This document describes some tools that can be given to select customers to help in diagnosing WebSphere problems.
These tools are NOT public and they not to be distributed to customers without prior approval from Betsy Matthew.
Please print of forward a copy of this document to customers as a cover letter for the tools.

Customers:  When reporting problems, please inform IBM support that you have been given these tools to assist in problem determination.

Following is the Tool list:

• Slim First Failure Data Capture
• Collector
• Hang Detection *** Not available yet.
• Class Profiler *** Not available yet - tool complete, packaging in progress.
• Admin Database Check *** Available upon request.

Tool descriptions:

Slim First Failure Data Capture:

Purpose:  This tool captures the root cause of problems when they occur.  This reduces the need for tracing and helps both the customer and IBM obtain problem resolution faster.
Description:  To accomplish the above, an instrumented version of java.lang.Throwable is provided with a tunable filter.  The filter is a text file used to distinguish between benign exceptions to skip and severe problems to log.  The instrumentation prints exceptions to standard out and call stacks to standard error.  This helps identify the root cause in the cases when elusive exceptions are absorbed or re-mapped by the runtime.
Package Contents:

1. ThrowableDirections.html: Directions for install and use.
2. Throwable.jar: Contains instrumented java/lang/Throwable.class
3. exceptions35.txt and exceptions40.txt: IBM recomended default filter settings - can be augmented by customer.
4. throwableServlets.jar: [Optional] A servlet that can be used to dynamically change filtering, only for application servers.

Collector:

Purpose:  Saves time by eliminating the manual step of collecting log files and other facts about the system where the failure occurred.
Description:  This tool is a self contained jar file.  When a problem occurs on a machine, a system operator can run this simple tool.  It is very easy to run. Simply typing:  java -jar Collector   will invoke this tool and it will create a single output file called WASenv.jar which contains all the data - such as versions, logs, PTFs, efixes, etc. - that is normally gathered when reporting a problem to IBM support.
Package Contents:

1. Collector.html: Directions for install and use.
2. Collector.zip: Entire tool

Purpose:  This tool can be setup by customer operations teams to help detect hung WebSphere processes or Hosts.
Description: This tool is not available at this time.  The IBM team is working the details of how best to provide this feature.

Class Profiler:

Purpose:  Viewing all Classes and ClassLoader relationships in a process.
Description:  This tool is provided in the form of a servlet.  When invoked, it displays all ClassLoaders and associated loaded Classes.  Another view that is available is one that can be used to navigate from a Class back to its corresponding ClassLoader.
Package Contents:

This tool is being packaged at the present time.  E-mail: Tom Gissel for latest status.

Admin Database Check:

Purpose: Admin Database integrity checks.
Description:  This tool can be invoked periodically by system operators to check the integrity of the WebSphere Admin Repository.  It is recommended that this tool be run before and after every - significant - configuration change that is made.  Customers who have experienced corruption of the Admin Repository are encouraged to perform database back ups periodically and run this tool.  The back ups will help restore operation back from a stable state.  The tool provided will help verify the health of the WebSphere Admin Repository tables.  This tool can be made available upon request.  Please contact Tom Gissel  (gissel@us.ibm.com).

For questions or additional information on these tools please email us:  Hany Salem and  Tom Gissel, IBM Serviceablity Team.

Note to IBM support team:  Please find this package at: http://hany.austin.ibm.com/Tools
                                            or at