It's not possible to write a complete list of all handy tricks that can be used while monitoring the performance and behavior of a site going live and therefore for the fist time getting requests of thousand (real) users. None the less there are lots of common checks that should always be done. Please feel free to add items to this list. Problems encountered and their solutions may also be added to this page.
- [Performance Dashboard]: Somewhere around GX WebManager version 9.6.0 the performance dashboard was introduced. This is a good starting point for monitoring page access times and query execution times. The Performance Dashboard is included in the standard releases of GX WebManager, but a commercial licence is needed to use it.
- Administrator Status Tool: The tool "http://HOSTNAME/web/admin/status.jsp" shows a list of all open requests to that server on that specific point of time and for how long these have been running. It also shows a list of recently treated requests, and the duration of these requests. The number of open requests gives a good picture of how heavy the server load is. The list of recent requests is very useful to spot pages which are performance bottlenecks because that always takes long to generate. This tool should be monitored for all different servers of an installation.
- Administrator Threads Tool: The tool "http://HOSTNAME/web/admin/threads.jsp" shows all running Java-threads and the call-stack belonging to that thread. This information needs some experience and knowledge of the internal structure of GX WebManager to be useful. If gives the most detailed picture though of what GX WebManager is actually doing at the point of time. Some tips:
- A good start is to set the minimum stack size to "12". This will filter aways lots of sleeping threads. This tool can be monitored for all different servers of an installation.
- The call stack of idle threads ends with something like "at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:433)". These threads are not of interest.
- Administrator Log Tool: The tool "http://HOSTNAME/web/admin/log.jsp" is not very useful while monitoring a live site. This tool is more useful for checking the details of one specific problem.
- Tomcat Logfiles: The Tomcat log is a very important source of detecting problems on the web site. Look for errors and warnings which frequently occur.
See also
