WebSphere Technical University: Top WebSphere Problem Determination Features

A6: Top IBM WebSphere Application
Server Problem Determination
Features
Chris Bailey
STSM, IBM Runtime Monitoring and Diagnostics

Please Note
IBM’s statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal
without notice at IBM’s sole discretion. Information regarding potential future products is
intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a
purchasing decision.
The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise,
or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. Information about potential
future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and
timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole
discretion
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a
controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience
will vary depending upon many factors, including considerations such as the amount of
multiprogramming in the user’s job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and
the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will
achieve results similar to those stated here.
© 2014 IBM Corporation
2

Introduction to the Speaker
Chris Bailey
STSM, IBM Runtime Monitoring and Diagnostics Architect
14 years experience developing and deploying Java SDKs
1 years experience developing and deploying Node.js SDKs
3
Recent work focus:
Java and Node.js monitoring and diagnostics
Java and Node.js integration into the cloud
Highly resilient and scalable deployments
Requirements gathering
Contact Details:
baileyc@uk.ibm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbaileyibm
http://www.slideshare.net/cnbailey/
@Chris__Bailey

4
Problem Reduction
1. Eliminate Problems
remove the source of problems so that
they no longer occur. For example,
redesign a component to eliminate the
need to configure something that
customers have trouble with.
2. Improve Serviceability
make it easier for customers or support to
service problems when they occur. For
example, provide a way for customers to
quickly check to see if there are any
configuration problems.
Eliminate
Problems
Improve
Serviceability
Goal: Reduce total problem hours

5
Problem Reduction
Serviceability Features
• Hang detection
• First Failure Data Capture
• High Performance Extensible Logging
• Cross Component Trace
• Memory Leak Detection and Prevention
• Timed Operations
• …
Component Improvements
• Security
• Systems Management
• Install
• Plugin
• Java™ and JDK
• WebServices
• ...
Problem Determination Tools
• IBM Support Assistant Team Server
(with Automated Analysis)
• Garbage Collection and Memory
Visualizer
• Memory Analyzer (with WAS
extensions)
• Java Health Center
• Thread and Monitor Dump Analyzer
• Performance Tuning Toolkit
• ...
Problem reduction is driven from
multiple directions
 Component improvements reduce problem
determination time for key components
 Serviceability features simplify problem
determination across the product
 Problem determination tools make it easier
to analyze complex issues

WAS V8.5.5
(L) Binary Logging
(L) Timed Operations
(L) Sensitive WAS Runtime Features Log and Trace Guard
WAS V8.5.x
(F) Cross Component Trace
ISA DC integration
(F) HPEL enhanced filtering
(F) Memory leak detection and protection
(L) Liberty Serviceability (logs, dumps, FFDC)
6
WAS V5.1.x
Session data crossover assist
Socket Connect Timeouts
High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL)
JVM Serviceability Enhancements
WAS V6.1.x (*)
Diagnostic Providers
Unique Message IDs
Trigger dumps from console
Sensitive log and trace guard
WAS v6.0.x
JSR 47 Logging
Common Base Events
FFDC Aspects
FFDC Capability for z/OS
Class Loader Viewer
WAS V5.0.x
FFDC
Collector Summary
Config Validation
Connection Manager Serviceability
Hang Detection in the Runtime
WAS V8.0.x
WAS V7.0.x (*)
FFDC Improvements
Diagnostic Tooling Framework for Java (DTFJ)
Ongoing
Serviceability Defects Process
to report and address specific
serviceability issues encountered
in the field
(*) Several tooling-related projects were delivered as WAS Line Items in WAS 6.1 and 7.0 (F)=Full Profile (L)=Liberty Profile

Liberty Problem Determination
Server dump Command
Server javadump Command
TimedOperations Feature
Binary Logging
© 2014 8 IBM Corporation

Server Dump Command
 The server dump command is a utility you can run from the bin directory to dump and
zip up important state information from the application server itself.
wlpbin> server dump
 The server dump command collects:
– Log files
– Configuration information
– Details of deployed applications
 If the server is running when the command executes, it also collects:
– State of each OSGi bundle in the server
– Wiring information for each OSGi bundle in the server
– Component list managed by the Service Component Runtime (SCR) environment
– Detailed information of each component from SCR
– Configuration administration data of each OSGi bundle
– Information about registered OSGi services
– Runtime environment settings such as Java™ virtual machine (JVM), heap size,
operating system, thread information, and network status

