How to set JVM parameter -Xmx for Play Framework 2.1

Question

When running my Play App, I often get the following error: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded I now want to increase the MaxHeapSize.

First, I applied the parameters to my startup script:

cd app_x
.../play/play-2.2.1/play clean compile stage
app_x/target/universal/stage/bin/app_x -J-Xmx3g

However, the parameters of the JVM stay the same. htop says java -Xms1024m -Xmx1024m ... for the process.

Then I configured the environment variable:

export _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Xmx3g"

I executed play test and got:

Picked up _JAVA_OPTIONS: -Xmx3g

However, the Xmx parameters of the JVM didn't change either.

Thank you for helping me.

Try `stage/bin/genehopper -Xmx3g`. There is also a `-mem` switch that was removed in newer versions... it may work there — Salem, Jun 13 '16 at 14:50
When I try it your way, the following error occurs: Bad application path: -Xmx3g — Matthias Munz, Jun 13 '16 at 15:02

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

4

Option 1

Adding below settings to the Build.scala

javaOptions ++= Seq("-Xmx3g", "-Xms3g", "-XX:MaxPermSize=2048M")

Option 2

Add below to the VM options of your running terminal

$ JAVA_OPTS="-Xms3g -Xmx3g -XX:MetaspaceSize=2048M" ./activator start

-XX:MaxPermSize=92m

This is a default value, and in most cases you don’t need to change it. You may increase it only if you get “OutOfMemoryError” in “PermGen space”. In your case you might have to increase it.

There is still bugs faced by activator module

More information regarding the findings related to the problem GC overhead limit exceeded

edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Jun 14 '16 at 04:26

Keshan Nageswaran

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@Matthias Munz sorry for the late reply, can you specify where it went wrong! – Keshan Nageswaran Aug 19 '16 at 17:18
hope by now you might have made it work!, if so share your thought about the approach as well! – Keshan Nageswaran Aug 19 '16 at 17:18
I wrote the solution in the post below – Matthias Munz Aug 20 '16 at 14:20

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 15 '16 at 08:46

4

It finally worked with the follwing parameters

/path/to/bin/<project-name> -mem 512 -J-server

as described here: https://www.playframework.com/documentation/2.2.x/ProductionConfiguration#Specifying-additional-JVM-arguments

answered Jun 15 '16 at 08:46

Matthias Munz

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Same in 2.8.x https://www.playframework.com/documentation/2.8.x/ProductionConfiguration#JVM-configuration – Ali Jul 17 '20 at 23:44

How to set JVM parameter -Xmx for Play Framework 2.1

2 Answers2