Collect Custom JMX Metrics with Jolokia

This topic has information about collecting custom JMX metrics using the Jolokia agent and Telegraf.  

For more information about Telegraf input plugins, see Configure Telegraf Input Plugins.

List mbeans

To list all available mbeans, and their methods and attributes, call the Jolokia agent endpoint, which in this example is exposed on port 8778 on localhost.

curl 127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia/list | jq '.'

The output will be similar to this:

{
  "request": {
    "type": "list"
  },
  "value": {
    "java.lang": {
      "name=Copy,type=GarbageCollector": {
        "attr": {
          "MemoryPoolNames": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "[Ljava.lang.String;",
            "desc": "MemoryPoolNames"
          },
          "LastGcInfo": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "javax.management.openmbean.CompositeData",
            "desc": "LastGcInfo"
          },
          "CollectionTime": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "long",
            "desc": "CollectionTime"
          },
          "Valid": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "boolean",
            "desc": "Valid"
          },
          "CollectionCount": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "long",
            "desc": "CollectionCount"
          },
          "Name": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "java.lang.String",
            "desc": "Name"
          },
          "ObjectName": {
            "rw": false,
            "type": "javax.management.ObjectName",
            "desc": "ObjectName"
          }
        },
        "class": "com.sun.management.internal.GarbageCollectorExtImpl",
        "desc": "Information on the management interface of the MBean"
      }
  },
  "timestamp": 1599468582,
  "status": 200
}

Build the Jolokia2 Telegraf configuration

You can use output returned by your curl command from the previous step to create this configuration: 

[[inputs.jolokia2_agent]]
            urls = ["http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia"]

           [[inputs.jolokia2_agent.metric]]
            name  = "sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector"
            mbean = "java.lang:name=*,type=GarbageCollector"
            paths = ["LastGcInfo", "CollectionTime", "Valid", "CollectionCount"]
            tag_keys = ["name"]

Where:

• name is the prefix of the metric, sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector in this example. 

• mbean is built from the mbean type, java.lang and name, "name=Copy,type=GarbageCollector". All attributes other than type are replaced with an asterisk, (name=*) and their names are added to tag_keys. Name is converted to metric dimension, name="Copy".

• paths defines which mbean properties should be scraped and exposed as metrics. The supported types are:

  • "boolean"
  • "double"
  • "int"
  • "javax.management.openmbean.CompositeData"
  • "long"

Results

The configuration shown above will produce metrics like those shown below:

# HELP sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionCount Telegraf collected metric
# TYPE sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionCount untyped
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionCount{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="Copy"} 1
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionCount{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="MarkSweepCompact"} 0
# HELP sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionTime Telegraf collected metric
# TYPE sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionTime untyped
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionTime{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="Copy"} 18
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_CollectionTime{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="MarkSweepCompact"} 0
# HELP sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_GcThreadCount Telegraf collected metric
# TYPE sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_GcThreadCount untyped
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_GcThreadCount{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="Copy"} 1
# HELP sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_duration Telegraf collected metric
# TYPE sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_duration untyped
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_duration{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="Copy"} 19
# HELP sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_endTime Telegraf collected metric
# TYPE sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_endTime untyped
sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_endTime{host="jolokia-0",jolokia_agent_url="http://127.0.0.1:8778/jolokia",name="Copy"} 20719
# HELP sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_id Telegraf collected metric
# TYPE sumologic_java_lang_GarbageCollector_LastGcInfo_id untyped