Server JavaDump Command
 The server javadump command is a utility you can run from the bin directory to collect
javacores, heap dumps, and system cores.
wlpbin> server javadump
– Collects a javacore from a running server. Javacores are helpful for diagnosing hangs,
100% CPU conditions, and deadlocks. Use tools such as the Thread and Monitor
Dump Analyzer available in the IBM Support Assistant to analyze javacores.
wlpbin> server javadump –-include=heap
– Collects a heap dump from a running server. Heap dumps are helpful for diagnosing
memory leaks. Use tools such as Memory Analyzer available in the IBM Support
Assistant to analyze heap dumps.
wlpbin> server javadump --include=system
– Collects a system core from a running server. System cores are helpful for diagnosing
memory leaks, or exploring specific data in your heap address space. Use tools such
as Memory Analyzer, or Interactive Diagnostic Data Explorer available in the IBM
Support Assistant to analyze system cores.

Timed Operations
 Timed operations is a new feature that tracks the duration of JDBC operations running in
the application server
–Logs a warning when operations take more or less time to execute than
expected
–Periodically creates a report in the application server log, detailing which
operations took longest to execute
– When running the server dump command, it will generate a report containing
information about all operations it has tracked
–The information listed in these reports can be used to decide if anything has
an unusual behavior
–Recommended for production environments to track slowdowns when they
first occur

Timed Operations
 Sample logged message
[3/14/13 14:01:25:960 CDT] 00000025 TimedOperatio W
TRAS0080W: Operation
websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/social:INSERT INTO
DB2INST1.CommentTab (comment, extension, object, time,
userid, mentionsid) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?) took
16.613 ms to complete, which was longer than the
expected duration of 10.859 ms based on past
observations.
 Sample automatically generated report in the log

Timed Operations
 Sample introspection file
The description of this introspectable service:
Information about the timed operations, grouped by type, and sorted within each group by expected duration
---------------------------------------------------------------
Timed operations for: websphere.datasource.execute
---------------------------------------------------------------
Expected duration (ms) Standard deviation (ms) Timed operation
1.204297 0.929251 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:update orderejb set holdingID = ? where orderid = ?
1.107012 1.127067 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:delete from orderejb
0.286977 0.163669 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:update orderejb set holdingid=null where holdingid = ?
0.211317 0.083466 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:delete from accountejb
0.209597 0.243975 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:update orderejb set orderstatus = ? where orderid = ?
0.201933 0.059850 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:select * from orderejb o where o.orderstatus = 'closed'
0.144153 0.052846 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:delete from holdingejb where holdingID = ?
0.143007 0.037623 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:update orderejb set holdingID = ? where orderid = ?
0.139108 0.042636 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:update accountejb set lastLogin=?, where userID=?
0.137844 0.125086 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:delete from orderejb where orderStatus='cancelled'
0.128342 0.042986 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:delete from accountprofileejb
0.114781 0.029487 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:update accountejb set balance = ? where account = ?
0.028868 0.128856 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:select * from orderejb o where o.orderid = ?
0.021680 0.008652 websphere.datasource.execute:jdbc/TradeDS:select * from quoteejb q where q.symbol=?

Enabling Timed Operations
 To enable timed operations add the following feature to your server.xml file:
<feature>timedOperations-1.0</feature>
 To disable timed operations remove this line from your server.xml file
 A server restart is not required to enable or disable timed operations

Configuring Timed Operations
 To disable the generation of the report to the logs
<timedOperation enableReport="false"/>
 To change the frequency of the report, for example to once every 12 hours
<timedOperation reportFrequency="12"/>
 To log a warning when the total number of timed operations reaches the specified value
<timedOperation maxNumberTimedOperations="10000"/>
 To enable automatic cleanup of least recently used timed operation data from memory
(freeing up space as needed for new operations to be tracked), add the following to your
server.env file:
com.ibm.timedOperations.autoCleanup=true

Problem Determination Capabilities in
Both Liberty and Full Profile
Binary Logging (Liberty)
High Performance Extensible Logging (Full Profile)

