GC Allocation Failure error for installation on AWS

[FormCircles]

Hello,

Jr System Admin here trying to install Jira Software on AWS for the first time and ran into issues.  Here is the output from /opt/atlassian/jira/logs/atlassian-jira-gc-X-X-X-X-X-X.log.0.current

OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (25.202-b08) for linux-amd64 JRE (1.8.0_202-b08), built on Jan 22 2019 13:35:07 by "jenkins" with gcc 4.8.2 20140120 (Red Hat 4.8.2-15)
Memory: 4k page, physical 15400924k(841332k free), swap 0k(0k free)
CommandLine flags: -XX:GCLogFileSize=20971520 -XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=33554432 -XX:InitialHeapSize=1073741824 -XX:MaxHeapSize=1073741824 -XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=5 -XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow -XX:+PrintGC -XX:+PrintGCCause -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=536870912 -XX:+UseCompressedClassPointers -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation -XX:+UseParallelGC
2021-08-12T04:21:13.965+0000: 2.065: [GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen: 262144K->18717K(305664K)] 262144K->18861K(1005056K), 0.0241356 secs] [Times: user=0.07 sys=0.00, real=0.03 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:14.886+0000: 2.985: [GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen: 280861K->19006K(305664K)] 281005K->19159K(1005056K), 0.0291531 secs] [Times: user=0.10 sys=0.00, real=0.03 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:15.878+0000: 3.977: [GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen: 281150K->23088K(305664K)] 281303K->23248K(1005056K), 0.0376578 secs] [Times: user=0.13 sys=0.01, real=0.04 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:16.804+0000: 4.903: [GC (Metadata GC Threshold) [PSYoungGen: 181518K->18670K(305664K)] 181678K->18838K(1005056K), 0.0283333 secs] [Times: user=0.10 sys=0.00, real=0.03 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:16.832+0000: 4.931: [Full GC (Metadata GC Threshold) [PSYoungGen: 18670K->0K(305664K)] [ParOldGen: 168K->18500K(699392K)] 18838K->18500K(1005056K), [Metaspace: 20625K->20625K(1069056K)], 0.0857400 secs] [Times: user=0.27 sys=0.03, real=0.08 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:17.893+0000: 5.993: [GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen: 262144K->6589K(305664K)] 280644K->25097K(1005056K), 0.0083457 secs] [Times: user=0.03 sys=0.00, real=0.01 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:18.927+0000: 7.027: [GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen: 268733K->13082K(323072K)] 287241K->31598K(1022464K), 0.0148595 secs] [Times: user=0.03 sys=0.01, real=0.02 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:20.032+0000: 8.132: [GC (Metadata GC Threshold) [PSYoungGen: 240271K->13909K(323072K)] 258788K->32434K(1022464K), 0.0129219 secs] [Times: user=0.03 sys=0.01, real=0.01 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:20.046+0000: 8.145: [Full GC (Metadata GC Threshold) [PSYoungGen: 13909K->0K(323072K)] [ParOldGen: 18524K->29298K(699392K)] 32434K->29298K(1022464K), [Metaspace: 34376K->34376K(1081344K)], 0.0702972 secs] [Times: user=0.19 sys=0.01, real=0.07 secs]
2021-08-12T04:21:21.999+0000: 10.098: [GC (Allocation Failure) [PSYoungGen: 296960K->17207K(324608K)] 326258K->46513K(1024000K), 0.0180666 secs] [Times: user=0.05 sys=0.00, real=0.02 secs]

 Here is the log from /opt/atlassian/jira/logs/catalina.out

****************
JIRA starting...
****************

2021-08-12 04:21:16,930 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger]

