Problem

Trying to run JIRA leads to errors like

-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:+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=20M

Additional 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