PQ71950: WEBSPHERE 5.0, MEMORY LEAK IN THE WAS.FFDC COMPONENT

 Fixes are available

PQ71950,5.0: Memory leak in WAS.FFDC component
5.0.2: WebSphere Application Server Version 5.0 Fix Pack 2 (Version 5.0.2)



APAR status
Closed as program error.

Error description
Memory leak in the WAS.ffdc componentin WebSphere 5.0
Local fix Problem summary
****************************************************************
* USERS AFFECTED: The APAR applies to WebSphere Application    *
*                 Server Base environments at versions 5.0.0   *
*                 and 5.0.1.                                   *
****************************************************************
* PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: A large amount of memory may be         *
*                      consumed and a request may may appear   *
*                      to hang for many minutes when certain   *
*                      exceptions are caught by the WebSphere  *
*                      Application Server runtime.             *
****************************************************************
* RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
****************************************************************
The system is likely experiencing this problem if the following
conditions exist:
1.  The system appears to have stopped processing a request
    (no response is seen at the browser)
2.  The system does not hang on subsequent invocations of the
    same request after the first request has returned
This problem occurs when the FFDC engine attempts to
introspect classes with a large number of fields.  Since the
FFDC introspection algorithm may introspect multiple levels
into an object, some classes may be deemed to have thousands,
or even millions of fields (eg. a class which has 1000 fields
each with the same type as the class itself would have
1000 * 1000 * 1000 = 1 000 000 000 fields after 3 levels of
introspection). To test for this problem, isolate the URL
that causes the hang.  Be sure that this can be repeated as
the first request to the application server after server
startup as FFDC caches the results of previous executions.
After isolating the URL, turn off FFDC and repeat.  If the
hang does not occur, you very likely should apply this fix.
Problem conclusion
Code was modified to limit the number of fields which the
FFDC engine would process in any object.  If an object
contains 25 or more fields, the FFDC engine will not dump
it's contents.
Temporary fix

https://pq99999.raleigh.ibm.com/dl/was/PQ71950/5.0.1/PQ71950.jar
Comments
APAR information
APAR number PQ71950
Reported component name WAS BASE 5.0
Reported component ID 5630A3600
Reported release 00W
Status CLOSED PER
PE NoPE
HIPER NoHIPER
Special Attention NoSpecatt
Submitted date 2003-03-11
Closed date 2003-04-08
Last modified date 2003-04-08

APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Modules/Macros
FFDC          

Publications Referenced

Fix information

Applicable component levels
R003 PSY    UP
R00A PSY    UP
R00H PSY    UP
R00I PSY    UP
R00S PSY    UP
R00W PSY    UP


Document Information


Product categories: Software > Application Servers > Distributed Application & Web Servers > WebSphere Application Server > General
Operating system(s):
Software version: 00W
Software edition:
Reference #: PQ71950
IBM Group: Software Group
Modified date: Apr 8, 2003