The Role of JMX

Like SNMP and other management standards, the Java Management Extensions (JMX) is a public specification and many vendors of commonly used monitoring products support it. JMX provides a standard way to monitor the Java run-time environment and applications; the JMX Remote API allows that monitoring to be accessed remotely. The tools are accessible through the JMX Managed Bean (MBean) interfaces, which are registered in the management server. Applications can also create their own MBeans and register them in the management server, which can serve as a single point for remote access. A JMX-compliant client, such as the Management Console, can connect to the platform management server and manage both the Java application and the JVM using JMX technology. See Figure: Overview of the Management Console.

Note on Compatibility with J2SE 1.4.2:

Generally, JMX is a feature available only for applications running on J2SE 1.5.0 (5.0) or later. To accommodate Management Console users running on J2SE 1.4.2, JRockit Mission Control provides an adapter layer that allows it to access legacy protocols as if it were using JMX.

For a complete reference on the JMX standard, see:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/javax/management/package-summary.html