APM Agent | Java Application on Windows

[srii]

I've set up an ELK stack on Docker which I primarily use for ingestion and analysis of logs produced by a Java application. The logs are fed to ES by LogStash (file input) which works well. I have also added --javaagent JVM options on the Java application to be able to collect logs/traces/api data/etc. The agent will receive configuration information from APM Server which appears to work as well as the following is evident on logs:

Received new configuration from APM Server: {api_request_size=1024kb, capture_body=all, capture_headers=true, circuit_breaker_enabled=true, enable_log_correlation=true, log_level=trace, profiling_inferred_spans_enabled=true}

On Kibana, under APM -> Services, I only see JVM Metrics data collected. I don't see any data on Overview/Transactions/etc. Perhaps this is a basic question but do I need to make code changes to the Java application to be able to view data here? Ideally I was hoping to see detailed thread information, API call information/etc. TIA.

Note that because my application runs on Windows, aysnc-profiler is apparently not supported.

For completeness-sake, this is my local configuration of the agent which is believed to be overridden with the remote configuration data from APM Server:

service_name=iWay9_OAuth_API_Mark1_localhost
server_urls=https://localhost:8200
secret_token=***
recording=true
enabled=true
log_level=DEBUG
log_file=C:/iWay9_OAuth_API_Mark1_localhost/logs/elastic-apm.log
environment=test
application_packages=com.ibi

[Sylvain_Juge]

Hi !

Have you tried executing a few actions on your application ? For example if it's an HTTP server then executing a few queries to the application endpoints should be enough.

The agent passively captures transactions and spans, thus if there is no activity that triggers a transaction, then no trace is being created. The metrics are sampled and sent on a regular basis, so even without any activity on the application they are reported and visible in Kibana.

Last but not least, application logs alone do not allow to create transactions, but capturing them allows to correlate them with the traces (transactions & spans).

[srii]

@Sylvain_Juge - thx for the note. Yes, I did invoke the API hosted on the application. So, there is certainly activity on the JVM.

As for the below remark, I believe the config options sent (seen above) by the APM server does instruct capturing the requests/etc. Or do I understand incorrectly? Please advise.

but capturing them allows to correlate them with the traces (transactions & spans)

On a different note, I see the following on log, not sure if this has to do anything with what's (not) evident:

2022-12-15 11:42:06,043 [Thread-14] TRACE co.elastic.apm.agent.bci.ElasticApmAgent - Advice co.elastic.apm.agent.slf4j.**error**.Slf4jLoggerErrorCapturingInstrumentation is loaded by ShadedClassLoader{parent=ShadedClassLoader{parent=jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$PlatformClassLoader@2a266d09, customPrefix='cached-lookup-key/', manifest=java.util.jar.Manifest@19a1201d, jarUrl=file:/C:/elastic-apm-agent-1.35.0.jar}, customPrefix='agent/', manifest=java.util.jar.Manifest@19a1201d, jarUrl=file:/C:elastic-apm-agent-1.35.0.jar}

[Sylvain_Juge]

Does the API in the application is using one of the supported technologies ?

For debugging any issues with agent, most of the time DEBUG is enough, TRACE is quite verbose thus you only have to use it if really needed. Most TRACE message are very low-level implementation details.

[srii]

@Sylvain_Juge Sorry for the delay. I have raised this question to the application development team. I will revert as soon as possible. Thanks.

[srii]

It looks like the application uses custom code that is not on the supported technologies list. We will make use of plug-in api for instrumenting... Thank you.