Is there any way to trigger a thread dump for WebLogic server as soon as the server goes into a low thread count state?

Question

we have a WebLogic setup that has been giving us some problems.

We have a monitoring tool called HP BAC that helps us visualize the state of the servers, and we tie this tool with the Java Thread Dump utility such that when there is a low thread count situation, a thread dump will be captured.

There are situations where the server goes into a low thread count state, and we are uncertain why because all our efforts to find out - through thread dumps especially seems futile.

Given the "state of art", our thread dump capture is always triggered late / after, and always never capture thread dump useful for our investigation.

I would like to check how the rest of you guys have put in place such monitoring efforts?

Answer 1

I'd suggest WLST

Write a WLST script which hooks into the running server and gets the active thread count at regular intervals. (say 30 seconds)

If your active thread count goes below your pre-configured threshold, fire the kill - 3 and get the thread dump.

Some examples

http://middlewaremagic.com/weblogic/?p=5423

http://wlstbyexamples.blogspot.com/2009/04/wlst-thread-count.html