Develop Reference

How to pass VM arguements to run on tomcat server startup?

In our project , in ide we are providing few vm arguements in ecipse run configurations. But when we are deploying the application, we are trying to provide these arguements. But not sure how to provide through tomcat to run on server startup. Can anybody help us here. Thanks in avdance.

The proper way to set VM arguments in Tomcat is to create a file in the Tomcat bin directory called "setenv.bat" (or "setenv.sh" if you're in Linux or Mac). In that file, you can set JVM options by setting the JAVA_OPTS variable, like for instance:
set JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx2G -Xms128M -Dvariable=2"
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E40520_01/integrator.311/integrator_install/src/cli_ldi_server_config.html

How to pass a system property to a web application hosted in Tomcat 7 running as a Windows Service?

There are numerous places on the Internet, suggesting that it is easily achieved by any (or all) of the following methods:
through CATALINA_OPTS
through JAVA_OPTS
through TOMCAT_OPTS
by placing the set statements in the setenv.bat file inside the tomcat's bin folder
My problem, is that I have tried all of the above and my web application still does not see my system property!
Here is what I am doing:
Stop tomcat7 service
set CATALINA_OPTS=-Dabc.def=true in the system environment
set JAVA_OPTS=-Dabc.def=true in the system environment
set TOMCAT_OPTS=-Dabc.def=true in the system environment
put all of the above into c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 7.0\bin\setenv.bat (seems totally redundant, but just in case)
Start tomcat7 service
Inspect the environment of the tomcat7 process using the Process Explorer tool - the environment is correct, I do see both CATALINA_OPTS and JAVA_OPTS and TOMCAT_OPTS equal to -Dabc.def=true
run my web app, which is a simple servlet dumping all the system properties to the response stream - abc.def is not amongst them
Please, put me out of my misery and tell me how to do it.

For the Tomcat service, startup settings are stored in the registry under Options key at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Apache Software Foundation\Procrun 2.0\Tomcat<X>\Parameters\Java
(substitute appropriate Tomcat version where needed).
Edit:
On 64-bit Windows, the registry key is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Apache Software Foundation\Procrun 2.0\Tomcat<X>\Parameters\Java
even if Tomcat is running under a 64-bit JVM.

I know this post is almost 9 years old but thought someone might find this useful.
Although #prunge and #mark answers were very accurate and following their logic I was able to add system properties to my tomcat 7 instance running on Windows, there is an easier way.
In the installation directory of Tomcat there is an exe you can run called
%INSTALL_DIRECTORY%\bin\tomcat7w.exe
This opens up a Tomcat properties windows where you can control the service i.e. start and stop tomcat and there is a tab (Java) that allows you to set the Java properties as well
Scroll to the end of that panel under "Java Options" and add your system properties
-Dpropertyname=value
Then navigate back to the General tab and restart tomcat
I have tested this and my grails app now can see my properties. I use the following Groovy code to get the property out
System.properties.getProperty("propertyname")
Adding the system properties in the Windows registry showed up in this window as well so its one and the same thing, just this application seems to me to be slightly more convenient.
Hope this helps someone else

Help setting up Java VM size

Well I am very new to Java and can't understand how am I supposed to set the virtual machine's size. I've built a small web applet that displays images. Sometimes the images can be pretty large, when this happens I get:
*Exception in thread "Image Fetcher 0" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space*
I've been trying to follow different instructions that I found on the Internet and have finally created this shortcut to Eclipse with the following command-line:
"C:\Documents and Settings\Dror Well\Desktop\temp\Eclipse\eclipse\eclipse\eclipse.exe"
-vmargs -vm "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_14\bin"
\"C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\javaw.exe" -Xms256m -Xmx1024m
What am I missing? How should this be done?

In that line you have set the VM args to the Java process that Eclipse runs in. What you need to do for your application is to set the -Xmx512m (or however big you want it to be) for the application that you are running. You can do this from the Run dialog.
From the Run menu, choose 'Open Run Dialog'. In there, you should see on the left side a list of programs. If you have run it once already, yours should be listed in the Java Applications node. Select it and on the right panel, go to the Arguments tab. There will be a VM Arguments text box. Enter your -Xmx arg there.

