A sensor is a component that attaches itself to an instrumentation hook and - based on this data - creates measurements. In other words a sensor is the unit of work that provides measurements.

Sensor types

inspectIT differentiates between two fundamental sensors: method-based and platform-based. From version 1.3 there is a new special type of sensor, the exception-based sensor. From version 1.6 JMX sensor has been introduced.

• Method-based sensor types are always associated with a concrete method of a class. An example for a method-based sensor is the Timer sensor which records the time a method invocation took.
• Platform-based sensor types are always associated with the system under diagnosis. An example for a platform-based sensor is the a sensor that measures the CPU of the system.
• Exception-based sensor is associated with the exceptions in the monitored application. Currently there is only one type of exception-sensor available.
• JMX sensor allows monitoring of the JMX beans/attributes. Currently there is only one type of JMX available.

Platform-based sensor types only needs to be defined within the Environment configuration. Method based sensor types need assigned to the method (see Sensor assignments configuration).