Enabling automated heap dump generation

Use this task to enable automated heap dump generation. This function is not supported when using a Sun Java™ virtual machine (JVM) which includes WebSphere® Application Server running on HP-UX and Solaris operating systems. You need to research taking heap dumps on Sun JVMs or call IBM® Support.

Before you begin

Although heap dumps are only generated in response to a detected memory leak, you must understand that generating heap dumps can have a severe performance impact on WebSphere Application Server for several minutes.

About this task

To help you analyze memory leak problems when memory leak detection occurs, some automated heap dump generation support is available.

To enable automated heap dump generation support, perform the following steps in the administrative console:

Procedure

  1. Click Servers > Application servers in the administrative console navigation tree.
  2. Click server_name >Performance and Diagnostic Advisor Configuration.
  3. Click the Runtime tab.
  4. Select the Enable automatic heap dump collection check box.
  5. Click OK.

Results

The automated heap dump generation support is enabled.

Important: To preserve disk space, the Performance and Diagnostic Advisor does not take heap dumps if more than 10 heap dumps already exist in the WebSphere Application Server home directory. Depending on the size of the heap and the workload on the application server, taking a heap dump might be quite expensive and might temporarily affect system performance.

The automatic heap dump generation process dynamically reacts to various memory conditions and generates dumps only when it is needed. When the heap memory is too low, the heap dumps cannot be taken or the heap dump generation cannot be complete.

What to do next

You can monitor any notifications of memory leaks by checking the SystemOut.log file or Runtime Messages. For more information, see the Viewing the Performance and Diagnostic Advisor recommendations topic. If a memory leak is detected and you want to find the heap dump, refer to the Locating and analyzing heap dumps topic.



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Last updated: Oct 22, 2010 12:21:29 AM CDT
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