Connection Pools WebSphere extension
- Latest Dynatrace
- Extension
- Published Sep 01, 2026
Monitor IBM WebSphere Application Server connection pools with usage, performance, and availability metrics for both legacy and J2C pools.
Spot connection pool exhaustion and contention before they slow your applications.
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Overview
The Connection Pools WebSphere extension collects connection pool metrics from IBM WebSphere Application Server through the Performance Monitoring Infrastructure (PMI). The extension reads both the legacy connection pool module and the J2C (Java EE Connector Architecture) connection pool module. You get a single view of pool behavior across every WebSphere instance that OneAgent monitors.
Connection pools are critical to application performance. When a pool runs out of connections or falls under contention, threads queue for an available connection, and your applications experience increased latency and failures. The extension surfaces the key indicators of pool health, so you can manage capacity proactively and diagnose contention before it reaches your users.
Several OneAgent extensions provide insight into connection pool performance and issues such as connection leaks. The extensions cover the following technologies: Apache Tomcat, Oracle WebLogic, IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM WebSphere Liberty, and Red Hat JBoss and Wildfly.
Use cases
- Identify pools that approach capacity by tracking pool utilization, pool size, and free pool size.
- Detect thread contention by monitoring the number of threads that wait for a connection.
- Pinpoint bottlenecks in database connection management with connection wait time and in-use time.
- Monitor legacy WebSphere connection pool modules and J2C connection pool modules from a single extension.
- Correlate pool behavior with the process and host that run WebSphere to isolate the source of an issue.
Compatibility information
- WebSphere Application Server process that runs on a supported Linux or Windows operating system.
- Dynatrace version 1.341+
- Supports the legacy connection pool module (
connectionPoolModule) and the J2C connection pool module (j2cModule).
Activation and setup
- Install OneAgent on the virtual machine or server of your WebSphere process.
- Activate the OneAgent feature
Enable Java PMI Extensions 2.0. - In Dynatrace Hub, open the Connection Pools WebSphere tile and select Add to environment.
- Open the WebSphere Connection Pool Overview dashboard.
Details
Licensing and costs
There is no charge to use the extension. You are only charged for the data that the extension ingests.
The Connection Pools WebSphere extension ingests custom metrics, which consume Davis Data Units (DDUs) (Dynatrace classic license) or Metrics powered by Grail (DPS), according to your license model.
This extension queries for data every minute. To estimate the number of metric data points produced by your extension configuration, use the following list that gives you a number of metrics per feature set and a multiplier value depending on which entity the metric is split by. Sum these values to get the total data points per minute.
Connection Pool (legacy)6 x number of WebSphere connection poolsConnection Pool (j2c)6 x number of J2C connection pools
Dynatrace Platform Subscription
In the Dynatrace Platform Subscription, metric ingestion consumes Metrics powered by Grail according to the number of ingested metric data points.
To calculate the approximate yearly consumption, apply the following calculation: <metric data points per minute> * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days.
Dynatrace classic license
In the classic licensing model, metric ingestion consumes Davis Data Units (DDUs) at the rate of .001 DDUs per metric data point. Multiply the above formula for annual data points by .001 to estimate annual DDU usage.
The DDU cost above does not include any possible log events or custom events that the extension triggers. For more information, see DDU events.
Feature sets
When activating your extension using a monitoring configuration, you can limit monitoring to one of the feature sets. To work properly, the extension has to collect at least one metric after the activation.
In highly segmented networks, feature sets can reflect the segments of your environment. Then, when you create a monitoring configuration, you can select a feature set and a corresponding ActiveGate group that can connect to this particular segment.
All metrics that aren't categorized into any feature set are considered to be the default and are always reported.
A metric inherits the feature set of a subgroup, which in turn inherits the feature set of a group. Also, the feature set defined on the metric level overrides the feature set defined on the subgroup level, which in turn overrides the feature set defined on the group level.
Connection Pool (j2c)
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Percent Used | websphere.connection_pool.percent_used | Percentage of the connection pool that is currently in use |
| Pool Size | websphere.connection_pool.pool_size | Total size of the connection pool |
| Free Pool Size | websphere.connection_pool.free_pool_size | Number of free connections available in the connection pool |
| Wait Time | websphere.connection_pool.wait_time | Average time in milliseconds spent waiting for a connection from the pool |
| In Use Time | websphere.connection_pool.use_time | Average time in milliseconds a connection is held in use before being returned to the pool |
| Waiting Threads | websphere.connection_pool.waiting_threads | Number of threads waiting for a connection from the pool |
Connection Pool (legacy)
| Metric name | Metric key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Percent Used | websphere.connection_pool.percent_used | Percentage of the connection pool that is currently in use |
| Pool Size | websphere.connection_pool.pool_size | Total size of the connection pool |
| Free Pool Size | websphere.connection_pool.free_pool_size | Number of free connections available in the connection pool |
| Wait Time | websphere.connection_pool.wait_time | Average time in milliseconds spent waiting for a connection from the pool |
| In Use Time | websphere.connection_pool.use_time | Average time in milliseconds a connection is held in use before being returned to the pool |
| Waiting Threads | websphere.connection_pool.waiting_threads | Number of threads waiting for a connection from the pool |
