CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaamazon-ec2jvmamazon-elastic-beanstalkheap-dump
Thomas Kessler
Thomas Kessler

Reputation: 1807

Best method for inspecting Elastic Beanstalk JVM heap

I'm need to get a JVM heap dump from an Elastic Beanstalk server, but the server doesn't have jcmd or jmap. Amazon doesn't natively install them with the JDK. Here's what's installed:

[ec2-user@ip-x-x-x-x ~]$ sudo yum list installed|grep jdk
java-1.7.0-openjdk.x86_64             1:1.7.0.111-2.6.7.2.68.amzn1 @amzn-updates
java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64             1:1.8.0.101-3.b13.24.amzn1   @amzn-updates
java-1.8.0-openjdk-headless.x86_64    1:1.8.0.101-3.b13.24.amzn1   @amzn-updates

What's the best way to get a heap dump from the JVM on Elastic Beanstalk?

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1923

Answers (2)

Dan Gravell
Dan Gravell

Reputation: 8275

I have found you can install jmap by installing the correct package:

sudo yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel

This should at least allow a heap dump to be generated.

In addition, to make sure all functions in jmap run, also install:

sudo yum --enablerepo='*-debug*' install java-1.8.0-openjdk-debuginfo

Although this might depend on the baseline, tomcat version etc you use.

When creating a heap dump, use the tomcat user:

sudo -u tomcat jmap -dump:live,file=/tmp/test.hprof <pid>

Upvotes: 8

Mark Bramnik
Mark Bramnik

Reputation: 42541

Disclamer: I've never worked with Elastic Beanstalk, but I can recommend to check the following:

Consider taking the heap dump programmatically, I mean from within the Java application itself. There are many ways of doing that:

  • Via JMX - the chances are that you'll find HotSpotDiagnostic bean and will be able to invoke the heap dump operation (Here there is a tutorial for doing this)

  • If your application is new and you have Spring Boot, then probably its possible to plug Spring Actuator that has a "/heapdump" endpoint just for this purpose

Upvotes: 0

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