The parameters should be passed to the JVM running your application, not the one running Eclipse. Try looking through the debug settings in Eclipse, there should be some place to put the -Xmx and -Xms parameters.

Since the images can be pretty large, you should look at the following alternatives:
Allocate more memory to the Java executable that will be launched by Eclipse (not Eclipse itself). This can be done via the VM arguments for the runtime configuration that you use to run the application in Eclipse.
Switch to the parallel garbage collector, using the -XX:+UseParallelGC flag for the application (again, this is not for Eclipse). This wont help if you have large objects retained in memory for a long period of time.

For Eclipse you need to update the eclipse.ini file in order to set any JVM properties. Full details on where the file is and how to update it this link.

Can I get Tomcat running as a service to dump heap?

I am attempting to have Tomcat, which is currently running as a service on a Windows 2003 box, dump heap on an OutOfMemoryError.
(Tomcat is running Hudson, which is reporting a heap space problem at the tail end of my build. Running the build manually produces no such error. The Hudson guys need a heap dump to get started.)
As instructed elsewhere, I've told the Apache Service Monitor to configure the JVM it uses to run Tomcat to dump heap when an OutOfMemoryError is encountered by adding the following to the JVM options:
-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError
Then I run the build again. Sure enough, it reports there was a heap error. I scan the entire disk looking for the default java_pid123.hprof file (where obviously 123 is replaced by the PID of the JVM). No .hprof files exist anywhere.
I am caught in a catch 22: I need the heap dump for the Hudson guys to fix their memory leak, but I can't get the heap dump if I run Hudson under Tomcat.
Is there some special way, when Tomcat is running as a Windows service, to get a heap dump from it on an OutOfMemoryError?
The other thing I've tried is to tell it, on the Startup and Shutdown tabs, to use the "Java" option instead of the "jvm" option. I believe this should tell the Service Manager to attempt to start Tomcat with a Java executable command instead of launching the jvm.dll directly. When I do this, the service won't start.
Surely someone else has had a similar problem?

After finally putting this one to bed, I wanted to answer this for others who might have the same problem.
First, if you install Tomcat on Windows, do not use the .exe installer, even though it is promoted by Apache. It will not let you run Tomcat as anything other than the system account, no matter what you do. It appears that the system account does not have privileges to write .hprof files in the current directory, and no amount of Windows security tweaking appears to make this problem go away.
OK, so you've installed Tomcat from the .zip distribution. Install it as a service using the service.bat script. Make sure it is set to run as a specific user that you created specifically for this purpose. Make sure as well that the folder you want Tomcat to write to in the event of a heap dump is writable by that user.
Edit the service.bat file to include the -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError and the -XX:HeapDumpPath=C:\whatever options in the correct place (where you can put JVM options). That should do the trick.

Have you tried -XX:HeapDumpPath option?
http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/hotspot/vmoptions.jsp

I found the following link, which describes how to configure the tomcat service (includes setting the java parameters). Not sure if it applies to the version you are running.
http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/windows-service-howto.html

When java process running as window service you can generate the heapdump using below steps,
Run the command console as Administrator
version of JDK (for jmap command) and JRE (Java app run environment) should be same.
Get the PID no of running window process for that java application from task manager
Execute below command
jmap -dump:file=d:\heapdump\myHeapDump.hprof -F #PID_No#
If got any exception with JDK/JRE 7 try the same with JDK/JRE 8
Actually I faced some issue in jmap with JDK 7, but when i moved to JDK 8, I were able to successfully generate the heap dump using same command

The .hprof files are dumped in the current directory. Exactly what that means for a windows service is anyone's guess, assuming it means anything.
I suggest posting a new question (on http://superuser.com) asking what "current directory" means for a windows service.

From 20 Tips for Using Tomcat in Production
Add the following to your JAVA_OPTS in catalina.sh (or catalina.bat for Windows): -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -XX:HeapDumpPath=/home/j2ee/heapdumps

if you have installed tomcat with .exe you can configure tomcat service to use account other than local system account and you can assign that user rights on directory "c:\whatever" where you are creating your dump file. one thing here to remember tomcat service don't run with account having administrative privileges. so create a simple user in windows(member of user group) and set tomcat services to user this account. and give that user rights on "c:\whatever" directory. This resolves the user directory rights issue but you have to configure tomcat for Memory dumps errors.

