Java Troubleshooting Tools
WebSphere Application Server Troubleshooting Tools - All of the Java Troubleshooting Tools (above)
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Cross-product Troubleshooting Tools
Information Management Tools
LotusTools
Remote Assistance Tools
Other Tools
Why use tools through the Support Assistant? - The Support Assistant provides a single point of access for all your troubleshooting, analysis and problem resolution tooling.
- When new tools become available, you can easily use the Support Assistant Updater to find out more about these tools and install them.
- When updated versions of tools become available, the Support Assistant can automatically notify the user and retrieve the latest version with a few clicks.
Review How to Install and Run tools through the IBM Support Assistant for more information on getting started.
Summary of Tools Available in ISA The following tools are available from the IBM Support Assistant. This page may not reflect tools very recently included on the Support Assistant.
Log Analyzer
What it's used for: Correlates logs from different products to identify problem causes and solutions. Works on a wide variety of IBM and non-IBM software products, including z/OS logs.
Description: Log Analyzer is a graphical user interface which provides a single point of contact for browsing, analyzing, and correlating logs produced by multiple products. Logs can be imported from IBM Support Assistant's Case and Topology managers. In addition to importing log files from multiple products, Log Analyzer enables you to import and select symptom catalogs against which log files can be analyzed and correlated.
Symptom Editor
What it's used for: Builds custom symptom catalogs for use in correlating log events by the Log Analyzer. Works on a wide variety of software products, including z/OS logs.
Description: A symptom catalog is an XML file which contains symptom definitions that can have associated rules, recommendations, and actions. Log records can be analyzed using a symptom catalog to interpret known events and error conditions, and to provide detailed information on how to resolve problems.
IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java - Health Center What it's used for: Monitoring the status of a running IBM Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Description: The IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™ - Health Center is a lightweight tool that monitors active IBM Virtual Machines for Java with minimal performance overhead. The Health Center suggests live tuning recommendations for Garbage Collection, profiles methods including call stacks, and highlights contended locks.
IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java - Memory Analyzer What it's used for: Analyzing Java heap dumps to find memory leaks and reduce memory consumption.
Description: The IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™ - Memory Analyzer can analyze heap dumps with hundreds of millions of objects, quickly calculate the retained sizes of objects, see what is preventing the Garbage Collector from collecting objects, run a report to automatically extract leak suspects and more. It is based on the Eclipse™ Memory Analyzer (MAT) project together with the IBM Diagnostic Tool Framework for Java (DTFJ) to allow processing of dumps from IBM Virtual Machines for Java.
IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java - Dump Analyzer
What it's used for: Analyzes Java dumps and isolates problem and solution, or recommends actions for continued troubleshooting.
Description: The IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™ - Dump Analyzer will read the file produced when the jextract process is run against the dump produced by a JVM. The analysis will attempt to identify common problems in the dump and provide enough information to allow the problem to be rectified. If the analysis cannot determine the specific problem it will produce summary information intended to aid diagnosis.
WebSphere Application Server extensions for Dump Analyzer
What it's used for: To diagnose problems in WebSphere Application Server by analyzing system dumps from a WebSphere JVM.
Description: The WebSphere Application Server modules for the IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™ - Dump Analyzer extend the functions provided by the base Dump Analyzer tool by providing several new analysis modules that examine WebSphere-related data structures within a system dump from a WebSphere JVM. Various modules are provided for basic health-check and general status information, as well as several "drill-downs" into specific functional areas of WebSphere Application Server. In addition, a special module provides an interactive shell using the Jython scripting language, similar to the WebSphere "wsadmin" tool, that allows a user to interactively examine data structures in the dump when no specific pre-defined analysis module is available.
Memory Dump Diagnostic for Java (MDD4J)
What it's used for: MDD4J analyzes Java heap dumps primarily to identify memory leaks. It can analyze heap dumps from IBM JVMs on AIX, Linux, Windows, i5/OS, and z/OS, as well as Solaris and HP-UX JVMs.
Description: The Memory Dump Diagnostic for Java tool analyzes common formats of memory dumps (heap dumps) from a virtual machine (JVM) that is running any stand-alone Java application including WebSphere Application Server. The memory dump analysis is aimed at identifying data structures within the Java heap that might be root causes of memory leaks. The analysis also identifies major contributors to the Java heap footprint of the application and their ownership relationship. The tool is capable of analyzing very large memory dumps obtained from production environment application servers encountering OutOfMemoryError issues. (Analysis of very large memory dumps requires at least 2GB of RAM.)
IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java - Garbage Collection and Memory Visualizer (GCMV)
What it's used for: Visualizes verbose GC data and provides recommendations for tuning your application.
Description: IBM Monitoring and Diagnostic Tools for Java™ - Garbage Collection and Memory Visualizer (GCMV) provides analysis and views of your application's verbose gc output. GCMV displays the data in both graphical and tabulated form. It provides a clear summary and interprets the information to produce a series of tuning recommendations, and it can save data to HTML, JPEG or .csv files (for export to spreadsheets). Multiple logs can also be viewed and compared.
IBM Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool for Java Garbage Collector (PMAT)
What it's used for: Analyzes Java verbose garbage collection logs and presents results in graphical and tabular formats. Analyzes data from IBM JVM on AIX, Linux and Windows, Solaris JVM, HP-UX JVM.
