[java] Using HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError parameter for heap dump for JBoss

I was told I can add the -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError parameter to my JVM start up options to my JBoss start up script to get a heap dump when we get an out of memory error in our application. I was wondering where this data gets dumped? Is it just to the console, or to some log file? If it's just to the console, what if I'm not logged into the Unix server through the console?

You can view this dump from the UNIX console.

The path for the heap dump will be provided as a variable right after where you have placed the mentioned variable.

E.g.:

-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=${DOMAIN_HOME}/logs/mps"

You can view the dump from the console on the mentioned path.

If you are not using "-XX:HeapDumpPath" option then in case of JBoss EAP/As by default the heap dump file will be generated in "JBOSS_HOME/bin" directory.

I found it hard to decipher what is meant by "working directory of the VM". In my example, I was using the Java Service Wrapper program to execute a jar - the dump files were created in the directory where I had placed the wrapper program, e.g. c:\myapp\bin. The reason I discovered this is because the files can be quite large and they filled up the hard drive before I discovered their location.