jvisualvm connect to remote jstatd not showing applications

Question

I started a jstatd on the remote server (Ubuntu Server 14.04):

jstatd -J-Djava.security.policy=.jstatd.all.policy -J-Djava.rmi.server.logCalltrue -p 9099

and try to connect to it with jvisualvm on windows. I checked netstat, the connection is established, and on the remote it logs the call:

Sep 11, 2015 12:48:51 PM sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef logCall
FINER: RMI TCP Connection(4)-10.82.199.0: [10.82.199.0: sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl[0:0:0, 0]: java.rmi.Remote lookup(java.lang.String)]
Sep 11, 2015 12:48:55 PM sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef logCall
FINER: RMI TCP Connection(4)-10.82.199.0: [10.82.199.0: sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl[0:0:0, 0]: java.rmi.Remote lookup(java.lang.String)]
Sep 11, 2015 12:48:59 PM sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef logCall
FINER: RMI TCP Connection(4)-10.82.199.0: [10.82.199.0: sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl[0:0:0, 0]: java.rmi.Remote lookup(java.lang.String)]

All signs are saying that it's working. but however no applications is showing in jvisualvm:

Answer 1

Apparently VisualVM expects a consistent DNS name for the server you're trying to connect to remotely (the Ubuntu Server 14.04 in your case). Hence, if you're specifying an IP address instead of a DNS name to VisualVM you should add the following to your jstatd startup line:

-J-Djava.rmi.server.hostname=<the IP address to your Ubuntu server here>

Additionally, I found out that specifying the port option (-p 9099 in your case) is not supported in some VisualVM releases:

Known limitation: In this VisualVM release the jstatd's default port and rminame must be used when starting the jstatd utility, i.e. the use of the -p and -n options is not supported. VisualVM Troubleshooting Guide

All in all, you should try running the following jstatd line on your Ubuntu Server:

jstatd -J-Djava.security.policy=.jstatd.all.policy -J-Djava.rmi.server.hostname=10.82.83.117 -J-Djava.rmi.server.logCalltrue

Sources:

1. http://www.catify.com/2012/09/26/remote-monitoring-with-visualvm/
2. It worked for me :)