Java Performance Monitoring Tools

1
Java Performance Monitoring Tools

• Matt Secoske
• Bass Associates
• February 9, 2006

2
Performance

• Critical to the success of your application
• Relies on right combination of
• -Hardware
• -Software
• -Configuration
• -3rd Party Systems/Libraries
• -Developer Knowledge/Experience

3
Issues

• Typically looked at only when there is a problem
• Most do not know what performance they require
• Can affect full life cycle of Software
  Development
• Should be examined frequently (any semi-major
  change)

4
Issues

• Accuracy problems
• -What to measure? How often?
• Hard to do in production
• Potentially slows down application

5
A plan is formed...

• Find out what performance you need
• -Ask questions of the respective stakeholders
• Create testing scenarios
• Determine monitoring/profiling needs
• Integrate into development process
• -Continuous performance testing

6
But wait!

• Don't focus on micro performance, unless you
  really REALLY need to! ¹
• String vs. StringBuffer is interesting, but
  (usually) not a critical performance issue
• Focus on performance until it is Good Enough
• "Premature optimization is the root of all
  evil."²

¹ http//www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/libra
ry/j-jtp03253.html ² http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Optimization_(computer_science)
7
Some Questions

• What is your expected average number of users
• What is your expected peak number of users?
• What are the most common tasks these users will
  be doing?
•  

8
Process

• Benchmark/profile the system as a baseline.
• Look at the results, identify bottleneck.
• Make small change based to relieve bottleneck.
• Benchmark/profile
• Compare to baseline for improvements
• Rinse, wash, repeat
• Make it part of you dev process... even your
  build process

9
JMeter

• Apache's load driver. Can help push requests in
  common load/peak load scenarios.

10
Monitoring Options

• Stop Watch
• Tracing / Logs
• Profiling

11
Stop Watch (Wall clock?)

• Useful for UI testing...
• -General UI responsiveness
• .. and some long running processes
• -Tests, builds, etc.
• Not much else

12
Tracing / Logs

• Most Common
• -Web Server Logs
• Affects environment
• -Parmesan on you spaghetti code
• -Log files, etc
• Generally solved by NIH code
• -There are tools available

13
Profiling

• Watches JVM events
• -Contained Profiling (Profiler wraps Application)
• -External Profiling (Profiler attaches to
  Application's process JVMPI)
• Easy to do too much... slowing down the
  application

14
Tracing solutions

• Log4j
• -Remember, parmesan
• Or is it?
• -Aspects can make that issue disappear
• -Still need to focus on what to test

15
Aspects

• Can be used for general tracing and profiling.
• Compile time or run-time configuration.
• AOP JMX Cool stuff coming from this area.

GlassBox Inspector (java.net)
16
JFluid / NetBeans Profiler

• Sun's JVM profiling tool.
• Part of NetBeans profiler extension.
• Local or remote profiling
• Supports certain version of 1.4.2 JVM, all 5.0
  Sun JVMs.

17
NetBeans Profiler
18
Eclipse TPTP/Hyades

• Hyades is Eclipse's JVM profiling tool.
• Similar in function to NetBeans Profiler.
• Local or remote profiling.
• Requires an agent to run in the JVM.
• Most major platforms supports.

19
Eclipse TPTP / Hyades
20
Final Thoughts

• Performance analysis, like debugging, is an
  iterative process.
• Initial setup will take longer than you expect.
• There is no perfect solution, but you can get
  close enough.
• The trick is knowing when to optimize, and that
  comes from profiling.
• There are plenty of great (and now, free!) tools
  available for you to use.
• Make performance a part of your dev process.

21
Links

• http//www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/librar
  y/j-jtp03253.html
• Performance monitoring with AspectJ, parts 1
  2, Ron Bodkin
• http//www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/librar
  y/j-aopwork10/
• http//www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/librar
  y/j-aopwork12/index.html
• Java Performance Tuning, Jack Shirazi
• http//www.oreilly.com/catalog/javapt/index.html
• Tools
• NetBeans IDE/Profiler http//www.netbeans.org/
• Eclipse IDE/TPTP http//www.eclipse.org
• Apache Jmeter http//jakarta.apache.org/jmeter
• GlassBox Inspector https//glassbox-inspector.dev
  .java.net/