1 Getting Started with WebCenter Portal Performance Pack

This section describes how to get started with the WebCenter Portal Performance Pack tool.

Topics

Important

WebCenter Portal Performance Pack is entitled as part of Management Pack for WebCenter license. WebCenter Portal Performance Pack is available as an add-on as part of Oracle WebCenter Portal.

About Webcenter Portal Performance Pack

WebCenter Portal Performance Pack is a performance diagnostics tool that can be integrated seamlessly into the development phase where detailed analysis is often required.

Using WebCenter Portal Performance Pack you can quickly identify and address critical performance bottlenecks in your application. We’ve pre-configured WebCenter Portal Performance Pack to instrument the main concerning areas for Oracle WebCenter Portal; however, you can easily modify the configuration to fit any J2EE web application without restarting the running system.

WebCenter Portal Performance Pack:

  • Makes it easy for you to identify slow requests

  • Lets you drill down to specific hot paths and methods.

  • Doesn’t overwhelm you with too much data; instead provides you with only the most critical information.

  • Aggregates data in different ways, which makes it easy for you to spot problem areas.

  • Provides hints for optimization opportunity

Before You Begin with WebCenter Portal Performance Pack

WebCenter Portal Performance Pack has no prerequisites. However, it’s helpful to be familiar with Java technology, The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), WebLogic Server, as well as Oracle WebCenter Portal or any webapp running in the target JVM.

Before you begin using WebCenter Portal Performance Pack, it’s helpful if you’re familiar with the following technologies:

  • Java, the foundation for virtually every type of networked application and the global standard for developing and delivering embedded and mobile applications, games, Web-based content, and enterprise software.

    www.java.com

  • HTTP, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web to define how messages are formatted and transmitted.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol

  • Oracle WebLogic Server, provides a standard set of APIs for creating distributed Java applications that can access a wide variety of services, such as databases, messaging services, and connections to external enterprise systems. End-user clients access these applications using Web browser clients or Java clients.

    Understanding Oracle WebLogic Server

  • Oracle WebCenter Portal, a web platform that allows you to create intranets, extranets, composite applications, and self-service portals.

    Introduction to WebCenter Portal in Using Oracle WebCenter Portal

How to Install WebCenter Portal Performance Pack

WebCenter Portal Performance Pack is made available as part of the WebCenter installation.

To install WebCenter Portal Performance Pack:

  1. Go to <INSTALL_HOME>/wcportal/webcenter/archives/perfSense.zip
  2. Install WebCenter Portal Performance Pack:
    1. Unzip perfSense.zip into a directory on the server where your target JVM is located.
    2. Run ./deploy.sh <WLS_SERVER_NAME> to install the perfSense agent and webapp.
      For example, ./deploy.sh WC_PORTAL .

      Note that you’ll be prompted to enter the admin server’s Administrator Username and Password to install webapp.

  3. Access WebCenter Portal Performance Pack using this URL: http://<host>:<port>/perfsense
  4. Sign in using a Username and Password that belongs to the Administrators role defined in WebLogic server.
    You’re directed to the landing page, which provides access to all the resources required to monitor and diagnose performance issues related to the selected Oracle WebCenter Portal instance.

Notes:

  • The deploy.sh command installs two components:

    • perfSense agent: Instruments JVM

    • perfSense webapp: Displays the performance data for the instrumented JVM

  • If you restart the target JVM, you must reinstall the perfSense agent.

    Run ./deploy.sh —a <WLS_SERVER_NAME>

  • If you restart the target JVM, the perfSense webapp remains installed. However, if you need to reinstall the webapp:

    Run ./deploy.sh —w <WLS_SERVER_NAME>

  • You can run ./deploy.sh to see the script usage.

How to Undeploy WebCenter Portal Performance Pack

Undeploy is a command-line tool that you can use to clean up the WebCenter Portal Performance Pack footprint from within the target JVM.

