This note explains how to troubleshoot performance problems that you might experience with your web application server by collecting certain artifacts (files and logs) that you can send to SAS Technical Support. These artifacts can provide critical data for troubleshooting problems such as performance degradation, unresponsive applications, unresponsive threads, network delays, and so on.

When you first experience a problem such as the ones listed above, perform the following prerequisite steps so that you are ready to collect information the next time the problem occurs:

1. Stop the problematic web application server or servers (JBoss, Oracle WebLogic, or IBM WebSphere).
2. Enable verbose garbage collection (verboseGC).
3. Restart the web application server or servers.
4. From the Downloads tab, extract the fusion_50329_1_aixperf.zip file to the machine on which the problematic web application server is configured. The ZIP file contains the aixperf.sh script file.
5. Set root Execute permission (using the chmod command) for the aixperf.sh script.

Then, if the problem reoccurs, follow these steps:

1. Execute the aixperf.sh script with the following command:
   ./aixperf.sh [PID]

   Note: Execute this script as the root user. You should have set Execute permission in the previous series of steps.

   In the command above, [PID] is the process ID for the problematic Java virtual machine (JVM). If you need to specify multiple process IDs, separate each one by a space.

   When you execute the script, it creates a file named aixperf_RESULTS.tar.gz, and it writes three thread dumps to the native_stdout.log file.

2. Gather the following artifacts:
   • the aixperf_RESULTS.tar.gz file
   • the appropriate server log files for your specific web application server or servers: boot.log, server.log, natvie_stderr.log, SystemOut.log, native_stdout.log, jbossgc.log, SASServern.log, gc.log, and so on
   • javacore*.txt files (for IBM WebSphere only**)

     **Note: For WebSphere, the aixperf.sh script generates javacore*.txt files, which are found in either the profile_root or the AppServer folder. If you cannot find the files in those folders, submit the following command to locate them:

     find / -name "javacore"
3. Transfer the collected artifacts to SAS Technical Support. Details about how to transfer the files are available in KB0036136, “How to upload and download files using the SASTSDrive file sharing server.”

Operating System and Release Information

Extract the following file to the machine on which your problematic web application server is configured:

fusion_50329_1_aixperf.zip