                               Jmx4Perl
                               ========

INTRODUCTION

  Jmx4Perl provides an alternate way for accessing Java JEE Server
  management interfaces which are based on JMX (Java Management
  Extensions). It is an agent based approach, where a small Java
  Webapplication deployed on the application server provides an
  HTTP/JSON based access to JMX MBeans registered within the
  application server.

HOW IT WORKS

  For the agent mode a small Java Agent WAR (web archive) needs to be
  deployed on the Java application server. This agent is provided by
  the Jolokia project (www.jolokia.org). There is no need to add any
  startup parameters to the application server and to open any
  additional ports. All communication takes places via HTTP where JSON
  objects are exchanged. Additionally, the agent benefits from the
  security infrastructure in place which every application server
  provides for web application. More information about the agent can
  be found at http://www.jolokia.org

  The Perl module JMX::Jmx4Perl accesses the deployed agent servlet
  and transform the request's results from JSON into a simple Perl
  object.

TOOLS

  This distribution comes with several tools, which uses the
  JMX::Jmx4Perl for accessing the server:

  jmx4perl          - Command line tool for gathering JMX information
  check_jmx4perl    - Full featured Nagios Plugin
  j4psh             - Interactive, readline based JMX shell with context 
                      sensitive command completion
  jolokia           - Utility for downloading and managing Jolokia 
                      agents.

INSTALLATION

  The Perl part installs as any other module via Module::Build, which
  you need to have installed. Using

  perl Build.PL
  ./Build installdeps             # If there are dependencies missing
  ./Build
  ./Build test
  ./Build install

  will install the modules. It is highly recommended to install the
  recommended dependent modules, too to get the full jmx4perl
  power. The set of 'required' modules is kept small and guarantees
  only that 'jmx4perl' and the modules around JMX::Jmx4Perl are
  working properly. The other tools (check_jmx4perl, j4psh and
  jolokia) require the recommended modules for proper working. Look
  into Build.PL for which tool requires which module.

  In order to download the Jolokia WAR agent into the local directory
  as jolokia.war, use the following command

      jolokia

  This agent "jolokia.war" needs to be deployed on the JEE Server to
  monitor. Please consult http://www.jolokia.org/agent.html for more
  information how to install the agent. E.g. for Tomcat this war file
  needs to be copied into the webapps directory.

  To test it, you can use 'jmx4perl' with the URL of the deployed
  agent:

      jmx4perl http://<jeeserver>:<port>/jolokia
      
  Consult 'man jmx4perl' for more information about this command
  utility.  
 
RESOURCES

  * Jmx4perl's source is hosted on github.com. You can clone the
    repository with git://github.com/rhuss/jmx4perl.git as URL

  * Interesting articles around Jmx4Perl, JMX and Nagios can be found
    at http://labs.consol.de Checkout the various post categories for
    selecting a specific topic.

  * www.jmx4perl.org is the canonical entry point for jmx4perl related
    information. 

NOTE 

  For you convenience, the latest Module::Build is included in this
  distribution, so there is no need of a locally install Module::Build
  for installing this suite. More information about Module::Build can
  be found http://search.cpan.org/~dagolden/Module-Build/

LICENSE
  
  Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Roland Huss (roland@cpan.org)

  Jmx4perl is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or
  (at your option) any later version.

  jmx4perl is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
  General Public License for more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  along with jmx4perl.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

  A commercial license is available as well. You can either apply the
  GPL or obtain a commercial license for closed source
  development. Please contact roland@cpan.org for further information.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

  Just in case you need professional support for this module (or
  Nagios, JMX or JEE in general), you might want to have a look at
  http://www.consol.com/nagios-monitoring . Contact
  roland.huss@consol.de for further information (or use the contact
  form at http://www.consol.com/contact/ )

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  
  Big thanks go to ...

  * Gerhard Lausser, who initially pushed me to think harder
    about a better way for monitoring JEE Servers with Nagios.

  * Danijel Tasov for patching, patching, patching and keeping 
    an eye on contemporary perl styling.
 
  * All bug reporters and blog commenters for helping me to 
    increase the overall quality (and for letting me know that 
    this is not software for the ivory tower)

BUGS 

  Please report any bugs and/or feature requests at 
  http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=jmx4perl

AUTHOR

  roland@cpan.org
