Diagnosing Production Java Applications Using JVM Memory Structures

Troubleshooting production Java applications is a challenging task. Madhav Sathe presents a new approach to diagnose production applications by peeking into memory structures of the Java Virtual Machine.

Most of the usual monitoring and diagnostics tools are inadequate in a production environment because of one or more of the following reasons: 1) Requires code changes due to byte code instrumentation or AOP techniques 2) Requires server restarts due to application changes 3) Very high overhead to get enough granularity required for triaging performance problems 4) Unable to identify and resolve memory leak issues in a production environment 5)Provide no visibility from Java EE containers through Database

The session showcases a new approach to diagnose production applications by peeking into memory structures of the Java Virtual Machine. It demonstrates the ability to view the state and execution context of an application in the JVM with little to no overhead. You will see that this approach does not need any complex configuration or application instrumentation. You will learn to use this methodology to diagnose problems in real time on a production environment, without requiring server restart or application rewrite.

Speaker: Madhav Sathe is a Senior Product Manager at Oracle, working on middleware management. His areas of expertise are Product Requirement Doc, Market Requirement Doc, Product evangelism, Competitive analysis and Product lifecycle management. He has contributed to several international publications and his technical expertise are in enterprise Java, SOA, and IT management solutions.

• This session was delivered at the 3rd IndicThreads.com Conference On Java Technology.
• Session Slides (PDF) –  Diagnosing Production Java Applications