Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.

Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Purpose

Garbage collection logs are useful when trying to isolate issues within Java-based applications as they will pinpoint blocked, hung or stuck threads that may be causing downstream effects in the application. It is always useful to collect at least 10 minutes of garbage collection logs, but analysis accuracy is often increased by the amount of recent log data to review.

Solution

For Linux

Add the following parameters into your Confluence System Properties, in the <confluence-install>/bin/setenv.sh file (be sure to enter the path for your <confluence-home> directory)

-Xloggc:<confluence-home>/logs/`date +%F_%H-%M-%S`-gc.log -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintTenuringDistribution -XX:+PrintGCCause
-XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation -XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=10 -XX:GCLogFileSize=5M

For Windows

Batch file

If you start Confluence using 'start-confluence.bat', add the below code to setenv.bat

rem Create a timestamp with date and time, replacing ' ' with '0' and '/' with '-'
set atlassian_timestamp=%DATE:~-4%.%DATE:~4,2%.%DATE:~7,2%_%TIME:~0,2%.%TIME:~3,2%.%TIME:~6,2%
set atlassian_timestamp=%atlassian_timestamp: =0%
set atlassian_timestamp=%atlassian_timestamp:/=-%
set atlassian_logsdir=%~dp0..\logs

set CATALINA_OPTS=%CATALINA_OPTS% -Xloggc:"%atlassian_logsdir%\gc-%atlassian_timestamp%.log"
set CATALINA_OPTS=%CATALINA_OPTS% -XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation -XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=10 -XX:GCLogFileSize=5M -XX:+PrintGCCause
set CATALINA_OPTS=%CATALINA_OPTS% -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintTenuringDistribution 

NB: This will create the garbage collection logs in the <confluence-install> directory.

Service

If you start Windows as a service, add the below to the service by following these steps (be sure to enter the path for your <confluence-home> directory)

-Xloggc:<confluence-home>\logs\gc-%t.log
-XX:+PrintGCDetails
-XX:+PrintGCDateStamps
-XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps
-XX:+PrintGCCause
-XX:+PrintTenuringDistribution
-XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation
-XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=10
-XX:GCLogFileSize=5M