Public API Access

There are two ways of accessing public APIs:

• Public API Access Through JMX-Remoting
• Public API Access Through WS-Management

JMX

Java Management Extensions (JMX) technology provides the tools for building distributed, modular, and dynamic solutions for managing and monitoring devices, applications, and networks. The JMX API defines the notion of MBeans, or manageable objects, which expose attributes and operations in a way that allows remote management applications to access them. An important new feature of the JMX API in the Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 (Java SE 6) is its ability to create MXBeans, a substantial improvement over Standard MBeans. For more information on JMX, see Java Management Extensions.

WS-Management

Web Services for Management (WS-MAN) is a specification for managing servers, devices, and applications using web services standards. It provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across the entire IT infrastructure. It is commonly used in the Windows management stacks, and is supported by Microsoft management tools, including the winrm command-line interface and COM objects that can be used from Visual Basic or from C#. For more information on WS-MAN, see WS-Management.

Public API Access Through JMX-Remoting

The simplest and preferred way of interacting with the public APIs is using a Java client. This Java client communicates with the public APIs using a secure remote JMX client. By using a remote JMX client, it is possible to directly interact with the Service MXBeans in Java using the strongly-typed Java MXBeans interface class library. The JMX MXBean interfaces are documented in the javadoc that is included in the SDK. The following remote JMX management protocols are supported: JMXMP and WS-MAN.

Public API Access Through WS-Management

The public API MXBeans are exposed over WS-Management through JSR-262. This specification defines a way to use Web Services to access JMX instrumentation remotely. Clients do not have to be Java applications, but can be. This permits a generic WS-Management client to interact with the public APIs. The WS-Management mappings for each service tier API is documented in the javadoc that is included in the SDK.