iManager 3.0 is not starting on a server with 1GB of RAM

  • 7017261
  • 16-Feb-2016
  • 19-Feb-2016

Environment

NetIQ iManager 3.x

Server has only 1GB of RAM

Situation

Browser is unable to connect to iManager.

Tomcat is not listening on the specified ports.

/var/opt/novell/tomcat8/logs/catalina.out shows
There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue.
# Native memory allocation (malloc) failed to allocate 280 bytes for AllocateHeap
# An error report file with more information is saved as:
# /var/opt/novell/novlwww/hs_err_pid2995.log


Java crash file referenced above reports:
#
# There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue.
# Native memory allocation (malloc) failed to allocate 280 bytes for AllocateHeap
# Possible reasons:
#   The system is out of physical RAM or swap space
#   In 32 bit mode, the process size limit was hit
# Possible solutions:
#   Reduce memory load on the system
#   Increase physical memory or swap space
#   Check if swap backing store is full
#   Use 64 bit Java on a 64 bit OS
#   Decrease Java heap size (-Xmx/-Xms)
#   Decrease number of Java threads
#   Decrease Java thread stack sizes (-Xss)
#   Set larger code cache with -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=
# This output file may be truncated or incomplete.
#
#  Out of Memory Error (allocation.inline.hpp:61), pid=2995, tid=140621404059392
#
# JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (8.0_66-b17) (build 1.8.0_66-b17)
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (25.66-b17 mixed mode linux-amd64 compressed oops)
# Core dump written. Default location: /var/opt/novell/novlwww/core or core.2995 (max size 1 kB). To ensure a
full core dump, try "ulimit -c unlimited" before starting Java again
#

Resolution

iManager 3.x runs inside a JAVA 1.8 JVM. 
It is recommended to have 1GB of RAM in a server dedicated to iManager.  Java 1.8\Tomcat 8 has changed its starting max heap size.  By default Tomcat 8 will attempt to allocate 1GB of RAM.  If this amount of memory is unavailable Tomcat will not run.  The iManager 3.x installation limits this to 512MB.  However, if the server only has 1GB of RAM Tomcat may still fail to load.

There are two resolutions:

1. Add more memory to the server or VM.  (Preferred)

2. Limit Tomcat to no more than 256MB of RAM.  (Not recommended.)
a. Open the /var/opt/novell/tomcat8/conf/tomcat8.conf into an editor.
b. In the JAVA_OPS section change the current line:
JAVA_OPTS="-Xms256m -Xmx512m -Xss512k" to JAVA_OPTS="-Xms128m -Xmx256m -Xss512k"
c. Restart Tomcat: /etc/init.d/novell-tomcat8 restart

Note: iManager's performance may suffer from this change.