Best Java Performance Monitoring Tools To Know In 2022

Best Java Performance Monitoring Tools To Know In 2022

The Java programming language is simple to learn and easy to use. Therefore, it is the most-sought option chosen by web developers to create highly functional and user-friendly applications. However, monitoring the performance of a Java-based application becomes challenging over time. Implementing multiple monitoring tools to track the Java logs, metrics, infrastructure data, and other operational factors is crucial for troubleshooting inefficiencies.  

To ensure efficient Java performance monitoring, it’s crucial to track every aspect while using the right tools. Therefore, in this blog, we shall find out the top Java performance monitoring tools and their features.  

Without any further ado, here is a list of types of Java monitoring tools that help developers ensure peak JVM performance.  

Types of Java performance monitoring tools

Standard Java Profilers

The tools categorized in the Standard Java Profilers offer visibility into all the JVM metrics including memory, CPU, JVM threads, garbage collection, and more. It helps track all method calls and memory usage, which allows developers to dive deeper into the call structure to point down the areas that require the most CPU and memory space.  

With the help of standard Java profilers, users can track down memory leaks by running the GC manually. Also, you can analyze memory usage to detect the objects causing memory failure. On the other hand, to fetch high-level, detailed information, profilers use significant resources, resulting in application slowdown. Some of the popular tools include Java Visual VM, Oracle Java Mission Control, and NetBeans Profiler.

Java Visual VM

Java Visual VM refers to a visual tool that combines command-line Java Development kit features with lightweight profiling ability for development, testing, and production use cases. It also allows users to connect to local and remote Java processes.  

Java Visual VM offers a Java process configuration overview and basic JVM metrics like CPU, GC activity, heap, space metrics, number of running threads, and classes. It can also collect and display thread dumps, take heap dumps, and load them for offline analysis.  

Oracle Java Mission Control

Along with Java Flight Recorder, Oracle Java Mission Control help create a complete monitoring toolchain. It collects detailed runtime information, which further allows post-mortem incident analysis.  

In simple words, it refers to a framework built into the Oracle JDK, which enables profiling and event capturing. This tool allows users to gather low-level information about the JVM and the Java application running on top of it. The JDK Mission Control is the second part of the toolchain that allows analysis of the data collected by this tool. Above all, this tool helps with testing, development, and in production environments.  

NetBeans Profiler

The NetBeans Profiler is a part of the Apache NetBeans Integrated Development Environment. It is integrated into the IDE for ease of use and also enables profiling CPU performance, memory usage, and threads with relatively low overhead.  

Depending on the user’s needs, developers can choose to monitor the Java application to obtain higher-level information about memory, thread activity, memory allocations, and more. Users can analyze CPU performance for detailed application performance metrics including methods execution timings.  

The NetBeans Profiler allows users to analyze the memory usage for object allocation and garbage collection telemetry.

Lightweight Java Transaction Profilers

Unlike standard Java profilers that help monitor the performance of all methods across the app, lightweight Java profilers track the performance of individual web requests. Also, it tracks down the transactions by injecting themselves into the code.  

Transaction profilers extract in-depth data for JVM-related, enabling you to track the request flow to detect what method calls influence the user’s response time. However, it can only monitor the app during the development process. In the QA and production environments, it is advisable to use an APM tool and track it accordingly.

XRebel

It refers to a platform that allows users to see the execution details of the request on each xRebel-enabled service. In this manner, the request can get traced in the distributed application even if it spans multiple Java Virtual Machines. Thus, it provides performance for each part of the execution. It includes requests performed using JPA, Hibernate, and JDBC and done to datastores like MongoDB, Cassandra, HBase, and Neo4j. All these outstanding features make it perfect for monitoring and troubleshooting microservice-based architecture.

LightStep

It combines full-context distributed tracing with the power of Application Performance Monitoring. Thus, it gives the developers a powerful insight into the deep level of Java applications for easy troubleshooting and root cause analysis.

Developers and businesses can drill down to the service that interests them and explore each of its calls, and groups, and filter them with easy-to-use UI. Add it with dashboarding abilities, alerting, and data streams to make it a great tool for Java application monitoring.

Application Performance Management

Since the development and production environments have varied requirements, it’s crucial to check how a Java application performs in a live production environment. It collects only the information that is highly relevant for JVM performance with aggregating timing statistics and sampling traces.

With APM tools, developers can detect issues before proceeding with production by monitoring the QA, and staging environment, and debug production live by analyzing traces and Java exceptions. On the downside, it gets expensive to run APM on all QA/staging and production servers, which slows down the app if not tuned accurately.  

Glow root

Glow root refers to a fast, clean, and easy-to-use open-source Java APM tool. It enables tracing to capture slow requests, mistakes, and log time for every user action, SQL catch, and aggregation. This tool features a historical roll-up of all information with configurable maintenance and offers charts to visualize time breakdown and response time percentiles. Its interactive UI helps monitor Java development services and applications from desktop and mobile devices too.

PinPoint

It is a free and open-source APM solution that helps users monitor the performance of complex distributed systems written in Java and PHP. It checks the structure of your system and how its components get interconnected by tracing transactions across various distributed applications. Users can track active threads in real-time, and see request count, response patterns, and JVM performance metrics like CPU, memory usage, garbage collection, and JVM arguments.

Summary

Now you have a basic understanding of all the major tools required for performance monitoring of a Java application. Are you planning to hire Java developers who can personally assist you with the right tools and development strategies? We are here to help.

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FAQs

What is a Java performance tool?

It refers to a complete toolset for DevOps that helps them monitor the performance and behavior of Java applications. These tools collect, analyze, and store critical JVM performance metrics like memory, CPU, threads, caches, load distribution, and more in real-time.

How to monitor a Java application?

Check for the following parameters:

• Developing a solid monitoring plan
• Specific considerations for Java
• Java heap usage
• Garbage collection
• Active threads
• Response time
• Key infrastructure metrics
• Infrastructure specific metrics

What is Performance Testing in Java?

Performance testing refers to a series of tests that constantly check the speed and working progress of a program. A Java performance test checks a Java application’s performance for speed and efficiency. It reveals whether data is moving effectively between input, storage, and relevant users.