___ Environment _____________________________

JIRA Build : 8.3.0#803001-sha1:679cb7fa408fb68a51f75b1cea4d16caf4d042ef
Build Date : Mon Jul 22 00:00:00 UTC 2019
JIRA Installation Type : Standalone
Application Server : Apache Tomcat/8.5.40 - Servlet API 3.1
Java Version : 1.8.0_202 - AdoptOpenJdk
Current Working Directory : /opt/atlassian/jira/bin
Maximum Allowable Memory : 981MB
Total Memory : 981MB
Free Memory : 814MB
Used Memory : 167MB
Memory Pool: Code Cache : Code Cache: init = 33554432(32768K) used = 10194368(9955K) committed = 33554432(32768K) max = 536870912(524288K)
Memory Pool: Metaspace : Metaspace: init = 0(0K) used = 20906352(20416K) committed = 21364736(20864K) max = -1(-1K)
Memory Pool: Compressed Class Space : Compressed Class Space: init = 0(0K) used = 2333536(2278K) committed = 2490368(2432K) max = 1073741824(1048576K)
Memory Pool: PS Eden Space : PS Eden Space: init = 268435456(262144K) used = 153547880(149949K) committed = 268435456(262144K) max = 268435456(262144K)
Memory Pool: PS Survivor Space : PS Survivor Space: init = 44564480(43520K) used = 23642648(23088K) committed = 44564480(43520K) max = 44564480(43520K)
Memory Pool: PS Old Gen : PS Old Gen: init = 716177408(699392K) used = 163872(160K) committed = 716177408(699392K) max = 716177408(699392K)
JVM Input Arguments : -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/opt/atlassian/jira/conf/logging.properties -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager -Xms1024m -Xmx1024m -XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=32m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512m -Djava.awt.headless=true -Datlassian.standalone=JIRA -Dorg.apache.jasper.runtime.BodyContentImpl.LIMIT_BUFFER=true -Dmail.mime.decodeparameters=true -Dorg.dom4j.factory=com.atlassian.core.xml.InterningDocumentFactory -XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow -Djava.locale.providers=COMPAT -Datlassian.plugins.startup.options= -Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048 -Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=org.apache.catalina.webresources -Dorg.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener.UMASK=0027 -Xloggc:/opt/atlassian/jira/logs/atlassian-jira-gc-%t.log -XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation -XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=5 -XX:GCLogFileSize=20M -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps -XX:+PrintGCCause -Dignore.endorsed.dirs= -Dcatalina.base=/opt/atlassian/jira -Dcatalina.home=/opt/atlassian/jira -Djava.io.tmpdir=/opt/atlassian/jira/temp
Java Compatibility Information

12-Aug-2021 04:21:17.134 INFO [main] org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol.start Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-nio-3535"]
12-Aug-2021 04:21:17.144 INFO [main] org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool.getSharedSelector Using a shared selector for servlet write/read
12-Aug-2021 04:21:17.205 INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in 4484 ms
2021-08-12 04:21:17,239 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.SystemDatabaseConfigurationLoader] Reading database configuration from /var/atlassian/application-data/jira/dbconfig.xml
2021-08-12 04:21:17,265 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.SystemDatabaseConfigurationLoader] Reading database configuration from /var/atlassian/application-data/jira/dbconfig.xml
2021-08-12 04:21:17,266 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.SystemDatabaseConfigurationLoader] Reading database configuration from /var/atlassian/application-data/jira/dbconfig.xml
2021-08-12 04:21:18,458 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.SystemDatabaseConfigurationLoader] Reading database configuration from /var/atlassian/application-data/jira/dbconfig.xml
2021-08-12 04:21:18,472 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger]

___ Starting the JIRA Plugin System _________________

2021-08-12 04:21:24,313 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.SystemDatabaseConfigurationLoader] Reading database configuration from /var/atlassian/application-data/jira/dbconfig.xml
2021-08-12 04:21:24,364 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger] Running JIRA startup checks.
2021-08-12 04:21:24,364 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.jira.startup.JiraStartupLogger] JIRA pre-database startup checks completed successfully.
2021-08-12 04:21:24,399 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.DatabaseConfigurationManagerImpl] The database is not yet configured. Enqueuing Database Checklist Launcher on post-database-configured-but-pre-database-activated queue
2021-08-12 04:21:24,399 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.j.config.database.DatabaseConfigurationManagerImpl] The database is not yet configured. Enqueuing Post database-configuration launchers on post-database-activated queue
2021-08-12 04:21:24,408 JIRA-Bootstrap INFO [c.a.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener] Memory Usage:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heap memory : Used: 332 MiB. Committed: 1000 MiB. Max: 1000 MiB
Non-heap memory : Used: 71 MiB. Committed: 87 MiB. Max: 1536 MiB
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL : Used: 402 MiB. Committed: 1087 MiB. Max: 2536 MiB
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

"GC Allocation Failure" can be summarised down to "I've run out of working space in the memory".   It's more complex than that, but it is a good enough description for now - the system needs to be allocated more memory.

These two lines in startup output are where I'd look:

Maximum Allowable Memory : 981MB
Total Memory : 981MB

I would not bother trying to run anything other than a demo/test Jira with a couple of projects and 20-30 issues in that amount of memory.  If it needs to be larger, or include applications (Service Management or Software) or even just apps, then I start with a 2Gb heap.

I would take a look at your memory settings, changing at least the maximum heap to 2Gb (remembering to leave another Gb or two for the OS to work)