Use this task to locate and analyze heap dumps.
Before you begin
Do not analyze heap dumps on the WebSphere® Application
Server machine because analysis is very expensive. For analysis,
transfer heap dumps to a dedicated problem determination machine.
About this task
When a memory leak is detected and heap dumps are generated,
you must analyze heap dumps on a problem determination machine and
not on the application server because the analysis is very central
processing unit (CPU) and disk I/O intensive.
Perform the following
procedure to locate the heap dump files.
Procedure
- On the physical application server where a memory leak
is detected, go to the WebSphere Application Server
home directory. For example, on the Windows® operating
system, the directory is:
profile_root\myProfile
- IBM® heap dump files are usually named in the
following way:
heapdump.<date>..<timestamp><pid>.phd
- Gather all the .phd files and transfer
them to your problem determination machine for analysis.
- Many tools are available to analyze heap dumps that include Rational® Application
Developer 6.0. WebSphere Application Server serviceability
released a technology preview called Memory Dump Diagnostic For Java. You can download this preview from the
product download Web site.
What to do next
When you have a couple of heap dumps, use a number of
memory leak problem determination tools to analyze your problem.