Garbage Collection Log Settings for Jira when using Java Version 11
Platform Notice: Server and Data Center Only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the server and data center platforms.
Problem
Trying to run JIRA leads to an error similar to the one below:
-XX:+PrintGCDateStamps --> Unrecognized VM option 'PrintGCDateStamps'
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.
Diagnosis
Environment
AdoptOpen JDK 11
Cause
Starting with JIRA 8.2 we are supporting Java 8 and Java 11. There are significant differences in the Garbage Collection Log Settings between these 2 versions. Trying to run JIRA on Java 11 with the old settings will lead to errors like mentioned above.
See 43 GC logging flags removed from Java 9 for more details.
When migrating from a setup with Java 8 to another with Java 11 the Javaflags have been taken over.
Resolution
The following Java flags are no longer supported in Java 9 and upwards, as the Unified JVM Logging has been introduced
When running JIRA with Java 11, these flags below must be removed, otherwise JIRA will fail to start.
-XX:+PrintGCDetails
-XX:+PrintGCDateStamps
-XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps
-XX:+PrintGCCause
-XX:+PrintTenuringDistribution
-XX:+UseGCLogFileRotation
-XX:NumberOfGCLogFiles=5
-XX:GCLogFileSize=20M
-Xloggc:<PATH_TO_GC_LOGS>Make sure to add the one below to keep logging GC activity.
-Xlog:gc*:file=<PATH_TO_GC_LOGS>:tags,time,uptime,level:filecount=5,filesize=20MAdditional Notes
Update: Failed to recognize file format in GCViewer
If you are analyzing the GC logs on GCViewer, you might run into this error :
Caused by: java.io.IOException: Failed to recognize file format.This is due to JRASERVER-71420 - Getting issue details... STATUS
To work this around add tags and level to the configuration ("tags" and "level" parameters must be added):
-Xlog:gc*:file=<PATH_TO_GC_LOGS>:tags,time,uptime,level:filecount=5,filesize=20M