HP OSMS white paper: How to Monitor JBoss v4.0.3 SP1 with HP SIM using SNMP

An MBean is a Java object that implements one of the standard MBean interfaces and follows the associated
design patterns. The MBean for a resource exposes all necessary information and operations that a
management application needs to manage the resource.
The scope of the management interface of an MBean includes the following:
• Attributes values that may be accessed by name.
• Operations or functions that may be invoked.
• Notifications or events that may be emitted.
• The constructors for the MBean Java class.
MBeans are located inside a container that is accessible from the Mbean Server. It is possible for a JMX
client to invoke methods and access attributes on an MBean using this container. Additionally, it is possible
for a client to receive notifications from an MBean by registering with that Mbean.
The JBoss AS, is built on a JMX Microkernel that allows management of JMX manageable resources through
MBeans. The JBoss Microkernel is a set of MBeans that run on top of JBossMX, which is the JBoss
implementation of the JMX technology. JBoss commonly refers to these MBeans as "services".
The following JBoss Web site contains a description from the JBossWiki knowledge base regarding JMX
instrumentation and MBeans:
http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=JMXInstrumentation
For additional information, see The JBoss 4 Application Server Guide, Chapter 2, which describes the JBoss
JMX architecture in detail. This is document can be found at the JBoss Web site, as well:
http://docs.jboss.org/jbossas/jboss4guide/r4/html/
The instrumentation level defines the requirements for implementing JMX manageable resources. A JMX
manageable resource can be virtually anything, including applications, service components, devices, and
so on. The manageable resource exposes a Java object or wrapper that describes its manageable features,
which instruments the resource so that it can be managed by JMX-compliant applications. The user provides
the instrumentation of a given resource using one or more managed beans, or MBeans. This is described
in more detail at the JBoss Web site:
http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=MBeanTypes
Since it is not possible to communicate directly with JBoss using SNMP, JBoss has provided an
snmp-adaptor MBean to enable JMX to SNMP communication. The SnmpAgentService is the main
MBean that implements the SNMP agent to intercept JMX notifications emitted by MBeans. It converts
the Mbeans to traps and then sends them to the SNMP manager. The following sections describe how to
configure the MBean to send traps to the SNMP manager.
Configuration Details
The configuration details for JBoss and HP SIM for enabling SNMP monitoring are addressed in this
section. Installation and initial configuration for each of the components (JBoss and HP SIM) is not covered
here. For installation details, refer to the installation and configuration guide for each component.
This section describes how to configure:
• the JBoss SNMP service to send traps;
• the JBoss Deployment descriptor for the SNMP service;
• HP SIM to receive traps.
The“Start JBoss and View Traps in the SNMP Managers” (page 18) and“View Traps in HP SIM” (page 19)
sections describe how to verify the configuration steps in this section by viewing the traps through HP
SIM.
NOTE: You must have the IP address and port number for your HP SIM server installation.
The following hardware, OS, and JBoss AS configurations were used to test the solution:
• JBoss 4.0.3sp1 is installed with all three possible configurations (all, default, and minimal) on an HP
ProLiant BL30p BladeSystem Server running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 1 (RHEL4U1).
• HP SIM 5.0 running on a virtual system constructed with VMware and hosted on a DL360-G3 running
RHEL4U1.
For more information, see the VMware Web site:
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