Binary logging / High performance extensible logging
High speed log and trace handling for WebSphere Application Server
–Available in full profile since WAS 8.0
–Referred to as High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL)
–Available in Liberty since WAS 8.5.5
- Referred to as binary logging

Binary logging / High performance extensible logging
Benefits
–Greatly improves speed of logging and tracing
–Enables you to add new fields to log and trace records
–Helps you filter through logs and trace with a powerful
command line tool
–Provides a common solution for all supported platforms
–Includes an API to read from binary repositories
programmatically
 Notes
– Stores log and trace data in a binary format
– Does not require any change to your application code
– Able to work with log analytics tools

Runtime Logs – Full Profile
Full Profile - default logs trace System.out System.err
SystemOut.log
SystemErr.log
trace.log
activity.log1
Full Profile - HPEL logs trace System.out System.err
logdata/
tracedata/
TextLog2 3
1activity.log is deprecated and can be disabled.
2TextLog is redundant and can be disabled if you don't need a plain text log
3Inclusion of trace content in TextLog is optional and not recommended for high performance

Runtime Logs – Liberty
Liberty - default logs trace System.out System.err
messages.log
trace.log
console.log1
Liberty – binary logging logs trace System.out System.err
logdata/
tracedata/
console.log1
1console.log is redundant and can be disabled if you don't need it

Viewing logs and trace
 Viewing logs and trace
– [Liberty] binaryLog command is used to view content from logdata / tracedata
– [Full Profile] logViewer command is used to view content from logdata /
tracedata
– displays repository content in plain text
– provides options to filter the displayed content and to choose the output format
– can be used to monitor (tail) the repositories in real time

Binary Logging Performance (Liberty)
– Measured using java.util.logging
– Much faster than logging to messages.log when console.log was disabled
– Much faster than tracing to trace.log
– Performance gains are very dependent on log / trace content
 Use binary logging to reduce performance impact of logs and traces on your production
servers
– console.log should be disabled when superior logging performance is required (note that
this is not a factor in trace performance) <logging consoleLogLevel="OFF" />
Liberty Trace Performance
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
Default
HPEL
threads
events per second
 Performance
Liberty Logging Performance
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
Default (with console.log)
Default (no console.log)
HPEL (with console.log)
HPEL (no console.log)
threads
events per second

HPEL Performance (Full Profile)
 Performance
– Measured using java.util.logging
– Much faster than logging to SystemOut.log when TextLog and JMX Notification are
disabled
– Much faster than tracing to trace.log
– Performance gains are very dependent on log / trace content
 Use HPEL to reduce performance impact of logs and traces on your production servers
Full Profile Logging Performance
threads events per second
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
800000
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
Default
Default (no JMX
Notification)
HPEL
HPEL (no JMX
Notification, no
TextLog)
Full Profile Trace Performance
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
700000
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
Default
HPEL
threads
events per second

Enabling binary logging (Liberty)
 To enable binary logging add the following line to your bootstrap.properties file in your
server root directory:
websphere.log.provider=binaryLogging-1.0
 To disable binary logging remove the above line from your bootstrap.properties file
 A server restart is required to enable or disable binary logging

Enabling HPEL (Full Profile)
Administrative Console
1. Expand Troubleshooting
2. Select Logs and trace
3. Select server1
4. Select Change log and trace mode
5. Click Switch to HPEL Mode
6. Save your configuration
7. Restart your server
 A server restart is required to enable or disable binary logging

Configuring binary logging (Liberty)
 Binary log and trace settings are set in child elements of the logging element in the
server.xml
 Settings for the console log, trace specification, and log directory are inherited from the
logging element
<logging logDirectory="${server.output.dir}/logs"
traceSpecification="*=info"
consoleLogLevel="AUDIT">
<binaryLog purgeMaxSize="50"/>
<binaryTrace purgeMaxSize="50"/>
</logging>

Configuring HPEL (Full Profile)
Administrators can independently configure (as an immediate runtime change or a persistent config change):
• HPEL Log
• HPEL Trace
• HPEL Text log
Log detail level setting is the same as previous releases.