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space with NetBeans

This is the error I get when I run my web application in an instance of the Tomcat servlet container started by NetBeans. To fix this I even changed the heap size in netbeans.conf, but still it shows the same error. How can I keep this from happening?
HTTP Status 500 -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
type Exception report
message
description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.
exception
javax.servlet.ServletException: Servlet execution threw an exception
org.netbeans.modules.web.monitor.server.MonitorFilter.doFilter(MonitorFilter.java:362)
root cause
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/5.5.9 logs.

Changing the heap size in netbeans.conf only changes the heap for NetBeans itself, not for applications run through NetBeans.
The correct way is to right-click on the project and select "Properties" and then "Run"; there you can set the VM options appropriately (-Xmx256m, for instance). It should look something like this:
(Thanks to VonC for finding this picture.)

Stop Tomcat server, set environment variable CATALINA_OPTS, and then restart Tomcat. Look at the file tomcat-install/bin/catalina.sh or catalina.bat for how this variable is used. For example,
set CATALINA_OPTS="-Xms512m -Xmx512m" (Windows)export CATALINA_OPTS="-Xms512m -Xmx512m" (ksh/bash)setenv CATALINA_OPTS "-Xms512m -Xmx512m" (tcsh/csh)
In catalina.bat or catallina.sh, you may have noticed CATALINA_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, or both can be used to specify Tomcat JVM options.
What is the difference between CATALINA_OPTS and JAVA_OPTS?
The name CATALINA_OPTS is specific for Tomcat servlet container, whereas JAVA_OPTS may be used by other java applications (e.g., JBoss). Since environment variables are shared by all applications, we don't want Tomcat to inadvertently pick up the JVM options intended for other apps. I prefer to use CATALINA_OPTS.
How to set java heap size in JBoss?
Stop JBoss server, edit $JBOSS_HOME/bin/run.conf, and then restart JBoss server. You can change the line with JAVA_OPTS to something like:
JAVA_OPTS="-server -Xms128m -Xmx128m"
How to set java heap size in Eclipse?
You have 2 options:
Edit eclipse-home/eclipse.ini to be something like the following and
restart Eclipse.
-vmargs-Xms64m-Xmx256m
Or, you can just run eclipse command with additional options at the
very end. Anything after -vmargs will be treated as JVM options and
passed directly to the JVM. JVM options specified in the command
line this way will always override those in eclipse.ini. For
example,
eclipse -vmargs -Xms64m -Xmx256m
How to set java heap size in NetBeans?
Exit NetBeans, edit the file netbeans-install/etc/netbeans.conf. For example,
netbeans_default_options="-J-Xms512m -J-Xmx512m -J-XX:PermSize=32m -J-XX:MaxPermSize=128m -J-Xverify:none
How to set java heap size in Apache Ant?
Set environment variable ANT_OPTS. Look at the file $ANT_HOME/bin/ant or %ANT_HOME%\bin\ant.bat, for how this variable is used by Ant runtime.
set ANT_OPTS="-Xms512m -Xmx512m" (Windows)export ANT_OPTS="-Xms512m -Xmx512m" (ksh/bash)setenv ANT_OPTS "-Xms512m -Xmx512m" (tcsh/csh)

If you increase the virtual memory of your Tomcat server then it will be OK.
Steps:
In NB go through the windows menu and add Services
You will find Tomcat in the services. Right click on Tomcat server and select Properties
Go to the platform in the properties and write -Xms512m in VM options field

I'm guessing that increasing the memory won't fix the problem. What is that MonitorFilter doing? What's eating up all that memory?
Your best bet is to figure that out. If this is a web app, see if you can turn off that filter and run without it. If you have success, you know that the MonitorFilter is causing your to fail.

This has nothing to do with NetBeans (well, perhaps), rather it has to do with Tomcat. Tomcat is the process that is running out of heap, not NetBeans. Track down the startup process for your Tomcat. If it's bundled with NB, then Tomcat is buried within the NB installation, check for an "enterpriseN" directory, N being a number, Tomcat is probably in there and it's a rather generic distribution of it.
As to why the monitor is run OOM, that's hard to say, it's a pretty simple process when you think about it. You can also try disabling HTTP monitoring to see if it's a problem with the Monitoring itself or something with your application.