I've needed to profile a Java application and ran across a really good article recently. What the folks over at Java Performance Tuning put together is a really good explanation of the Netbeans Profiler. The article explains all the major tool features for us and at the end of the article they even provide a nice example of the tool in use.

Now I no longer have an excuse for not trying this utility out. It is free and a roadmap is laid out for me. Now if I can only find some time.