Viewing logs and trace (Liberty )
 The binaryLog command is in the wlp/bin directory
 To view all binary logs and trace
binaryLog view serverName
 To view all warnings and errors
binarylog view serverName --minLevel=WARNING
 To view all warnings and errors from thread 33 from the latest run of the server
binarylog view serverName –-includeThread=33 --includeInstance=”latest”
 To tail the content of the logs and trace as they are written by the server
binarylog view serverName --monitor
 To see all of the available options
binarylog help view

Viewing logs and trace (Full profile)
 The logViewer command is in the profile bin directory
LogViewer | LogViewer -monitor

 To view all warnings and errors
LogViewer -minLevel WARNING

LogViewer -minLevel WARNING -latestInstance

LogViewer -startDate "05/31/12 22:10:40:000 EDT" -stopDate "05/31/12
22:10:58:000 EDT" -thread 91 -minLevel info

Administrative Console
1. Expand Troubleshooting
2. Select Logs and trace
3. Select server1
4. Select View HPEL logs and trace

Copying log and trace (Liberty)
 The binaryLog command lets you make new binary copies of your data
 Any of the filtering options can be used when making a new copy
 To create a new binary copy of your log and trace data with only messages that contain
the string “hello”
binarylog copy serverName myOutputDirectory --includeMessage="*hello*"
 To view all log and trace data stored in this new copy
binarylog view myOutputDirectory
binarylog help copy

Copying log and trace (Full profile)
 The logViewer command lets you make new binary copies of your data
 Any of the filtering options can be used when making a new copy
 To create a new binary copy of your log and trace data with only messages that contain
the string “hello”
logViewer -extractToNewRepository myOutputDirectory -message "*hello*"
 To view all log and trace data stored in this new copy
logviewer -repositoryDir myOutputDirectory
logViewer -help

Extensibility
 Developers can add key-value pairs to log and trace records using the LogRecordContext
API
– For example, in an application hosting multiple stores, you could add the storeId to each
log and trace record in a servlet filter
– Key-value pairs appear in log output when the advanced format is used (selectable when
running the [Liberty] binaryLog / [Full Profile] logViewer command)
– Key-value pairs can be used as filter parameters in [Liberty] binaryLog / [Full Profile]
logViewer command
– [Full Profile] appName extension is provided automatically, and other extensions are
provided for thing like cross component trace, and SIP
– Liberty:
binarylog view serverName –-includeExtension=”storeId=WidgetsPlus” --format=advanced
– Full Profile:
logViewer -includeExtensions “appName=MyMall” ”storeId=WidgetsPlus” -format advanced
[11/26/13 8:15:13:495 EST] 00000074 I UOW= source=com.mymall.ServletX class=com.mymall.Serv
letX method=doGet org= prod= component= thread=[WebContainer : 0] storeId=[WidgetsPlus]
Welcome to Widget's Plus!

Using High Performance Extensible Logging / Binary Logging with SplunkTM
 Step 1 - Install Splunk app for WAS
 Step 2 - Configure Splunk forwarder
– Option #1 (simplest) - Read from TextLog files
– Add monitor stanza to Splunk inputs.conf file to read from TextLog (use index=websphere and
sourcetype=WebSphere:SystemOutErrLog)
– Option #2 (any environment) - Read from logViewer -monitor script
– Configure Splunk to read output from logViewer -monitor
– Set up a no-arg script to run logViewer -monitor from profile bin
– Add script stanza to Splunk inputs.conf file to run the above created script (use
index=websphere sourcetype=WebSphere:SystemOutErrLog
interval=-1)
– Add -Xrs to Java command invocation in WASbinlogViewer script (for graceful shutdown when
Splunk stops)

 Option #1 (simplest) - Read from TextLog files
inputs.conf
[monitor://D:WASprofilesAppSrv01logsserver1]
whitelist=Text.*.log$
crcSalt = <SOURCE>
disabled = false
followTail = 0
index = websphere
sourcetype = WebSphere:SystemOutErrLog

 Option #2 (any environment) - Read from logViewer -monitor script
inputs.conf
[script://$SPLUNK_HOMEetcsystembinrunLogViewer.cmd]
disabled = false
interval = -1
index = websphere
sourcetype = WebSphere:SystemOutErrLog
runLogViewer.cmd
call D:WASprofilesAppSrv01binlogViewer -monitor
WASbinlogViewer.cmd
change:
%JAVA_EXE% ... com.ibm.ws.logging.hpel.viewer.LogViewer %*
to:
%JAVA_EXE% -Xrs ... com.ibm.ws.logging.hpel.viewer.LogViewer %*

