Secure performance monitoring of remote application servers

1. A method for obtaining performance metric information securely, comprising:

establishing, by a first application server on a computing device comprising a processor, that communications with a plurality of remote application servers utilize an encrypted communication protocol;

iteratively, over a period of time, sending, over a communications network, each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers an encrypted message requesting performance metric information of the respective remote application server using the encrypted communication protocol, by:

accessing configuration data identifying the plurality of remote application servers; and

for each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers identified in the configuration data:

generating a respective message requesting the performance metric information of the remote application server;

accessing a digital certificate that identifies a public key of the respective remote application server;

encrypting the respective message using the public key of the respective remote application server to form the encrypted message; and

sending the encrypted message to the respective remote application server;

receiving, over the period of time, encrypted requested performance metric information; and

effecting storage of the requested performance metric information in a storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the application server comprises a first security realm established for incoming messages and a second security realm established for outgoing messages.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising obtaining performance metric information from the application server and effecting storage of the performance metric information in the storage device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first application server is one of a plurality of application servers executing on the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein iteratively, over the period of time, sending each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers the encrypted message requesting performance metric information of the respective remote application server using the encrypted communication protocol further comprises:

iteratively, over the period of time, sending, by a monitoring agent running in the first application server, each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers the encrypted message requesting performance metric information of the respective remote application server using the encrypted communication protocol; and

wherein the first application server provides a plurality of core services to the monitoring agent and to a plurality of applications executing in the first application server, the core services including managing database access for the monitoring agent and the plurality of applications.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing the first application server in a JAVA virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing, in each remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers, that incoming messages be encrypted with the public key of the respective remote application server.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein establishing that the communications with the plurality of remote application servers utilize the encrypted communication protocol further comprises storing the public key of each remote application server in a keystore.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein effecting storage of the requested performance metric information in the storage device comprises storing the requested performance metric information in the storage device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein effecting storage of the requested performance metric information in the storage device comprises communicating the requested performance metric information to a remote monitoring module executing on a remote computing device to store the requested performance metric information in a storage device of the remote computing device.

11. A computing device comprising:

a memory;

a processor device coupled to the memory to:

establish, by a first application server, that communications with a plurality of remote application servers utilize an encrypted communication protocol;

iteratively, over a period of time, send, over a communications network, each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers an encrypted message requesting performance metric information of the respective remote application server using the encrypted communication protocol, by:

accessing configuration data identifying the plurality of remote application servers; and

for each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers identified in the configuration data:

generating a respective message requesting the performance metric information of the remote application server;

accessing a digital certificate that identifies a public key of the respective remote application server;

encrypting the respective message using the public key of the respective remote application server to form the encrypted message; and

sending the encrypted message to the respective remote application server;

receive, over the period of time, encrypted requested performance metric information; and

effect storage of the requested performance metric information in a storage device.

12. The computing device of claim 11 wherein the application server comprises a first security realm established for incoming messages and a second security realm established for outgoing messages.

13. The computing device of claim 11 wherein the processor is further to obtain performance metric information from the application server, and effect storage of the performance metric information in the storage device.

14. A computer program product for obtaining performance metric information securely, the computer program product stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and including instructions to cause a processor device to carry out steps of:

establishing, by a first application server, that communications with a plurality of remote application servers utilize an encrypted communication protocol;

iteratively, over a period of time, sending, over a communications network, each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers an encrypted message requesting performance metric information of the respective remote application server using the encrypted communication protocol, by:

accessing configuration data identifying the plurality of remote application servers; and

for each respective remote application server of the plurality of remote application servers identified in the configuration data:

generating a respective message requesting the performance metric information of the remote application server;

accessing a digital certificate that identifies a public key of the respective remote application server;

encrypting the respective message using the public key of the respective remote application server to form the encrypted message; and

sending the encrypted message to the respective remote application server;

receiving, over the period of time, encrypted requested performance metric information; and

effecting storage of the requested performance metric information in a storage device.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the application server comprises a first security realm established for incoming messages and a second security realm for outgoing messages.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to carry out the steps of obtaining performance metric information from the application server and effecting storage of the performance metric information in the storage device.