Pre-allocating memory in JVM causes Java Crash

[DonalB]

ESX Host: HP DL585 (latest revs) , ESX 3.01

VM OS: SLES9 64-bit

App server: BEA Weblogic 8.1

When starting weblogic app with no pre-allocation of mameory to VM, app grows RAM usage gradually and all is fine. However when pre-allocating say 1.5-2.2 GB RAM in JVM settings (VM is allocated 4GB RAM in total), start weblogic app and within 30sec-5min java has crashed. This is reproducible within across two VMs with same setup but works fine on a physical host??

Have tried setting memory reservation on VM to all RAM it is allocated but to no avail.

Anyone seen anything similar or have any suggestions about what might be causing this?

Thanks

DB

(P.S. When running an strace on the jvm processes with the RAM pre-allocated it seems to work ok which seems to give a hint to something but not sure what!!)

[wobbly1]

Donal,

Have you checked out the guest os guide and the known issues/general install notes?

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/GuestOS_guide.pdf[/b]hth

[DonalB]

I have now , but there's nothing in there that helps as far as I can see. Did you have something in mind?

Thanks

Donal

[agesen]

DB, it sounds like something is wrong here.

The first step would be to determine if it is

Java or ESX. Can you tell us more about the

error message that you get from the JVM?

Any chance you could try a different JVM, just

to try to isolate factors here?

I'd also encourage you to log an SR with

VMware and/or BEA. If something works

natively, it really should work in a VM as well.

Feel free to mail me the SR number and I will

follow along from here.

Thanks,

Ole Agesen, VMware monitor group,.

[DonalB]

Hi Ole,

Trying a different JVM hasn't been done I'll try to get that done today. I have a circa 2Gb (75Mb zipped) core dump file for the JVM in use at the moment. Going to have a look through it and anything interesting I'll post up.

SR has been raised with VMWare, and also in parallel with Suse/Novell and BEA. I'll send on the SR number in a bit. (Link to JVM core dump file is in it so you can have a look yourself if you want)

Cheers

Donal