Choosing a garbage collection algorithm in HotSpot

Choice of garbage collection algorithm can have a huge impact on the performance of an application, which is why HotSpot provides a number of choices. This recipe explains how to set the garbage collection algorithm for HotSpot, and then discusses the trade-offs between the algorithm choices at a high level.

Getting ready

This recipe assumes you are using the HotSpot JVM. There is a separate recipe covering JRockit.

For more details, refer to the Getting ready section of the Setting the new size recipe.

How to do it...

To set the HotSpot garbage collector for a WebLogic Server, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the domain's bin directory:

   cd %MIDDLEWARE_HOME%/user_projects/domains/soa_domain/bin

2. Open the setSOADomainEnv.cmd or setSOADomainEnv.sh script in a text editor.

3. Locate the following lines:

   SET DEFAULT_MEM_ARGS=%DEFAULT_MEM_ARGS% -XX:PermSize=128m –XX:MaxPermSize=512m
   SET PORT_MEM_ARGS=%PORT_MEM_ARGS% -XX:PermSize=128m –XX:MaxPermSize...