The JMX specification provides a powerful technology for remotely managing systems, but it is not a specification that I would qualify as being easily accessible to anyone. By managing to demystify many of the complicated stuff to a great extent, J. Jeffrey Hanson's "Pro JMX" book has reconciliated me with the Java Management Extensions. In a future installment, I'll talk about how I came to use JMX4Ant for managing remote resources. But for now, I better let the review speak for itself...

My 8-horseshoes review follows (also available at Javaranch.com):

According to many sources, software infrastructure is becoming increasingly and needlessly complex to develop and hard to manage. Moreover, the effective management of software and its underlying resources is even harder when dealing with systems operating in highly distributed environments. As a consequence of this sad reality, both software maintenance and development costs are skyrocketing in proportions never seen before.

The primary goal of Pro JMX is to expose the value proposition of the Java Management Extensions (JMX) and to demonstrate how JMX can solve the aforementioned issues in both the desktop and enterprise Java worlds. Initially, the author starts by introducing some basic concepts about system resource management and then delves deeper into the three-level model of JMX (instrumentation, agent, and distributed services) by presenting the different types of MBeans and how they are exposed by agents to remote clients. Advanced topics, such as, remote lookups, security, and distributed management system design are also handled. Finally, a comprehensive list of many free and commercial JMX products is given.

Even though I have found this book to be an excellent resource about JMX, my only complaint would be that some parts could have been written in much simpler terms. This detail aside, my advice to all those who find remote software management to be a pain in the neck is to jump off your Aeron chair, grab a copy of Pro JMX at your local bookstore and stick yourself deep into your La-Z-Boy for a relaxing reading experience.