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?

See my answer to [similar question][1]. Will it help? [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22318262/jvisualvm-stuck-on-loading-heap-dump-screen — Tomas Hurka, Apr 15 '14 at 13:13
See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7254017/tool-for-analyzing-large-java-heap-dumps — rogerdpack, Jan 29 '19 at 23:55

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 14 '14 at 21:40

11

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:

Open config.ini file that located in MAT_HOME directory.
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.

edited Apr 14 '14 at 21:40

answered Apr 14 '14 at 20:03

Salah

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You'll thank me again after trying it, its really powerful and easy to use :) – Salah Apr 14 '14 at 20:10
MAT won't open my .hprof file. It thinks the file is corrupt. Perhaps that's the same reason VisualVM won't open it. – Apr 14 '14 at 21:22
Yes the file is corrupted. – Salah Apr 14 '14 at 21:26
On Mac, I needed to edit /Applications/mat.app/Contents/Eclipse/MemoryAnalyzer.ini to increase the memory. – nilgun Jul 01 '21 at 18:36

How do you open large heap dumps using VisualVM?

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