Can I register my own MBean by JVM built-in MBeans?

Question

Hi!
I'm looking for a way to run my own MBean with JVM, just like how the JVM built-in MBeans run in JVM (you don't have to call them in your java program, but only set the JVM parameter -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote).
Is there a mechanism to register my own MBean by the built-in MBeans?
Thank you!

Answer 1

I can see two ways to accomplish what you are asking for.
The first is to define an "instrumentation agent" as described in the documentation for java.lang.instrument. You create myagent.jar which has a class com.example.PreMain with a method premain(String,Instrumentation) that registers your MBeans. You arrange for Premain-Class: com.example.PreMain to appear in the jar's manifest. Then you run your applications with -javaagent:myagent.jar.
The second is to intervene during the construction of MBeanServer instances by running your applications with -Djavax.management.builder.initial=com.example.MyMBeanServerBuilder. The MyMBeanServerBuilder class might look like this:
public class MyMBeanServerBuilder extends MBeanServerBuilder {
    @Override
    public MBeanServer newMBeanServer(
            String defaultDomain, MBeanServer outer, MBeanServerDelegate delegate) {
        MBeanServer mbs = super.newMBeanServer(defaultDomain, outer, delegate);
        mbs.registerMBean(myMBean, myMBeanName);
        return mbs;
}I think the first approach is considerably cleaner.
Regards,
�amonn McManus -- JMX Spec Lead -- http://weblogs.java.net/blog/emcmanus