JMX Access to EAP 6 Host Controller

External

• Accessing JMX with jconsole over SSL on EAP 6 https://access.redhat.com/solutions/632773

Internal

• WildFly and JMX
• WildFly Remoting Concepts

Overview

A generic JMX client connects to a EAP 6 host controller instance using the native endpoint of the host controller management interface. For an in-depth explanation on how that works, see Remoting Concepts - Remoting and JMX Access. Specific JBoss libraries must be added to the generic client's classpath, and we will show how those can be added for Visual VM and jconsole. Also, the access must be secured by adding a specific user (or using an existing user) to the management realm associated with the native management interface, on that specific host controller.

Server Endpoint

The generic JMX client must connect to the native endpoint of the host controller management interface.

The host address and port binding for the native management endpoint of the host controller are specified in the "socket" element of the management interface, in the corresponding host.xml configuration file.

<management>
    ...
    <management-interfaces>
        <native-interface security-realm="ManagementRealm">
            <socket interface="management" port="${jboss.management.native.port:9999}"/>
        </native-interface>
        ...
    </management-interfaces>
</management>

The port value is 9999.

The actual value for the management interface bind address is specified under the related "management" interface specification, in the same host.xml file:

<interfaces>
    <interface name="management">
        <inet-address value="${jboss.bind.address.management:127.0.0.1}"/>
    </interface>
   ...
</interfaces>

Unless explicitly re-configured, the default bind address for the management interface is 127.0.0.1.

The bind address and the port are reported as INFO in the host controller log file $JBOSS_HOME/domain/log/host-controller.log:

18:00:00,293 INFO  [org.jboss.as.remoting] (MSC service thread 1-16) JBAS017100: Listening on 127.0.0.1:9999

The bind address and port will be needed when assembling the URL to be used by the JMX client, below.

Server Endpoint Authentication

A generic JMX client usually provides a username and a password when connecting. Those values must be explicitly added to the Management Realm specified in the <management> section of the host.xml of the host controller. By default, the Management Real reads its data from the $jboss.domain.config.dir/mgmt-users.properties file. The procedure to add a user to the Management Realm is presented in detail here:

Add a User to the Managment Realm

Note that no specific group is necessary to be specified during the procedure.

JMX Client

The generic JMX client must add client JBoss libraries to its class path and must set up JBoss specific system properties, as shown below. It also must use a specific URL to connect, and the user and the password configured on the server, as described in the "Server Endpoint Authentication" section.

JMX Client Classpath and Startup Options

The JBoss JAR $JBOSS_HOME/bin/client/jboss-cli-client.jar must be added to the JMX client classpath. Also, the JMX client must be started with -Dmodule.path=${JBOSS_HOME}/modules. Specific details for a number of clients are available below:

• jconsole
• VisualVM
• Dynatrace
• DataDog

URL

Use:

service:jmx:remoting-jmx://<host-controller-host>:9999

where <host-controller-host> is the interface the native management endpoint of the host controller process is bound to. If the client and server are collocated, that is usually 127.0.0.1.

Authentication

Use the username and the password configured for the host controller, as described in the "Server Endpoint Authentication" section.

SSL Connection Configuration

TODO, come up with the full procedure, until then, more details are available here: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/632773