Full Profile Problem Determination
IBM Support Assistant Data Collector
Cross Component Trace
TimedOperations Feature
Memory Leak Detection, Prevention, and
Correction

IBM Support Assistant Data Collector
 The isadc command is a console utility you can run from your profile bin
directory (starting from WAS 8.0.0.6) to collect diagnostic information from your
application server when you are experiencing problems.
AppServerbin> isadc
 The IBM Support Assistant data collector executes scripts which follow the same
steps as detailed in MustGather documents produced by IBM L2 support teams
for common problems.
 Use of the IBM Support Assistant Data Collector can speed up problem
determination by ensuring you have the right artifacts to work with support
teams
 The isadc command must be run on the system on which you are
experiencing problems. Many of the scripts require the server to be running,
and in the problem state.
 The resultant data collected can be sent to IBM via secure file transfer, or kept
for your own purposes.

 The IBM Support Assistant data collector is menu driven – you can
choose from dozens of possible problem symptoms to gather problem-specific
artifacts.
Responses to menu choices and prompts can be recorded to a
response file as follows:
AppServerbin> isadc -record response.txt
Response files are in plain text and can be reused for future invocations
of the tool:
AppServerbin> isadc response.txt
 The tool provides a way to securely transfer data to IBM ECuRep, if
desired.

Console (text) Interface
isadc.bat or isadc.sh
in WAS_HOME/bin
Silent response
capability
Collection
Archive Transfer to IBM for
analysis with a PMR

Cross Component Trace
 Cross Component Trace (XCT) is a log/trace correlation technology.
 XCT enables you to determine which log/trace entries are part of each request.
 XCT can be used in any of three different modes:
1)Request ID mode
2)Request ID and correlation log record mode
3)Request ID, correlation log record, and data snapshot mode
 XCT works best in combination with High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL).
• HPEL stores XCT Request IDs
• HPEL can filter log/trace records by XCT Request ID

Cross Component Trace Logviewer
 IBM WebSphere Cross Component Trace Logviewer can be used to view files augmented
with correlation log records.
• Available for the IBM Support Assistant
• Can load multiple files simultaneously
• Can show flat / hierarchical views

Enabling XCT through Administrative Console
 The panel below is where XCT is enabled on the administrative console
• The panel can be found here: WebSphere Application Servers > SERVER_NAME >
Change log detail levels

Understanding XCT Correlation Log Records
 Correlation log records look like this example:
[4/23/12 13:54:44:509 IST] 0000008e XCT I BEGIN
AAADx/itMDz-AAAAAAAAAAA 00000000000-cccccccccc2
HTTPCF(InboundRequest /JMSApp/LocalMessageSend
RemoteAddress(127.0.0.1) RequestContext(2082603117))
 <Date>: The date and time when the log record was generated
 <Thread_ID>: The thread which generated this message
 <XCT_Logger_Name>: The XCT logger name is XCT. This logger is used to identify the XCT Records in
the Log file
 <Message_Type>: Type of the log message
 <XCT_STATE>: Each XCT Record has a State, it can be BEGIN, END
 <XCT_ID>: A Unique ID generated for correlating the XCT Records
 <XCT_PARENT_ID>: The XCT_ID of the parent XCT context
 <XCT_MESSAGE>: The XCT message contains the information about the XCT record; this can contain
some Associations and Annotations

Identifying all log/trace entries that are part of the same HTTP request
 The XCT requestID is added to all log and trace records associated with HTTP requests.
 The requestID can only be seen when using the HPEL logViewer command-line tool with
the advanced format
logViewer -thread 91 -minlevel info -format advanced

Identifying all log/trace entries that are part of the same HTTP request
 The XCT requestID is added to all log and trace records associated with HTTP requests.
– The requestID can only be seen when using the HPEL logViewer command-line tool
with the advanced format
logViewer -includeExtensions requestID=AAAKLwUVkuH-AAAAAAAAAAC

IBM WebSphere Cross Component Trace Logviewer
 The scenarios following this slide use the IBM WebSphere Cross Component Trace
Logviewer – available as a tool add-on for the IBM Support Assistant
 Tool used to examine XCT entries in a log
 Logs can be loaded from multiple servers and they are stitched together

