One of the essential tasks for the system administrator is to generate system dump, java core and heap dump in WebSphere Application Server.

Usually, you had to do when troubleshooting application and needed to investigate the issues either in application or infrastructure.

This is possible either using WAS Admin Console or Command line. Based on your preference, you can choose the method.

1. Using WebSphere Administrative Console

  • Login into DMGR Console
  • Navigate to Troubleshooting at left side
  • Click on java dumps and cores

was-troubleshooting

  • Select the JVM from the list and click on the one you wish to generate

was-select-dump

Dump & Core will be generated under WebSphere profile location. You will get the absolute path under the message.

was-heap-dump-location

2. Using Command Line

  • Login into WAS Server
  • Go to profile and bin folder
  • Execute wsadmin.sh file
[root@localhost bin]# ./wsadmin.sh
WASX7209I: Connected to process "dmgr" on node localhostCellManager01 using SOAP connector; The type of process is: DeploymentManager
WASX7029I: For help, enter: "$Help help"
wsadmin>
  • Set JVM name in a variable
set jvm [$AdminControl completeObjectName type=JVM,process=server1,*]

Note: server1 is for example. Change this to your actual JVM name.

wsadmin>set jvm [$AdminControl completeObjectName type=JVM,process=server1,*]
WebSphere:name=JVM,process=server1,platform=proxy,node=localhostNode01,j2eeType=JVM,J2EEServer=server1,version=8.5.5.0,type=JVM,mbeanIdentifier=JVM,cell=localhostCell01,spec=1.0
wsadmin>

To generate heap dump

  • Execute following
$AdminControl invoke $jvm generateHeapDump

This will generate heap dump and give you the path where it’s available.

wsadmin>$AdminControl invoke $jvm generateHeapDump
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/AppServer/profiles/AppSrv01/./heapdump.20160618.225441.4808.0006.phd
wsadmin>

To generate Java Core

$AdminControl invoke $jvm dumpThreads

This will generate thread dump and will be available under profile path.

You see getting dumps are easy and analyzing them is always interesting. Check out my next article on how to analyze them for application troubleshooting.