Frequently companies ask for our seven-day trial – to try out the capabilities of the ADF Performance Monitor on their ADF application. This trial is meant only for companies that are interested in purchasing an ADFPM license. Often, we have had trials where everything that can go wrong went wrong. With disappointing results. In this blog I will describe what frequently went wrong and how to prevent it.

ADFPM Product Architecture and Configuration

First at all, an overview of the ADFPM architecture. The ADFPM product and configuration consists of three parts (in red) and must be installed properly:

1. Two ADF libraries. Two ADF libraries. These libraries need to be added to the ADF application that is to be monitored. A small amount of code needs to be added to instrument the ADF application. The metrics classes use extension points in the ADF framework to track and collect runtime behavior and performance metrics. This part, the instrumentation, should be done by one of the most experienced ADF developers.
2. Metrics Database Schema. This the place where the metrics are saved, in a separate database schema. The DBA should do the database part.
3. ADFPM Dashboard Reporting Application. This application retrieves metrics from the same database schema. It must be deployed on a WebLogic managed server. The WebLogic administrator should do this.

Not Having the Prerequisites in Place

The most important prerequisite is ADF BC Framework Extension Classes. They must be in place. And all application EntityImpl, ViewObjectImpl, and ApplicationModuleImpl classes should extend from these framework extension classes. The developers should understand this feature of ADF BC extension classes. If they are not familiar with this subject, it will be difficult to understand the implementation and features of the ADFPM. They should first familiarize themselves on this subject with the Oracle documentation. For the ADFPM is a base class must be in place for the Entity Object, View Object, and ApplicationModule:

Not Having a Senior ADF developer Instrumenting the ADF Application

One of the most senior ADF developers should instrument the ADF application (part 1). ADF is an advanced but also complex framework, and the most experienced ADF developer can more easily configure the ADF app and understand the metrics. In the past frequently junior ADF developers implemented the ADFPM incorrectly, and we were missing valuable metrics, or errors occurred.

Avoiding reading the ADFPM Documentation

Extensive and reference adfpm documentation are the whitepaper and the blog articles. Not reading the installation guides thoroughly is a receipt for misunderstandings.

Also, a wealth of information is available on this ADFPM website: adfpm.com.

Not having Instrumentation Reviewed

We strongly recommend letting the instrumentation being reviewed by us in an online meeting to make sure the ADFPM is configured correctly, and the application functionality will be not influenced in any way.

Deployed ADFPM on Test Only and not Production Environment

I always recommend installing the trial on a test and the production environment. The production environment is the real environment where the performance problems happen. The small number of metrics from your test environment are very likely not representative for your performance problems in the production environment. The test environment is smaller and configured differently.

Not Having Trial Evaluated

Performance analysis and detecting bottlenecks is a complex subject. We strongly recommend evaluating the trial with us in an online meeting to investigate the metrics that are collected in the trial period. We can give feedback on what we see and discuss next steps.

No Planning

Steps need to be planned carefully with the right people (senior ADF developer, DBA, WebLogic administrator) and actions must be aligned, and taken by the project team with great care. In general: the instrumentation on the ADF application can be done within one day by a senior ADF developer. Also installing the ADFPM database schema by the DBA and deploying the ADFPM dashboard app can be done in one day by the WebLogic administrator.

A typical planning looks like:

Obviously, there must be time planned for the trial to carry out each step and to evaluate the ADFPM. We have a policy of supplying only one trial a company, so time should be planned carefully.

Conclusion

Carefully plan the ADFPM trial, and with the right people. Avoid the mistakes discussed in this article.