Why does Jira installation constantly crash?

Alexander Kammerer March 22, 2015

I tried installing JIRA now for the 20th or something time and it won't work for me.

All I get is a java.lang.outOfMemoryError: unable to create new native thread.

I do know that there is documentation on this error available online but none of the fixes worked for me.

Setting the JRE memory limit to 2GB? Didn't work. Increase the number of allowed threads via ulimit? Didn't work. Installing via automated setup by Atlassian? Didn't work.

It can't really have anything to do with my memory since JIRA tells me this:

```

2015-03-22 17:06:10,915 localhost-startStop-1 INFO      [atlassian.jira.startup.LauncherContextListener] Memory Usage:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Heap memory     :  Used:  297 MiB.  Committed:  555 MiB.  Max: 1353 MiB

  Non-heap memory :  Used:  180 MiB.  Committed:  195 MiB.  Max: 1264 MiB

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  TOTAL           :  Used:  477 MiB.  Committed:  750 MiB.  Max: 2617 MiB

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 ```

Did anyone encounter the same problem?

 

(I would really like to use JIRA for our development team but since it took me approximately 4 hours so far and I couln't even work out what exaktly the problem is, I'm reconsidering now.)

2 answers

0 votes
Carlton Brown March 22, 2015

I've seen Java apps report "unable to create new native thread" when the process table is full. Can you post the result of 'ps -ef | wc -l' and also 'ulimit -a' ?

0 votes
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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March 22, 2015

It is struggling for memory, although that might be something going wrong and just chewing up everything it has, rather than you not giving it enough.

Just because it tells you it's using X amount of memory at startup doesn't mean that won't change - a busy system can easily consume a LOT more memory - it's not a static flat line set at startup.

The problem is a dodgy configuration somewhere, but it's impossible to tell from one line of error.  Start by explaining your setup: How you installed it, OS, version of Java and JIRA, what plugins you've enabled, and what the memory settings are (specifically, look in setenv.sh or setenv.bat depending on your OS).

Alexander Kammerer March 22, 2015

Thanks for your answer! The memory log I posted was logged by JIRA at the end of the attempted installation. I'm running the plain JIRA installation setup (64bit, for JIRA and Agile) on my vServer. 2 vCores, 2 GB RAM guaranteed (up to 4GB), running on Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS with 64bit. I already increased the amount of memory the JRE can consume to ~1.4MB (in my setenv.sh). The memory configuration: JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY="600m" JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY="1400m" I also changed "-Datlassian.plugins.enable.wait=300" in the setenv.sh.

Gardner March 22, 2015

Setting the JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY to a high value causes each instance to immediately allocate that much memory. Try just setting the JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY and let the system figure out JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY.

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