Memory leak detection, prevention and correction
 Customers have discovered several Classloader and ThreadLocal leaks in
WebSphere Application Server and their own applications
 Prior to this feature, WebSphere Application Server does not contain an application
level that provides top down memory leak detection and protection
 Customers want to increase application uptime without cycling the server
 Frequent redeployments of the application result in OOM errors
Existing (v7 & up) PM39870: Improved classloader leak detection.
NEW in V8.5 (Not in Liberty Profile)
 Prevention – Code to proactively fix suspect application classloader leak patterns
 Detection - Recognize Application triggered classloader leaks & provide diagnostics
 Fixing – Leverage existing JDK APIs and reflection to remedy classloader leaks.
 Enabled by setting the setting JVM custom properties

Class Unloading 101
A Java Object has a reference to its Class object.getClass()
A Class has a reference to its ClassLoader class.getClassloader()
A ClassLoader has a reference to every Class it has loaded classloader.findLoadedClass()
Java classes are loaded per-class, but unloaded per-classloader
Class unloading can be denied because of references to ClassLoader, Class or Object
– References can come from anywhere:
• Other Objects
• Other Llasses/ClassLoaders
• Thread stacks
• Thread variables
• JNI global references
• Finalizer queue entries

Unwanted reference to application classloader – example 1
■ Here, we have a CompoundClassLoader which is kept alive because a thread named “Keep-
Alive-Timer” has its contextClassLoader set to it
■ “Keep-Alive-Timer” is a daemon thread
– Spawned by the classlibraries
– Daemon threads live until the JVM ends
■ Threads inherit contextclassloader
– From their parent
■ This is a Java classlibrary bug
– Being raised with Oracle
– Fix is simple:
• thread.setContextClassLoader(null);
55 © 2010 IBM Corporation

Unwanted reference to a class which was loaded by the application
classloader – example 2
■ Here, a CompoundClassLoader is kept
alive because a class it loaded –
org.richfaces.model.selection.ClientSelecti
on – has been stored inside a HashMap in
the system class
java.beans.PropertyEditorManager
■ Because this is a system class, it has
javadoc!
■ Looks like a RichFaces bug...
– https://jira.jboss.org/browse/RF-7911
• “OutOfMemory when redeploying -
ClientSelection not unregistered
from PropertyEditorManager”

Common leaks
■ ThreadLocal problems
– Custom class extending ThreadLocal?
■ Threads' contextClassLoaders
– Daemon threads started by a servlet
– Careless use of java.util.Timer
– Daemon threads started by 3rd party libraries, shared between two applications
■ Bean introspection
– If you introspect (call getBeanInfo()) on a Bean loaded by the app classloader, you must
call flushfromCaches(beanClass) on app shutdown
■ JMX MBeans and NotificationListeners
– Must be unregistered when the application stops

Example BAD code
public class MyCounter {
private int count = 0;
public void increment() {
count++;
}
public int getCount() {
return count;
}
}
public class MyThreadLocal extends ThreadLocal<MyCounter> {
}
public class LeakingServlet extends HttpServlet {
private static MyThreadLocal myThreadLocal = new MyThreadLocal();
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
MyCounter counter = myThreadLocal.get();
if (counter == null) {
counter = new MyCounter();
myThreadLocal.set(counter);
}
response.getWriter().println(
"The current thread served this servlet " + counter.getCount()
+ " times");
counter.increment();
}
}

Detection, prevention and action
 Detection: Issue warnings when a memory leak is detected
 Prevention is on by default and applies only to JRE triggered leaks.
 Action: Take proactive action to fix memory leaks.
 Actions have reasonable defaults and are configured on a case-by-case
 Pseudo code for clearing leaks
protected void com.ibm.ws.classloader.clearReferences()
{ if(ENABLE_CLEAR_REFERENCES_JDBC)
clearReferencesJdbc(); if(ENABLE_CLEAR_REFERENCES_THREADS)
clearReferencesThreads();
if(ENABLE_CLEAR_REFERENCES_THREADLOCALS)
clearReferencesThreadLocals();
if(ENABLE_CLEAR_REFERENCES_RMI_TARGETS)
clearReferencesRmiTargets();
if(ENABLE_CLEAR_REFERENCES_STATICS)
clearReferencesStaticFinal();
}
© 2014 60
IBM Corporation

