Resource management and JMX - JMX in Action - page 4

Distributed applications, devices, and services appear in many different arrange-
ments in an enterprise. At your company, you probably access data from your
intranet services, from computers distributed throughout the company network,
and from services across the firewall out on the Web. For example, you might
access a calendar-sharing application or a financial application to fill out
expense sheets. Someone must maintain all these applications. Not only the
applications, but also the hardware that supports them must be maintained.
Resource management encompasses both applications and hardware. In fact,
both application and hardware management can be supported through the
development of Java Management Extensions ( JMX ) resource management soft-
ware. This topic will show how you can use JMX to manage and monitor all your
resources across an enterprise—both software and hardware.
Whether you're familiar with JMX already or have purchased this topic to find
out what JMX is all about, you need to understand why JMX exists today. In this
chapter, you will learn the basis for JMX , the definitions of some common JMX
terms, and the essentials of JMX architecture. Throughout our discussion, we'll
use as an example a bicycle shop web application on the Internet: people come
to this site to purchase bicycles and gear, and to access articles and content
related to bicycling.
1.1 Resource management
Resource management is a management concept that provides a plan and tools for
the management of enterprise applications and resources. For typical enter-
prises, resource management means having tools that report the health of enter-
prise applications and hardware. Based on the health of resources, IT employees
can react to system failures and critical events.
Improved resource monitoring and management capabilities across an enter-
prise provide the IT employee with insight into the health of enterprise applica-
tions, as well as a way to resolve problems when they occur; the IT employee thus
moves from a purely reactionary mode to a more active role. For instance, if
you're made aware of the fact that resources are performing below par, you can
help avoid a catastrophic failure. In addition, you'll be able to tune the applica-
tions or devices remotely from a single management console.
The current management environment in many enterprises lacks the quick
responsiveness needed for today's enterprise applications. In addition, many
application-monitoring and -management solutions are costly and difficult to
implement. In this section, we'll compare the typical environments in place