Symptoms

JIRA crashes or behaves unpredictably. Logs contain errors like:

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space 

Cause

There are two causes:

1. The SOAP getProjects call loads a huge object graph, particularly when there are many users in JIRA, and thus can cause OutOfMemoryErrors. See JRASERVER-10828.
2. A Remote API script that creates an infinite loop, stack overflow, or a highly demanding set of rapid requests can be the culprit.

Diagnosis

To assess which script may be causing performance issues, add access logging and correspond to the out of memory errors.

Resolution

1. As a temporary measure, increase JIRA's Heap Space allocation.
2. Ensure no locally run SOAP clients use getProjects. Use getProjectsNoSchemes instead.
3. Disable or modify scripts as appropriate.