reloading jmxetric XML configuration at runtime

[dpocock]

Currently, the JVM must be restarted to detect any changes in the JMXetric config file.

It should be able to reload the file at runtime, possibly be detecting changes to the file or reloading when there is a signal or a command from JMX / JConsole.

[ngzhian]

I just learned that MBeans can provide attributes and operations. Can JMXetric provide an MBean for its process, and have an operation that will cause a reload of the configuration file?

[dpocock]

That is exactly what I had in mind. This is not the most urgent task to complete, but it will be very useful. There are many tutorials online about how to make an MBean like this - that part is probably easy. The more difficult task will be working out how to cleanly reconfigure or destroy and recreate all the GMetric objects in JMXetric.

[acobaugh]

Perhaps in addition to a jmx operation to force a reload, we could include a configuration refresh interval in the xml config, that would cause jmxetric to reload its configuration on that interval. I would consider such an option very useful for monitoring production applications that can't easily be restarted just to add more metrics.