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Java Management Extensions Review by Michael Marr
Sound primer to the JMX APIs
Java Management Extensions (JMX) enable configuration, management and monitoring of Java applications at runtime in a standardized manner. Furthermore JMX offers an exciting new approach for building component based applications. JMX makes it possible to exchange these components with new implementations or add new components without ever stopping your server. A lot of application servers, like JBoss, Apache Tomcat or BEA WebLogic, are based on this approach nowadays.
The O'Reilly book "Java Management Extensions" offers a sound primer to the JMX APIs. It starts off with a high level view of the JMX concepts. The author then introduces a sample application which is used throughout the book to explain the different parts of the JMX API.
For every type of MBean( standard, dynamic, model and even the brand new Open MBeans) the author devoted a whole chapter, covering the complete API of the Mbean type. Therefore, and because all the chapters are so very well structured, the book is perfectly suited for serving as a reference book.
Further topics covered are the MBean server, JMX Notifications, dynamic loading with MLets and the JMX Services (monitoring service, timer service, relation service). Again there is a whole chapter for every single topic.All in all I like the book very much, especially because it is so clearly structured and because of the author's straightforward way of writing.
Be aware though that, while the book covers the complete standardized JMX APIs, it does not talk a lot about the not yet standardized parts, like connectors and adaptors, except for the obligatory HttpAdaptor. But that is a reasonable decision as these parts a different for every implementation of JMX, and the best place to cover them is probably the vendors documentation.
Highly recommendable.