Leak detection messages
 CWMML0015E: The web application [WasSwat#WasSwatWeb.war] created a
ThreadLocal with key of type [test.memleak.MyThreadLocal] (value
[test.memleak.MyThreadLocal@216c691]) and a value of type
[test.memleak.MyCounter] (value [test.memleak.MyCounter@21942ff])
but failed to remove it when the web application was stopped.
 CWMML0010E: The web application [LeakApp#leak.war] appears to have
started a thread named [Thread-73] but has failed to stop it.
 CWMML0011E: The web application [LeakApp#leak.war] appears to have
started a TimerThread named [leaked-thread] via the java.util.Timer
API but has failed to stop it.
 CWMML0024W: About to interrupt thread [leakingThread] which is
currently executing
 CWMML0026I: ClassLoader memory leak is fixed. Clearing leak
References succeeded for LeakApp#leak.war.
© 2014 61
IBM Corporation

Useful Links – Runtime Capabilities
High Performance Extensible Logging
Using High Performance Extensible Logging to
troubleshoot applications
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/index.jsp?
topic=%2Fcom.ibm.websphere.nd.multiplatform.doc
%2Fae%2Fttrb_usinghpel.html
High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/v1r1m0/i
ndex.jsp?
topic=/com.ibm.iea.was_v8/was/8.0/ProblemDeterminatio
n/WASv8_HPEL/player.html
System administration in WebSphere Application Server
V8.5, Part 3: High Performance Extensible Logging
(HPEL)
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjourn
al/1208_bourne/1208_bourne.html
Cross Component Trace
WebSphere Application Server v8.5 Cross Component
Trace
http://webspherecommunity.blogspot.ca/2012/07/websph
ere-application-server-v85-cross.html
Use Cross Component Trace (XCT) request Ids to see
which log entries were generated by each request
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXsfDoiNb5c
Use the IBM WebSphere Cross Component Trace
Logviewer to view WebSphere Application Server log files
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qorwRZh4DgQ
High Performance Extensible Logging and Cross
Component Trace Tech Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKKfUdNux70
IBM Training: IBM WebSphere Application Server V8
Problem Determination
http://www-
304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en?
pageType=course_description&courseCode=WU582

Memory Leak Detection and Prevention
Configuring the memory leak policy http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/topic/com.i
bm.websphere.nd.doc/ae/ttrb_configmemleak.html
Memory leaks in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition
applications
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/index.jsp?
topic=%2Fcom.ibm.websphere.nd.doc%2Fae
%2Fctrb_memleakdetection.html
Binary Logging
Liberty Profile: Binary Logging http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/topic/com.i
bm.websphere.wlp.express.doc/ae/cwlp_HPELOverview.
html
Binary logging for Liberty profile http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/v1r1m0/t
opic/com.ibm.iea.was_v8/was/8.5.5.0/content/WASV855_
Binary_Logging/player.html?
dmuid=20130807101913462846

Timed Operations
Timed operations for Liberty http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/v1r1m0/t
opic/com.ibm.iea.was_v8/was/8.5.5.0/content/WASV855_
Serviceability_TimedOperations/player.html?
dmuid=20130815082326115285
Lab: Liberty profile timed operations for JDBC http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/v1r1m0/t
opic/com.ibm.iea.was_v8/was/8.5.5.0/content/WASv855_
Liberty_Timed_Operations_Lab.pdf?
dmuid=20130807102148029081
Files for lab:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/ieduasst/v1r1m0/topic/com.Sensitive Log and Trace Guard
Using sensitive log and trace guard http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v8r5/topic/com.i
bm.websphere.express.doc/ae/ctrb_sensitivelogtrace.html

IBM Support Assistant v5.0
65

IBM Support Assistant 5.0
ISA 5.0 Team Server
•Server-based model
•Install once - shared by many team
members via browser
•Web 2.0 browser interface
•Remote execution of PD tools
•Off-load analysis processing
•Collaboration on PD
•Case Management
•Tool Management
•Single-user option available
Browser Browser
Browser Browser
Available at www.ibm.com/software/support/isa
ISA
Team Server

IBM Support Assistant 5.0 – Deployment options
Team Server
Single install
Multiple end users
Leverages resources of ISA server system
Shared investigation
Standalone
Single user
Local install
User administered
ibm.com
(ISA and
Tool
updates)
ISA Team
Server
ibm.com
(ISA and
Tool
updates)
ISA Team
Server
(local)
© 2014 67
IBM Corporation

