WebSphere: Enable Automated Heap Dump Generation

Hi all,

Use this task to enable automated heap dump generation in Websphere Application Srver. Manually generating heap dumps at appropriate times might be difficult. To help you analyze memory leak problems when memory leak detection occurs, some automated heap dump generation support is available. This functionality is available only for IBM Software Development Kit on AIX, Linux, and Windows operating systems.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.

Most memory leak analysis tools perform some forms of difference evaluation on two heap dumps. Upon detection of a suspicious memory situation, two heap dumps are automatically generated at appropriate times.

Note: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.

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.

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.”

Regards,

Akhilesh B. Humbe