Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform Project
An introduction to Using TPTP’s Profile on Server integration
An introduction to Using TPTP’s Profile on Server integration

1.0 Introduction - Description and Purpose

This document provides an overview of TPTP-Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) integration that is developed under TPTP to support server profiling. This integration allows users to profile a web application deployed on a server, all under the same development environment. It is meant to allow Eclipse developers to quickly start a profiling session of web projects and collect profiling data for further performance improvement.

1.1 Prerequisites
The following drivers must be present in a workbench to enable profile on server support.
  1. TPTP runtime
  2. WTP runtime
  3. Java EMF model (JEM)
  4. Graphics Editor Framework (GEF)
For versioning information of each driver, please refer to the requirements section of the TPTP download page.

1.2 Additional requirements
The system path must include the Agent Controller (AC) libraries to allow loading of profiling agents during a server startup process. The AC libraries are available in the following path:
  1. Remote Agent Controller (RAC) :
    %AgentControllerInstall%/bin
    where
    %AgentControllerInstall% is the install location of RAC.

  2. Integrated Agent Controller (IAC) :
    %Eclipse%\plugins\org.eclipse.hyades.execution._%Version%
    where
    %Eclipse% is the install location of Eclipse workbench
    %Version% is the plug-in version identifier. eg. 4.4.0v20070524834

System path information can also be specified in the launch configuration, please see section 3.0 for detail.

2.0 Setting up a server

A server instance must be created to allow profiling support. For details on server setup and management, please refer to Eclipse help – Using the server tools.

2.1 Profile a server
To manually start the server in profile mode:
  1. In the Servers view (Window > Show View > Other > Server > Servers > OK), right-click the server instance you want to profile.
  2. In the pop-up menu select Profile. In the Status column of the Servers view, the status of the server changes to Profiling, after the server is started in profiling mode.
2.2 Profile options
Once the server is started in profiling mode, the Profile on server dialog will prompt for profiling options.
  1. In the Agents list, select the server process and move it to the Selected agents list.
  2. Select the Monitor tab, and configure the profiling options. For details on profile option configuration, please refer to Eclipse help – Specifying profiling criteria.
  3. Click Finish to start profiling server.

Server process and profiling agent will be listed in the Profiling Monitor view for administration. For details about how to manage and analysis profiling data collect, please refer to Eclipse help – Using profiling views to analyze data.

3.0 Troubleshooting
3.1 Sever failed to start
The server may fail to start with the following error message in the console view:

JVMJ9VM011W Unable to load piAgent: The specified module could not be found.
Could not create the Java virtual machine.

It is due to the fact that the system path does not include the AC libraries. This can be resolved by setting up the system path and restart the Eclipse workbench. See section 1.2 for detail.

Alternatively, system path information can be configured per launch configuration instead. In the server profile launch configuration (Run > Profile... > server configuration), under the Environment tab, create a new variable and set the system path to point to the AC libraries. Click Profile to start profiling the server, similar to how it is started in the Servers view.