My Oracle Support Banner

Oracle WebLogic Server Support Pattern: Troubleshooting Out of Memory and Memory Leak Problems (Doc ID 877172.1)

Last updated on JANUARY 23, 2024

Applies to:

Oracle WebLogic Server - Version 10.3.6 and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Purpose

This document is a support pattern detailing how to troubleshoot and fix memory leak and other memory related problems

Problem Description

Out Of Memory (OOM): An Out of Memory error occurs due to memory exhaustion, either in java heap or native memory. In the JVM, OOM errors are thrown when the JVM cannot allocate an object because it is out of heap memory, and no more heap memory could be made available by the garbage collector.

Memory Leak: A memory leak occurs if memory is used by an application and not released by the application when it is finished with it. A memory leak can occur in either java heap or native memory, and either will eventually cause an out of memory situation.

Problem Troubleshooting

Please note that not all of the following items would need to be done. Some issues can be solved by only following a few of the items.

Troubleshooting Steps

To view full details, sign in with your My Oracle Support account.

Don't have a My Oracle Support account? Click to get started!


In this Document
Purpose
 Problem Description
 Problem Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting Steps
 Java heap, Native memory and Process size
 Difference between process address space and physical memory
 Why does the OOM problem occur and what does the JVM do in this situation?
 Out of memory in java heap
 Out of memory in native heap
 Steps to debug the problem
 Initially, determine whether it is a Java OOM or Native OOM
 For Java OOM:
 For Native OOM Problem
 HP JVM specific tools/tips
 Java Flight Recorder
 Popular JVM heap analyzing tools
 Java VisualVM
 Eclipse Memory Analysis Tool (MAT)
 References
 Need further help?

My Oracle Support provides customers with access to over a million knowledge articles and a vibrant support community of peers and Oracle experts.