Java OutOfMemoryError: Metaspace in app-system or bg-system.log, low memory usage in heap dump

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

Alert showed java.lang.OutOfMemoryError in the app-system.log file.

Upon checking the heap dump we could see low memory usage and nothing out of ordinary. This is not a heap space issue but metaspace issue.

Error from the system log:
2019/02/21 08:23:23.414 | java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Metaspace

Environment

Release: 15.4.1

Resolution

• Check the current value for Metaspace in the properties.xml in jvmParameters for the affected service. This value may have to be increased.
  Example:
  If you have -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=192m
  You may want to increase to:
  -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m
• Also check for anything done on this server during this time (another process that could take all the available RAM).