Jira Data Center JVM issues

Question

Hello everyone,

My team and I are currently facing performance issues with Jira Data Center 10.3.8 LTS. We upgraded to 10.3.10 LTS in hopes of resolving the problem, but unfortunately, the issue persists.

Even when the instance is in an idle state (with no active users), we see JVM utilization fluctuating between 40–50%. Our Jira environment runs on a Linux server in AWS with 32GB of RAM, where 20GB is allocated to Jira during high demand and 8GB during low demand.

The situation becomes more critical when executing even simple automations: JVM utilization can drop to as low as 4%, and in some cases, the application crashes entirely.

Has anyone else in the community experienced similar JVM behavior? If so, how did you resolve or optimize it? Any best practices, JVM tuning recommendations, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Marc -Devoteam- · Answer

Hi @Keny Jimenez

Best is to check the logs when the issue in relation to memory occurs.

See what the logging provides as information

Keny Jimenez · Answer

Hi Marc

this is our current setenv.sh if something could be done let me know I will appreciate it.

# JMV allocated Memory

JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY="8g"
JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY="20g"

# this is the GC args

JVM_GC_ARGS="-XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=40 "

# this is the cache size that in my guess, is too small (just wondering)

JVM_CODE_CACHE_ARGS='-XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=32m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512m'

#JVM required args <-- if something could be improve and I am happy to listen opinions

JVM_REQUIRED_ARGS='-Dlog4j2.contextSelector=org.apache.logging.log4j.core.selector.BasicContextSelector -Dlog4j2.disableJmx=true -Dlog4j2.garbagefree.threadContextMap=true -Dlog4j2.isWebapp=false -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 -Dorg.apache.catalina.connector.RECYCLE_FACADES=false -Djavax.servlet.request.encoding=UTF8 -Dsun.jnu.encoding=UTF-8 -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8'

# JVM_Extras

JVM_EXTRA_ARGS="-XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow -Djava.locale.providers=COMPAT"

if any could be done to manage better the JVM or improve performance feel free to reply

Marc -Devoteam- · Answer

Hi @Keny Jimenez

See https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/jira-server-crashes-with-outofmemory-java-heap-space-error-191069.html

But what parameter is set for the jvm memory in the Jira startup?

See https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/setting-properties-and-options-on-startup-938847831.html

These settings Linux server in AWS with 32GB of RAM, where 20GB is allocated to Jira during high demand and 8GB during low demand. relate to the VM not the memory allocated to Jira as a default on startup.

Also check the logs.