Automation of Data Upload to ISA 5
■ ISA Provide a REST interface for some of its functions:
■ Case creation:
curl --user user1:user1password -X POST -H Content-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded
-v -o /home/dumps/curl.log --url http://myISA5TeamServer.mydomain.net/rest/1/tickets -d
"summary={case summary}&description={case description}"
■ File upload:
curl --user user1:user1password -X POST -v -k -o /home/dumps/curl.log -F file=@'{}' --url
http://myISA5TeamServer.mydomain.net/rest/1/files/${caseno}/file_upload?path=/${caseno}/
■ Can be combined with IBM JDKs “-Xdump” options to run automatically:
-Xdump:tool:events=systhrow,filter=java/lang/OutOfMemoryError,exec="DumpUpload.sh %pid”

Tools – Toolbox
•Catalog of available tools
•Learn about and discover tools
•Launch
•Tool Help
•Execution History

Files – Launch tools
 Suggested tools based on file
type
 Automatically pass files to a tool
 All tools available from the
“Other…” menu

Available Problem Determination Tools in ISA 5.0 Team Server
Tool Name Problem Areas Type
Classloader Analyzer Java™, Runtime Desktop
Database Connection Pool Analyzer WebSphere, Runtime Desktop
FileNet Optical Storage And Retrieval (OSAR) Cable Tool Desktop
Garbage Collection and Memory Visualizer (GCMV) Java, Performance, Memory Desktop, Report
Health Center Java, Performance Desktop
HeapAnalyzer Java, Memory Desktop
Interactive Diagnostic Data Explorer (IDDE) Java, Memory Desktop+Server/Web
Memory Analyzer (MAT) Java, Memory Desktop, Report, Web
Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool (PMAT) Java, Performance, Memory Desktop, Report
Portal Log Analyzer WebSphere, Configuration Report
Processor Time Analysis Tool for Linux Java, Performance Desktop
Profile Port Checker WebSphere, Configuation Report
Thread and Monitor Dump Analyzer (TMDA) Java, Runtime Desktop, Report
Trace and Request Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server WebSphere, Runtime Desktop
Web Server Plug-in Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server WebSphere, Perfomance Desktop
WebSphere Application Server Configuration Visualizer WebSphere, Configuration Report
WebSphere Cross Component Trace Logviewer WebSphere, Runtime Desktop

Additional Resources
ISA YouTube playlist
@ISA_Tools
Requests for Enhancement
Contact Information
Need support or have questions
about Team Server?
Visit our forum:
http://ibm.biz/ISA-Forum
IBM Support Assistant web page
http://www.ibm.com/software/support/isa
© 2014 72
IBM Corporation

Useful Links – Problem Determination Tools
IBM Support Assistant
IBM Support Assistant http://www.ibm.com/software/support/isa/
WAIT
IBM Whole-system Analysis of Idle Time (WAIT) http://wait.ibm.com

Useful Links – Knowledge and Education
IBM Training
IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.5.5 Problem
Determination
http://www-
304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/ca/en?
pageType=course_description&courseCode=WA591CE
WebSphere Support Technical Exchanges
Support Technical Exchanges http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Scheduled_tech_
exchanges/Software/WebSphere/WebSphere_brand_sup
port_(general)
IBM Education Assistant
IBM Education Assistant http://www.ibm.com/software/info/education/assistant/
Problem Determination Practices
RedPaper – Increasing Resiliency for IBM WebSphere
Application Server Deployments
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp5033.p
df

Your feedback is valuable - please complete your session
or lab evaluation!
Session number
[A6]
Provide your evaluations by:
Evaluation forms:
Fill out a form at the end of each session
Paper forms are located in each of the session or lab rooms
Place the completed form in the tray as you exit the room
- Or –
Complete the session survey on Event Connect Portal:
ibmeventconnect.eu/euxdx
Select Sessions, then Session Finder, and complete the
survey

Visit WASdev.net for downloads and other resources
WASdev.net

For Additional Information
 IBM Training
http://www.ibm.com/training
 IBM WebSphere
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/be/websphere/
 IBM developerWorks
www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/websphere2.html
 WebSphere forums and community
www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/community/
78

WebSphere Technical University: Top WebSphere Problem Determination Features

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