Customer Reviews

JMX in Action

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finally, a JMX book you'll love! Unlike other JMX books I've read (even those purporting to be based on "Real-world" experience) this book is firmly grounded with examples and explanations as to why JMX is useful and necessary.

Starting from the first chapter (which is the best architectural overview of JMX I've read) the authors provide clear, easy-to-understand explanations of both the how and the why of JMX. The code examples are readable and clearly explained (the authors specifically call out the relevant parts of each example) making you want to grab an editor and start coding!

They cover all of the major parts of JMX very well, including details on each of the different types of Mbeans. Likewise, their coverage of JMX notification is the best I've seen. And, since the book is based on the Sun JMX Reference Implementation with detailed instructions on building and running the examples, it's easy to try this yourself.

There are a few minor snags that don't affect the book much. They don't start using UML early enough (the first large-scale example left me scratching my head) and they build a few marginally useful things (a Jini connector, for instance). Also, a bit more detail on other JMX implementations would have been nice. However, it's still the best of the available JMX books. Buy it if you need to use or build Mbeans!

In classic Manning fashion this book is concise and focused, uses graphics sparingly and effectively, and does a great job with code annotation. The problem comes with exposition. What I wanted was a book that not only explained what JMX was, but why I would want to use it. I found that this book had a ton of technical detail, on what is undoubtedly a complex topic, but lacked much in terms of context. More how, less why.

That being said, I understand that most readers are looking for the technical side of the argument and the book has that in spades. Particularly nice chapters are chapter one, which does provide a little context for the use of JMX, and provides a very nice, though brief, overview of the JMX architecture. Chapter six, on agent notification is also excellent.

Frankly, I would love to see a second version of this book with more emphasis on use cases. For example, chapter 7, on dynamic MBean creation, would do well to cover why you would want to use Model MBeans, and not just assume the reader understands the solution out of context with the need.

If you are on a project using JMX or an architect who is already looking at JMX, this book is worth the look. If you are looking for a gentle introduction to the topic, keep looking.

I have found this book extremely helpful to my development efforts. The code examples were key in helping me understand JMX with EJBs and JMS. In my rapid development activities, the good, clear examples and concise points helped me write effecient and better code.

Also, it is stated in a previous review that you need to have the JDMK in order to compile the code . This is not necessary for you to be successful with this book! One does not need the JDMK; the free 'remoting.jar' can be downloaded from the JMX website at java.sun.com. This jar file contains the RMI adapter and is only needed for a small part of the book.

This book is definitely the best source of JMX material that I have encountered.

This book is filled with examples of how to use the JMX apis, but not a lot of explanation of how to design a JMX architecture, best practices, or what how you can use JMX practically in your enterprise. Being that the JMX api is actually pretty simple and straight-forward, I didn't find this book much use at all. A much better book in my opinion is "Java and JMX: Building Manageable Systems" by Kreger, Harold, and Williamson. That book does a much better job of going beyond "programming" JMX at a single point, and covering what the options and best practices are for building a management system using JMX.

Get the "In Action" book only if you need to know the fundamentals of JMX in order to expose some Mbeans or write a quick client to manage a single application. If you really want to know how to use JMX to manage a distributed SOA architecture, then get the "Java and JMX" one.

The two first chapters do a perfect job to present the topic. So you beggin the third with eagerness and ... you can't compile the code!
Why? After a moment you realize that the all the reamaing code source is based on Sun's JDMK! The catch is that you must by this library for (actually) 6000$ !!!!
Ouch... no where in the book presentation/introduction/library necessary was any mention of this.

Conclusion: if you have JDML this is an excellent book, if not you will need to write foundation code!

I have found this book extremely helpful to my development efforts. The code examples were key in helping me understand JMX with EJBs and JMS. In my rapid development activities, the good, clear examples and concise points helped me write effecient and better code.

Also, it is stated in a previous review that you need to have the JDMK in order to compile the code . This is not necessary for you to be successful with this book! One does not need the JDMK; the free 'remoting.jar' can be downloaded from the JMX website at java.sun.com. This jar file contains the RMI adapter and is only needed for a small part of the book.

This book is definitely the best source of JMX material that I have encountered.

This is an excellent book on JMX. It takes us step by step thro
the process of knowing and using Sun's Reference Implementation.
It covers both the HTML Adaptor and RMI Connector approaches
thoroughly. Code examples provided in the book are well
explained. A must have for any one seriously considering a
foothold in JMX. I have enjoyed reading the book and putting it
to practice in my job. If there is
a future version, I would like to see coverage on JBoss's JMX.
Many thanks to the authors.

With the benefit of hindsight, the book's topic has been rapidly eclipsed by Service Oriented Architecture. It turns out that JMX simply was too awkward to implement. Hence, you are warned. While the book is well written, it does not indicate that you will be trapped in a dead end if you take up JMX.

Try instead looking up books on SOA. While that is not guaranteed to be more successful, it currently attracts much attention.