Using the Profiling Monitor view

Whenever you launch or attach to a Java process, a logical representation of the Java process is created in the Profiling Monitor view. This representation, the process object, is identified both by name and an ID number (PID) that appears in the view along with the associated agents. The agents collect profiling data from your Java process, and this data can be analyzed.

 

Prerequisites

• Launching or attaching to an application

This view shows the following profiling resources that get created during a profiling session along with other profiling resources from additional tools:

1. Monitors 

2. Hosts 

3. Processes 

4. Agents (profiling and logging)    

5. Profiling types selected 

 

Displaying different layouts

The Profiling Monitor view provides two different layouts for viewing the profiling resources.

1. To open the simple layout, select the drop-down menu button and select Simple layout.
   The simple layout opens, displaying the hosts, processes, agents and profiling types selected. This view is useful for viewing non-distributed applications.
   
   
   
   

2. To open the distributed layout, select the drop-down menu button and select Distributed layout. The distributed layout opens, displaying the monitors and nodes in addition to the hosts, processes, agents and profiling types. This layout is useful for viewing distributed applications. Note that the processes do not have host information since they are grouped under a host node.
   
   
   
   

3. By default, the profiling projects are hidden from both layouts. To show the projects which contain the profiling resources, follow these steps:

   • From the workbench toolbar, select Window > Preferences.

   • In the Preferences dialog, expand the Profiling and Logging node.

   • Select the Appearance node.

   • On the Appearance preferences page, select the Display projects in the Profiling Monitor option.

   • Click OK to save the changes.

   • In the Profiling Monitor view, note that the project containing the profiling resources is shown.
     
     

 

Administering the profiling session

The set of toolbar controls and pop-up menu controls allow you to administer the profiling session.

Administering the agent collecting data

Controls are available to terminate the agent, start and pause monitoring of an agent, as well as attach or detach from an agent.

1. To perform an action on an agent, right-click on the agent, and select one of the available actions.

2. The toolbar controls can also be used to terminate the agent and the process it is running in , and to start or pause an agent.

3. To set a new base line for the profiling data, right-click on the agent, and select Reset data. After running this action, a new trace agent will be created under the existing process item and profiling data will be collected by this agent.

Administering the process

Controls are available to terminate the process, to collect object references or to run garbage collection on the selected process.

1. To perform an action on a process, right-click on the process, and select one of the available actions.

2. The toolbar controls can also be used to terminate the agent and the process it is running in , to run garbage collection on the process, or to collect object references on the process.

 

Working with profiling views

From the Profiling Monitor view, you can open up different profiling views to analyze the data collected.

1. To open a profiling view to analyze the collected data, right-click on a process, and select Open with > (View name). The views available will depend on the profiling criteria specified.

2. To synchronize the data collection with the opened views, click Link with Viewer on the toolbar.

3. To refresh the opened views with the data collected, click Refresh views on the toolbar.

Related concepts
Overview of the Profiling Tool

Related tasks
Profiling an application

Related references
Profiling resources

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