
$>get TotalDiskSpaceUsed
#mbean = org.apache.cassandra.db:columnfamily=IndexInfo,keyspace=system,type=ColumnFamilies:
TotalDiskSpaceUsed = 9437;

So, a brief explanation on what I have just done. To start, you will need to run the Jmxterm from a terminal. To understand what commands it has and what can you use for, simply issued command help. In order to inspect, you will need to open a connection to the jvm. Once a connection is established, you get do all sort of operations and in this example, I'm connected to cassandra and inspect on its bean org.apache.cassandra.db:columnfamily=IndexInfo,keyspace=system,type=ColumnFamilies and get the WriteCount and TotalDiskSpaceUsed statistics.

That's all folks! Hope you get an idea on what it does and where it is applicable to you.