Using VisualVM with Maven Cargo

Question

We use Maven Cargo to launch our service locally and run tests on it. Here is the configuration of the plugin:

            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.codehaus.cargo</groupId>
                <artifactId>cargo-maven2-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.6.8</version>
                <configuration>
                    <container>
                        <containerId>tomcat8x</containerId>
                        <zipUrlInstaller>
                            <url>
                                https://www.someurl.com/tosome.zip
                            </url>
                        </zipUrlInstaller>
                        <dependencies>
                            <dependency>
                                <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
                                <artifactId>mail</artifactId>
                                <!--<classpath>shared</classpath>-->
                            </dependency>
                        </dependencies>
                    </container>
                    <configuration>
                        <configfiles>
                            <configfile>
                                <file>${project.build.testOutputDirectory}/tomcat-conf/context.xml</file>
                                <todir>conf</todir>
                                <tofile>context.xml</tofile>
                            </configfile>
                        </configfiles>
                        <files>
                            <file>
                                <file>${project.build.testOutputDirectory}/extra-classpath</file>
                                <todir>shared/classes</todir>
                            </file>
                        </files>
                        <properties>
                            <cargo.start.jvmargs>
                                -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote
                                -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.ssl=false
                                -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.authenticate=false
                                -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote.port=1099
<!--                                 -Xdebug-->
<!--                                 -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=8000-->
<!--                                 -Xnoagent-->
<!--                                 -Djava.compiler=NONE-->
                            </cargo.start.jvmargs>
                            <cargo.servlet.port>${maven.tomcat.port}</cargo.servlet.port>
                            <cargo.tomcat.ajp.port>${cargo.tomcat.ajp.port}</cargo.tomcat.ajp.port>
                            <cargo.rmi.port>${cargo.rmi.port}</cargo.rmi.port>
                        </properties>
                    </configuration>
                    <deployables>
                        <deployable>
                            <groupId>our.stuff</groupId>
                            <artifactId>our-artifact</artifactId>
                            <type>war</type>
                        </deployable>
                    </deployables>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>start-server</id>
                        <phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>start</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                    <execution>
                        <id>stop-server</id>
                        <phase>post-integration-test</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>stop</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

We use the following command to launch the Cargo:

clean prepare-package cargo:run -Dcargo.tomcat.ajp.port=9080 -Dmaven.tomcat.port=8080 -Dcargo.rmi.port=9070

I've tried launching the process with both the normal IntelliJ Run button and the VisualVM Launcher one:

In both cases, the local Tomcat server launches properly and awaits requests on 8080, as usual. However, the process does not appear in the Local list in the VisualVM application.

I tried with and without the multiple -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote args in the <cargo.start.jvmargs> .

I also tried adding the connection locally by right-clicking the Local item and selecting Add JMX Connection and inputting the port value given to the cargo ( 1099 ):

But nothing happens.

Precision: I'm very new to VisualVM and am not 100% certain about all this stuff. Especially selecting "JMX".

Answer 1

When you run your Maven command which launches the Cargo , you end up with two new processes. In the picture above, it's Apache Maven (pid 22512) and Tomcat (pid 14080) (note: PIDs are irrelevant and will most probably be different on your machine).

Since our Cargo is configured to use Tomcat , the Tomcat process is the one that we wanted to profile.

I had noticed and tried that before, but the VisualVM application was very unresponsive and I thus had then started exploring other possibilities. Moreover, the second time I tried that and let the Profiler initialize itself fully, the thing was quite unresponsive for a few minutes.