Protection Engine not responsive or high memory usage after upgrading to Java 8u271, 8u281

Products

• Protection Engine for Cloud Services
• Protection Engine for NAS
• Protection for SharePoint Servers

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading to Java 8u271, Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) or the server it is installed on exhibit one or more of the following behaviors until the service is restarted or the machine is rebooted:

• SPE no longer responds to scan requests
• The local java console is no longer accessible and you are met with an error page in Internet Explorer
• The machine runs out of free RAM over the course of a few days to a few weeks.

Environment

SPE 7.9+ with the Java UI enabled
SPSS 6.0.8+ with SPE 7.9+ and Java UI enabled
Java 8u271
Java 8u281

Cause

There were changes in Java 8u271 that have caused instability in the local Java UI component of Protection Engine.

Resolution

This issue appears to be resolved in 8u291. Please upgrade to 8u291 or newer.

Additional Information

Note that due to changes with how Java is compiled starting with 8u261 (see Oracle's release notes), versions of SPE prior to 8.2 do not support any version of Java newer than 8u251. See the Java Support Matrix for more information.