Java 6u16 stopped with no reason on Window Server 2008 R2 SP1

Question

I have a Java application running on Window Server 2008 R2 SP1 (Under Copyright 2009) with JVM 6u16 x64, my program will write log in every 5 seconds to show it is still alive, however, the program itself has stopped writing log for 10 to 20 seconds with no reason. I have used a VisualVM to monitor my Java application, but it stopped as well, as the VisualVm keep flooding new threads (for monitoring) during the halt period The halt happens only between 9am to 4pm (3 to 4 times a day) but not in the night time. This Java application works fine on another Window Server 2008 R2 SP1 (Under Copyright 2007), so I am wondering whether the new Win Server 2008 (2009 ver) has some compatibility issue with the JVM, and whether there are any KB which has fixed that

Tested 2 more things, but still no luck 1. Wrote a C++ program to write a date time log in every second, but it didn't stop writing when the JVM halt, which indicates no issues related to the OS 2. Upgrade to JVM 6u45, but the java program still paused for 1 time and last for 10 seconds, which is better than 6u16, as it happened around 3 to 4 times in day time.

Thanks for help

Answer 1

It sounds like you may have an issue with occasional "full GC" pauses.

I suggest you turn on GC logging, and then see if there is a correlation between these unwanted outages and the events in the GC log messages; read about the -Xloggc:file option in the Java command manual entry.

Depending on what that tells you, the solution may be to adjust your JVM's GC options.