Description: IBM Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool for Java™ Garbage Collector (PMAT) parses IBM verbose GC trace, analyzes Java heap usage, and recommends key configurations based on pattern modeling of Java heap usage.
IBM Thread and Monitor Dump Analyzer for Java
What it's used for: Helps you identify hangs, deadlocks, resource contention, and bottlenecks in Java threads
Description: IBM Thread and Monitor Dump Analyzer for Java analyzes javacores and diagnoses monitor locks and thread activities in order to identify the root cause of hangs, deadlocks, and resource contention or monitor bottlenecks. It compares each javacore and provides process ID information for threads, time stamp of the first javacore, time stamp of the last javacore, number of garbage collections per minute, number of allocation failures per minute, time between the first javacore and the last javacore, number of hang suspects, and list of hang suspects.
Thread Analyzer (Deprecated)
What it's used for: NOTE: Thread Analyzer is deprecated. Please use the recommended tool which is the IBM Thread and Monitor Dump Analyzer for Java.
Description: ThreadAnalyzer provides analysis for Java thread dumps (or Javacores) such as those from WebSphere Application Server. Thread usage can be analyzed at several different levels, starting with a high-level graphical view, and drilling down to a detailed tally of individual threads. If any deadlocks exist in the thread dump, ThreadAnalyzer will detect and report them.
IBM Trace and Request Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server
What it's used for: Detects delays and hangs in WebSphere Application Server and HTTP plug-in traces
Description: WebSphere Application Server trace is used to obtain detailed information about running components, including application servers, clients, and other processes in the environment, such as the time and sequence of methods called by base classes. IBM Trace and Request Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server allows you to find delays and possible hangs from WebSphere Application Server trace files and HTTP plug-in traces by parsing call trees of methods and traces and calculating delays in each method and trace.
IBM Web Server Plug-in Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server What it's used for: Detects improper or ill-advised WebSphere Application Server plug-in configurations and corresponding HTTP request/response failures.
Description: IBM Web Server Plug-in Analyzer for WebSphere Application Server helps discovers potential problems with trace and configuration files in WebSphere Application Server environments. It parses both plug-in configuration and corresponding trace files and then applies pattern recognition algorithms in order to alert users of possible inconsistencies. The tool provides a list of HTTP return codes, URI and graphical presentations of available clusters, and server topologies from the configuration and trace files.
Database Connection Pool Analyzer for IBM WebSphere Application Server What it's used for: Used to resolve problems related to Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) connection pools and find JDBC connection leaks.
Description: The Database Connection Pool Analyzer for IBM WebSphere Application Server reads JDBC connection pool manager traces to analyze JDBC data sources and JDBC connection pool configurations. It can count the number of waiters of connections and the number of connections, find Java stack traces associated with JDBC connection leaks, and display the analysis results in a variety of views.
IBM Port Scanning Tool
What it's used for: To get information about active and configured ports in the system.
Description: The IBM Port Scanning Tool scans the system for active and some configured ports to help determine port availability or port conflicts. The results include a comprehensive list of active and/or configured ports in the system with relevant information about each port. You can use the IBM Port Scanning Tool for problem determination or during installation, configuration or activation of an IBM product, or just to get more information about a specific port on the system.
Visual Configuration Explorer
What it's used for: Visually explore and troubleshoot cross-product configurations. Analyzes data from DB/2, WS MQ, WAS, Tivoli Directory Server, WebSphere Portal, and WCCM on multiple platforms.
Description: Visual Configuration Explorer (VCE) is a visual tool for middleware configuration exploring, analysis, and problem diagnosis. VCE allows you to visualize your middleware configuration and easily search for specific property values, compare snapshots of different configurations and generate and share configuration analysis results.
FileNet Optical Storage And Retrieval (OSAR) Cable Tool What it's used for: Assists with connecting and configuring optical drives and libraries to Image Services (IS) Servers.
Description: The FileNet Optical Storage And Retrieval (OSAR) Cable Tool shows configurations of optical drives and libraries connected via SCSI to Image Services servers. It calls out the cables, adapters and possible options. It will verify configurations and offer additional notes such as release notes, warnings, restrictions or setup pointers. Image Services systems that are configured using the tool are valid and supported by IBM Customer Support. Use the OSAR Cable Tool to verify configurations before upgrading OS, adapters, or Images Services. Producing an OSAR Cable Tool output sheet before contacting technical support will also speed resolution.
Lotus Notes Diagnostic
What it's used for: Troubleshooting problems using Lotus Notes and Domino Server.
Description: Lotus Notes® Diagnostic tool is used to perform repetitive tasks associated with analyzing files from a Lotus® Domino® server crash, hang, and performance issues. It runs on Microsoft Windows, but it can analyze Domino Server files from any platform.
Domino Configuration Tuner (DCT) What it's used for: Troubleshooting problems using Domino Server.
Description: The Domino Configuration Tuner evaluates server settings according to a growing catalog of best practices. All servers in a single domain can be evaluated together. DCT generates reports that explain the issues DCT uncovers, suggest mitigations, and provide references to supporting publications.
Assist On-site
What it's used for: Lets IBM technical support representatives assist you by letting you share your desktop and grant mouse and keyboard control.
Description: This tool provides remote desktop capabilities, and should only be run when instructed to do so by IBM support personnel. With our live remote-assistance tool, a member of the IBM support team can view your desktop and share control of your mouse and keyboard to get you on your way to a solution. The tool can speed up problem determination, collection of data, and ultimately, your problem solution.
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