When you first deploy the WebCenter Portal Performance Pack app to the target JVM, WebCenter Portal Performance Pack is attached as a Java agent in the target JVM. Once attached, instrumentation of the target classes/methods occurs so that event and method analysis can be performed. When you undeploy WebCenter Portal Performance Pack, any changes that were made to the target JVM are rolled back and the JVM returns to its initial clean state.

To undeploy, run ./undeploy.sh <WLS_SERVER_NAME>

This is what happens:

  • The WebCenter Portal Performance Pack webapp is undeployed from the target JVM

  • All currently instrumented classes are rolled back to their initial state.

    classloaders are reloaded with non-instrumented classes.

  • All WebCenter Portal Performance Pack related threads are removed from the target JVM.

The target application can still function normally without you having to perform a restart.

Quick Tour of the Landing Page

When you start WebCenter Portal Performance Pack, you’re prompted to enter your login credentials. You should enter the username and password that belongs to the Administrator’s role in the WebLogic Server. You’re then directed to the landing page. This page provides access to all the resources required to monitor and diagnose performance issues related to the selected Oracle WebCenter Portal instance.

When you start WebCenter Portal Performance Pack, the target is automatically set to the JVM WebCenter Portal Performance Pack it’s installed against. Also note the location of the user menu. This menu has options for viewing your language preferences, accessing help (including the Getting Started overlay), and signing out.

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Description of the illustration GUID-51E0834E-0487-4617-8378-45C529B23D37-default.png

Use the landing page as a starting point to identify slow requests and drill down to diagnose performance bottlenecks. The tabbed pages make it easy to navigate between the available features. The information accessed from the Help button is based on the page you currently have open. The Events List is the default page.

Now that you have an overview of the landing page, let’s take a closer look at the key features that you’ll be using.

Feature Description More Info

Events List

Displays a list of events the server’s processed during the time range specified. The initial range is set from the present to 1 hour back.

From this page you can:

  • Change the specified time range or click Get Recent Data to get events from the previous hour.

  • View the HTTP request type for each request

  • Sort requests by duration (in milliseconds) to find slower requests

  • Hover over an event to view the full event name. This includes the full URL and any query strings.

  • Drill down to a specific event details where you can diagnose problem areas based on instrumentation and method sampling.

 See Working with Events

Method Statistics

Displays all methods from the present to the last reset date.

From this page you can:

  • Sort methods by method, hits, or duration

  • Identify problem methods based on the duration and number of hits for each method.

    Optimizing methods with higher hits and/or longer duration might have an higher impact on your system’s performance and scalability, especially the lower-level methods.

  • Hover over a method to view the full method name. You can also copy the name to the clipboard.

  • Click Reset Statistics to erase all historical data and update the last reset date to the current date and time. This feature gives you a fresh start to begin collecting method statistics for a new test scenario.

 See How do I find methods for optimization?

Thread Dump

Displays all threads returned from the JVM in the order provided. Each calling stack is a collapsible section that contains the method calls.

From this page you can:

  • Filter threads based on thread health. (ACTIVE, STANDBY, SUSPENDED, STUCK)

  • Filter threads based on their current state. (WAITING, RUNNABLE, TIMED-WAITING, PENDING)

  • Expand specific threads to view the methods associated with that thread.. Select to watch specific methods.

    Note: You can’t watch methods associated with WebCenter Portal Performance Pack as they’re disabled.

 See How do I locate cause of serious performance issues?

Configuration

Displays the current configuration settings as well as key methods that have been configured to be instrumented.

From this page you can:

  • Enable and/or disable instrumentation and sampling

  • Change configuration settings

  • Reset the configuration back to the previous saved configuration

  • Click Update to commit changes but not save to the configuration file

  • Click Save to save changes to the configuration

  • Add additional class/methods to be instrumented

  • Select to watch or unwatch pre-configured methods

 See Configuring Instrumentation