Asadmin Recorder

Since Payara Server 4.1.1.162

This feature allows you to record the actions you take in the admin console as asadmin commands, aiding with automating or reproducing your setup across multiple Payara Server Community installations.

Starting and Stopping the Asadmin Recorder

From the admin console, you should be able to see a button labelled Enable Asadmin Recorder or Disable Asadmin Recorder, depending on whether or not the asadmin recorder feature is enabled or not. Clicking this button will enable or disable the asadmin recorder feature respectively:

Enable recorder in Web Console

Disable recorder in Web Console

Once enabled, actions in the admin console that have a corresponding asadmin command will be recorded to a file. By default, this file is located in the domain directory, and is called asadmin-commands.txt.

Once enabled or disabled, the asadmin recorder will remain enabled/disabled until specifically enabled or disabled again through the web console or using the appropriate asadmin command. This means that the asadmin recorder will remain enabled or disabled across server restarts.

You can also enable or disable the asadmin recorder on its configuration page (detailed in the following section), or by using the following asadmin commands:

enable-asadmin-recorder

Enables the asadmin recorder.

disable-asadmin-recorder

Disables the asadmin recorder.

set-asadmin-recorder-configuration --enabled true

Alternative way of enabling the asadmin recorder.

set-asadmin-recorder-configuration --enabled false

Alternative way of disabling the asadmin recorder.

Configuring the Asadmin Recorder

To configure the asadmin recorder, navigate to the following page in the admin console: server → Asadmin Recorder:

Asadmin recorder configuration

You will be presented with the following configuration options:

Enabled

Sets whether the asadmin recorder service should be enabled or disabled.

Filter Commands

Sets whether or not to exclude the asadmin commands and regular expressions listed in the Filtered Commands setting from being recorded.

Output Location

The absolute file path for the asadmin commands to be written to. This defaults to a file called asadmin-commands.txt in the domain directory.

Filtered Commands

A comma separated list of asadmin commands and regular expressions to be excluded from being recorded if the Filter Commands option is enabled.

The default regular expressions and asadmin commands set in the Filtered Commands option are a selection of commands and regular expressions that are typically not needed for any automation purposes, yet are still sometimes called by commands and through navigation of the admin console. If you remove any of these commands from the filtered commands list, or choose not to filter any commands at all, the asadmin commands script is liable to get filled up with these commands. Due to this behavior, it is advised that you only add to this list, only removing the defaults if you really need to.

Be sure to click on the Save button to have any changes you make take effect.

In addition to using the admin console, you can configure the asadmin recorder service using the set-asadmin-recorder-configuration command. The command takes the following parameters:

--enabled

Enables or Disables the Asadmin Recorder service.

--outputLocation

Specifies the absolute file path of where the recorded asadmin commands will be written to.

--filterCommands

Specifies whether or not the commands specified with the --filteredcommands option should be excluded from being recorded or not.

--filteredCommands

A comma separated list of asadmin commands and regular expressions to exclude from being recorded.

As an example, the following will enable the asadmin recorder, set the output location to /home/user/asadmin-commands.txt, and prevent the start-instance command from being recorded (in addition to the default configuration):

asadmin set-asadmin-recorder-configuration --enabled true --outputLocation /home/user/asadmin-commands.txt --filterCommands true --filteredCommands "version,_(.*),list(.*),get(.*),uptime,enable-asadmin-recorder,disable-asadmin-recorder,set-asadmin-recorder-configuration,asadmin-recorder-enabled,start-instance"

Running the Generated Scripts

Documentation on running asadmin scripts can be found in the GlassFish Server Administration Guide, under the Run a Set of asadmin Subcommands From a File section. The guide can be found in the GlassFish Server 5 Open Source Edition Documentation referenced in the Payara Server Documentation Overview

Asadmin Commands

The following is the list of available asadmin commands with their available options to configure the asadmin recorder:

Command Description Options

get-asadmin-recorder-configuration

Returns the current configuration of the Asadmin Recorder service.

None

set-asadmin-recorder-configuration

Configures the Asadmin Recorder service.

  • --enabled - Enables or Disables the Asadmin Recorder service.

  • --outputLocation - Specifies the absolute file path of where the recorded asadmin commands will be written to.

  • --filterCommands - Specifies whether or not the commands specified with the --filteredcommands option should be excluded from being recorded or not.

  • --filteredCommands - A comma separated list of asadmin commands and regular expressions to exclude from being recorded.

enable-asadmin-recorder

Enables the Asadmin Recorder service with it’s current configuration settings.

None

disable-asadmin-recorder

Disables the Asadmin Recorder service.

None

asadmin-recorder-enabled

Returns whether or not the Asadmin Recorder service is enabled.

None