How do you open large heap dumps using VisualVM?

Question

I created a heap dump using VisualVM. The resulting .hprof file is about 6GB.

When I try to load the file in VisualVM, it gets stuck at 50%. While stuck, no additionaly resources appear to be consumed on the computer I'm using. CPU is quiet, only about half of the available memory is in use, and there isn't any IO being reported.

jvisualvm: Stuck on “Loading Heap Dump” screen asks a similar question, but the only answer suggests creating the .hprof file through VisualVM (which I already did).

Are there any special settings I need to use to open a heap dump of this size?

Answer 1

I suggest you to open it with MAT Eclipse Memory Analyzer , its a powerful tool to analyze that kind of Heap dump files, beside its the common way to analyze Heap files.

Also you need to increase MAT memory in order to open that big size file, you can do that as the following:

1. Open config.ini file that located in MAT_HOME directory.
2. Change the value of -Xmx to more than 6GB.

The Above Link contain also a tutorial to how to use MAT.

If MAT won't open the Heap file, then the file is probably corrupted.