WebLogic: The Definitive Guide

Tuning the Application Server

WebLogic provides many server-specific performance-related configuration settings. For instance, enabling native I/O on specific platforms greatly improves the efficiency with which WebLogic can carry out I/O operations. WebLogic provides various execute queues that serve as a pool of ready threads operating on a first-come-first-served fashion. You can adjust the Thread Count attribute of an execute queue to set the number of execute threads that can operate concurrently. An execute queue then can be shared by multiple applications deployed to WebLogic. Alternatively, you can create custom execute queues and assign them to specific applications. In this way, you can guarantee that critical applications always can rely on a fixed number of threads.

WebLogic lets you specify when an execute queue is considered to be overwhelmed. This threshold is specified in terms of a user-defined percentage of the maximum length of the execute queue. The server detects an overflow condition when the execute queue exceeds this threshold value, and changes its health status to “warning.” You can configure the server to allocate additional threads to complete the outstanding work in the queue under these conditions.

WebLogic also can detect when threads in the execute queue are “stuck” — i.e., when a thread is unable to complete its current task or accept new tasks. Depending on the execute queue, the server’s health state is changed to either “warning” or “critical.” ...