Project Wonder additions to wotaskd and JavaMonitor

• • • Introduction
    • Where To Get Them
    • Major Improvements over Apple's versions
      • Automatic archive of SiteConfig.xml
      • Simplified/Automated Bouncing
      • Statistics
      • Direct Actions for Management Tasks
      • Remote Control via REST Routes

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 Hudson 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.

Major Improvements over 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. What it does is :

• Find the 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"
• Bounce the active instances when the minimum session count is reached

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.

Statistics

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

If JavaMonitor is configured with a password, and I hope you do, pass pw=monitorpassword as a argument to the query :

http://monitorhost:port/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JavaMonitor.woa/wa/statistics?pw=monitorpassword

Direct Actions 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 the details (number of deaths, state, etc.; see example above), in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
  • ?type=all{} : Returns details about all instances of all applications
  • ?type=app&name={}Unknown macro: color. Click on this message for details.
    The [color] macro is not in the list of registered macros. Verify the spelling or contact your administrator.
    : Returns details about all instances of a specific application
  • ?type=ins&name={}Unknown macro: color. Click on this message for details.
    The [color] macro is not in the list of registered macros. Verify the spelling or contact your administrator.
    }*\-*{Unknown macro: color. Click on this message for details.
    The [color] macro is not in the list of registered macros. Verify the spelling or contact your administrator.
    : Returns details about one specific instance
• *}running{* : Returns *}YES{* or *}NO{*
  • ?type=all{} : Returns *}YES{* if all instances of all applications are running
  • ?type=app&name={}Unknown macro: color. Click on this message for details.
    The [color] macro is not in the list of registered macros. Verify the spelling or contact your administrator.
    : Returns *}YES{* if all instances of the specified application are running
  • ?type=ins&name={}Unknown macro: color. Click on this message for details.
    The [color] macro is not in the list of registered macros. Verify the spelling or contact your administrator.
    }*\-*{Unknown macro: color. Click on this message for details.
    The [color] macro is not in the list of registered macros. Verify the spelling or contact your administrator.
    : Returns *}YES{* if the instance of the specified application is running
• *}stopped{* : return NO if the instance is running, YES if not.
• *}bounce{* : more on it later.
• *}clearDeaths{* : clear the number of deaths (same action as clicking the "Clear deaths" in JavaMonitor)
• *}turnScheduledOn{* : turn scheduling on for an application or instance. Call /turnScheduledOff to do the opposite.
• *}turnRefuseNewSessionsOn{* : turn "Refuse new sessions" on, call turnRefuseNewSessionsOff to do the opposite.
• *}turnAutoRecoverOn{* : guess what? It activate "Auto recover" And guess again? /turnAutoRecoverOff do the opposite
• *}forceQuit{* : force quit an application, might be useful to call it from a monitoring system.
• *}stop{* : stop an application/instance the normal way.
• *}start{* : start an application/instance the normal way.

?type=all : returns details about all applications and instances
?type=app&name=AppName : returns details about all instances of a specific application
?type=ins&name=AppName-InstanceNo : returns details about one specific instance

For example, if you want to get details about all instances and applications, you call :

http://monitorhost:port9/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

And for a specific instance :

http://monitorhost:port/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JavaMonitor.woa/admin/info?type=ins&name=AjaxExample-1

Remote Control via REST Routes

On September 28th 2010, REST routes were added in JavaMonitor. Those routes + the direct actions explained in this document allow you to control almost everything remotely (make sure that your JavaMonitor installation is secure). As the direct actions, append ?pw=XXXX to the URLs if JavaMonitor is password protected.

Examples of REST calls :