Wonder JavaMonitor and wotaskd

• • • Introduction
    • Where To Get Them
    • Bug Fixes to Apple's Versions
      • JavaMonitor
    • Improvements to Apple's versions
      • Automatic archive of SiteConfig.xml
      • Simplified/Automated Bouncing
      • Statistics
      • Direct Actions in JavaMonitor for Management Tasks
      • Remote Control via REST Routes (for JavaMonitor)
      • Remote Control via REST Routes (for wotaskd)
    • Troubleshooting

Introduction

JavaMonitor is a web-based tool used to configure and maintain deployed WebObjects applications. It is capable of handling multiple WebObjects applications, multiple instances of each application, and multiple WebObjects Applications Servers. In most cases you'll have one instance of JavaMonitor controlling all instances of your applications, even if they are spread across multiple Application Servers.

wotaskd (WebObjects task daemon) is the WebObjects Deployment tool that manages the instances on an Application Server. It's used by Monitor to propagate site configuration changes throughout the site's application hosts.

Apple released the original wotaskd and JavaMonitor to the community as open source in WebObjects 5.4. The source was then quickly modified and included in Project Wonder. Substantial improvements in both functionality and look-and-feel have been made over the years. These improved versions of wotaskd.woa and JavaMonitor.woa are available as standard Wonder applications.

Where To Get Them

You can either download them pre-built from Wonder's Jenkins build server or build them from the source code.

To build them from the Wonder source code, simply run the following command from the Wonder directory at the root of the Wonder source.

Bug Fixes to Apple's Versions

JavaMonitor

• Fixes an issue with the Application Delete page
• Selection in Application Detail page is now Ajax and is maintained

Improvements to Apple's versions

Automatic archive of SiteConfig.xml

On every change you make to an application's configuration, a backup of SiteConfig.xml will be created in, by default, /Library/WebObjects/Configuration.

Simplified/Automated Bouncing

In the "list instances" page, you get a "Bounce" action link. This action only work if you have at least one active instance and one inactive instance (only one inactive instance takes part in the bounce). What it does is :

• Find one inactive (i.e., not started) instance and start it
• Find the active instances (minus the one started in the previous step) and enable "Refuse New Session"
• Stop the active instances that are refusing new sessions when the minimum session count is reached
• Restart all but one of the instances that were just stopped and turn on "Auto-Recover"

This feature, from Pascal's understanding, allows you to upload new versions of your application, start up the new version and refuse sessions for the instances running on the older version.  This is designed to work so that you always have just one inactive instance that is only used while the bounce is performed.  While waiting for the existing sessions to end you will have only one instance of your app accepting new sessions; you need to determine if this is acceptable for your app or not.

Statistics

If you call http://monitorhost:port/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JavaMonitor.woa/wa/statistics, JavaMonitor will send you back statistics, in serialized Property List format, about instances, per application.

Direct Actions in JavaMonitor for Management Tasks

You can do most of the standard management tasks you'd normally do in JavaMonitor's web UI by calling standard WebObjects Direct Actions. Instead of using the /wa/ request handler though, these management tasks use a new /admin/ request handler. These Direct Actions can be very useful, especially if you need to restart instances or other do tasks from the command line, from within Ant or other build or deployment systems.

List of available direct actions :

• info : Returns details (number of deaths, state, etc.), in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) as specified
  info?type=all
  info?type=app&name=AppName
  info?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• running : Returns YES if all of the specified are running, NO if not
  running?type=all
  running?type=app&name=AppName
  running?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• stopped : Returns YES if all the specified is running, NO if not.
  stopped?type=all
  stopped?type=app&name=AppName
  stopped?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• bounce : Returns OK after Bouncing (see description above) as specified
  bounce?type=all
  bounce?type=app&name=AppName

• clearDeaths : Returns OK after clearing deaths as specified
  clearDeaths?type=all
  clearDeaths?type=app&name=AppName

• turnScheduledOn : Returns OK after turning on scheduling as specified. Call /turnScheduledOff to do the opposite.
  turnScheduledOn?type=all
  turnScheduledOn?type=app&name=AppName
  turnScheduledOn?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• turnRefuseNewSessionsOn : Returns OK after turning on "Refuse new sessions" as specified
  turnRefuseNewSessionsOn?type=all
  turnRefuseNewSessionsOn?type=app&name=AppName
  turnRefuseNewSessionsOn?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• turnRefuseNewSessionsOff : Returns OK after turning off "Refuse new sessions" as specified
  turnRefuseNewSessionsOff?type=all
  turnRefuseNewSessionsOff?type=app&name=AppName
  turnRefuseNewSessionsOff?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• turnAutoRecoverOn : Returns OK after turning on "Auto Recover" as specified
  turnAutoRecoverOn?type=all
  turnAutoRecoverOn?type=app&name=AppName
  turnAutoRecoverOn?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• turnAutoRecoverOff : Returns OK after turning off "Auto Recover" as specified
  turnAutoRecoverOn?type=all
  turnAutoRecoverOn?type=app&name=AppName
  turnAutoRecoverOn?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• forceQuit : Returns OK after force quitting as specified. This could be useful to call from a monitoring system.
  forceQuit?type=all
  forceQuit?type=app&name=AppName
  forceQuit?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• stop : Returns OK after calling "Stop" as specified
  stop?type=all
  stop?type=app&name=AppName
  stop?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

• start : Returns OK after calling "Start" as specified
  start?type=all
  start?type=app&name=AppName
  start?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNumber

To get details about all instances of all applications:
http://monitorhost:port/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JavaMonitor.woa/admin/info?type=all

To get details about the AjaxExample application:
http://monitorhost:port/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JavaMonitor.woa/admin/info?type=app&name=AjaxExample

To get details about instance 1 of the AjaxExample application:
http://monitorhost:port/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JavaMonitor.woa/admin/info?type=ins&name=AjaxExample-1

Remote Control via REST Routes (for JavaMonitor)

If the control offered by the Direct Actions isn't enough, JavaMonitor allows additional control via REST calls. Between the two methods (Direct Actions, REST) you have almost full remote-control of JavaMonitor. Just make sure that your JavaMonitor installation is secure! Just like with Direct Actions, you need to append ?pw=XXXX to the URLs if your JavaMonitor is password protected.

Be careful with these. This allows to do illegal stuff, that the UI wouldn't allow, for example, create two applications with the same name.

Examples of REST calls :

Note that before configuring the site you must first add a host. If you attempt to configure the site prior to adding a host you will get an InvalidStateException.

Remote Control via REST Routes (for wotaskd)

Starting on August 10th 2012, wotaskd also have REST routes. By using them, you can do most of the tasks using REST and you might not even need JavaMonitor. Just like the JavaMonitor REST and Direct Actions, you need to append ?pw=XXXX to the URLs if wotaskd is password protected.

Unfortunately, all changes you make in wotaskd via this API will not be picked up by an already running JavaMonitor, making all the modification endpoints here mostly useless.

Troubleshooting

If JavaMonitor won't start up check the troubleshooting deployment section. In particular pay attention to the WOTaskd Didn't Start Q&A.