The VisualWAS project provides a VisualVM plugin to connect to WebSphere Application Server. It is based on a GPL licensed implementation of WebSphere's proprietary JMX/SOAP protocol and therefore doesn't require any additional libraries from the WebSphere runtime.

Also provided is a WebSphere plugin that registers the platform MXBeans in WebSphere's MBean server so that memory and thread statistics are available in VisualVM.

VisualWAS >= 4.0.0 is designed to work with VisualVM >= 2.0. Older versions of VisualWAS work with VisualVM 1.3.x and 1.4.x.

1. Download the VisualWAS-x.y.z.nbm file for the latest VisualWAS release from the Releases page.

2. Choose Tools > Plugins from the main menu in VisualVM.

3. In the Plugins dialog that opens, switch to Downloaded tab, then click Add Plugins....

4. Select the downloaded .nbm file and click the Open button.

5. Click the Install button, review and accept the plugin license and wait for the plugin to be installed.

Perform the following steps if you want to access process statistics for your WebSphere server in VisualVM:

1. Download the com.github.veithen.visualwas.mxbeans_x.y.z.jar file for the latest VisualWAS release from the Releases page and copy it to the plugins directory of your WebSphere installation (typically /opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/plugins).

2. If necessary, stop the WebSphere server. Then use the osgiCfgInit command to clear the OSGi cache, as described here.

To access the MBeans registered in WebSphere's MBean server, you need to install the VisualVM-MBeans plugin:

1. Choose Tools > Plugins from the main menu in VisualVM.

2. In the Plugins dialog that opens, switch to Available Plugins tab and click the checkbox next to VisualVM-Beans.

3. Click the Install button, review and accept the plugin license and wait for the plugin to be installed.

In order to connect to a WebSphere instance, select Add JMX Connection as usual, but then select WebSphere from the Connection type list and enter the relevant information:

Use Test connection to check that a connection to the WebSphere instance can successfully be established. If security is enabled, then you may be presented with a dialog to import the server certificate or one of the certificates in the certificate chain to the trust store:

You should typically add the root certificate to avoid problems later when the server certificate is renewed. For Network Deployment cells, this also allows you to connect to all servers in a cell without importing additional certificates.

After clicking OK the new connection should appear in the Applications view and you can start monitoring the server:

If you have installed VisualVM-MBeans plugin you can also interact with the MBeans exported by the server: