Tomcat heap memory issue -- where to solve?

[alexheizer]

I installed Tomcat through WHM and am receiving heap memory issues. I did a search in the forums for a resolution and only found responses like "increase the memory to the JVM" and even "if you don't know how to maintain Tomcat, don't use it". My problem is this:

I know how to increase the memory for the JVM in several different ways, but nothing seems to work. On other systems there's a server.sh or other file that CATALINA_OPTS or JAVA_OPTS can be placed so that -Xmx and -Xms options are actually accepted and used by Tomcat. I placed the opts into both the startup.sh and catalina.sh files, but nothing changed. Also setting the environment variable for CATALINA_OPTS and/or JAVA_OPTS from the command line don't work either.

Has anyone been able to get the heap memory changed for Tomcat?

Server:
AMD Athlon MP 2600
1GB RAM
one Tomcat/Java host/site
RedHat Fedora2 Linux

Thanks,
Alex

[Secret Agent]

I'm interested in knowing this as well

[alexheizer]

I'm interested in knowing this as well

I found a solution for my own situation. Make sure fork bomb protection is disabled in WHM, and then in your /etc/profile and /etc/bashrc files make sure to comment out any ulimit values. This allows the tomcat user to run without memory limits.

Not sure what to do for shared hosting environments to limit ordinary users' memory usage, but this works fine on a server that doesn't need to be locked down so much.

Alex

[kgecici]

This solution couses major security problem. I need to use "Xms" "Xmx" options. but where?

[alexheizer]

Well I am the only user on this server so, I need it to do what I need it to do. Since nobody knows how to get Tomcat to run with the Xms and Xmx switches on a cPanel version so that it actually listens to CATALINA_OPTS and JAVA_OPTS switches in the catalina.sh file, or isn't able to educate the rest of us, insecure it is for me.

Good luck!
Alex

[jklassen]

Hi,

I've been looking for the solution to this also.

It appears that the tomcat service is handled via /usr/sbin/starttomcat AND /usr/sbin/stoptomcat.

Open /usr/sbin/starttomcat and look for the following:

system("./jsvc",
"-user","tomcat",
"-Xms512m",
"-Xmx512m",
"-cp","./bootstrap.jar",
"-Djava.endorsed.dirs=../common/endorsed",
"-debug","-outfile","../logs/catalina.out",
"-errfile","../logs/catalina.err","-verbose",
"org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap","-security",
"$options");

Add the -Xms and/or -Xmx options into the java service options list (as above). This appears to do it for my system.

Jeff

[Vinayak]

This TomCat memory issue is bugging me too on several cPanel servers.

I tried the above solution but then TomCat wouldn't start at all.

Can some one clear what does

"-Xms512m",
"-Xmx512m",

means?

And is there any other better way so that TomCat does not increase server load.

[mpeacock]

This TomCat memory issue is bugging me too on several cPanel servers.

I tried the above solution but then TomCat wouldn't start at all.

Can some one clear what does

"-Xms512m",
"-Xmx512m",

means?

And is there any other better way so that TomCat does not increase server load.

You can get help on the X commands from your command line:

/home/testuser> java -X
-Xmixed mixed mode execution (default)
-Xint interpreted mode execution only
-Xbootclasspath:<directories and zip/jar files separated by ;>
set search path for bootstrap classes and resources
-Xbootclasspath/a:<directories and zip/jar files separated by ;>
append to end of bootstrap class path
-Xbootclasspath/p:<directories and zip/jar files separated by ;>
prepend in front of bootstrap class path
-Xnoclassgc disable class garbage collection
-Xincgc enable incremental garbage collection
-Xloggc:<file> log GC status to a file with time stamps
-Xbatch disable background compilation
-Xms<size> set initial Java heap size
-Xmx<size> set maximum Java heap size
-Xss<size> set java thread stack size
-Xprof output cpu profiling data
-Xfuture enable strictest checks, anticipating future default
-Xrs reduce use of OS signals by Java/VM (see documentation)
-Xcheck:jni perform additional checks for JNI functions
-Xshare:off do not attempt to use shared class data
-Xshare:auto use shared class data if possible (default)
-Xshare:on require using shared class data, otherwise fail.

The -X options are non-standard and subject to change without notice.



Most java server environments are pretty memory intensive as all objects get created in the java heap space. If you're running out of heap, there are a bunch of places you can look. For Tomcat, check the memory faq

In general, though - if you set the either the initial heap size (-Xms) or the max heap (-Xmx) to some value greater than the available memory on your server, you're probably simply running out of RAM. Check your tomcat error log - there's probably an OutOfMemory Error during start up.

Cheers, Michael

[Vinayak]

Thnaks Michael

I will look at those.

Any more ways to tame TomCat?

[flipper]

In case anyone comes across this thread looking for how to change memory for tomcat, now you just need to edit /var/cpanel/tomcat.options to set options for tomcat memory usage.

[asiams]

Hello

I could not find tomcat.options under /var/cpanel/.

I tried locate tomcat.options, but it does not give me right location.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[cPanelTristan]

I realize this post is older, but I want to reply to it due to information I've determined recently that I wanted to share in case anyone else runs into this thread.

The /var/cpanel/tomcat.options file does not exist by default. It would need to be created and then the startup options needed placed into that file. The options must have a - in front of them. Let's say you would like to limit the following:

-Xmx200M
-Xms100M

the "-Xms<size>" initial Java heap size for the application to 100MB, and the "-Xmx<size>" maximum Java heap size to 200MB. If the - is not placed in front of the option when putting the values into /var/cpanel/tomcat.options file that is created, then Tomcat will refuse to startup properly.

This method would be preferred over directly editing /usr/sbin/starttomcat as we would revise that file upon Tomcat updates. The /var/cpanel/tomcat.options file would not be edited by our scripts or upon updates.