There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue

Solution Unverified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    • 5.x
    • 6.x

  • Windows 7

Issue

  • When starting JBoss the following error is thrown:
There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue..

Resolution

  • Move to a 64-bit JDK or reduce the heap size so that JBoss will be able to start within the 4 GB memory space.
  • Verify there is adequate free memory on the OS/host to support the configured maximum heap size (-Xmx)

Root Cause

  • 32-bit applications have a maximum of 4 GB addressable memory space. When JBoss was starting it was approaching this limit and unable to obtain the requested memory.

  • If already using 64-bit jdk and using Hive, check the Hive configuration whether it is compatible with the running Java version.

Diagnostic Steps

  • When starting JBoss the following error is thrown in the bootstrap.log:
# There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue.
# Native memory allocation (malloc) failed to allocate 37544 bytes for Chunk::new
# An error report file with more information is saved as:
# /tmp/hs_err_pid<pid>.log
  • Observed the following error in the hs_err_<pid> file created:
# There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue.
# Native memory allocation (malloc) failed to allocate 37544 bytes for Chunk::new
# Possible reasons:
#   The system is out of physical RAM or swap space
#   In 32 bit mode, the process size limit was hit
# Possible solutions:
#   Reduce memory load on the system
#   Increase physical memory or swap space
#   Check if swap backing store is full
#   Use 64 bit Java on a 64 bit OS
#   Decrease Java heap size (-Xmx/-Xms)
#   Decrease number of Java threads
#   Decrease Java thread stack sizes (-Xss)
#   Set larger code cache with -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=
# This output file may be truncated or incomplete.
#
#  Out of Memory Error (allocation.cpp:317), pid=22229, tid=574196624
#
# JRE version: 6.0_31-b04
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (20.6-b01 mixed mode linux-x86 )
  • Inspect/compare java -version output to make sure the JVM is not unexpectedly 32-bit:
$ java -version
$ java -d32 -version (Solaris/Linux)
$ java -d64 -version (Solaris/Linux)
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