---
id: dba6a296-6481-11ee-8c99-0242ac120002
---

# "High JVM Heap Usage in Elasticsearch"
---

This incident type refers to situations where the percentage of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) heap being used by Elasticsearch exceeds a certain threshold. The JVM heap is a portion of memory allocated to the JVM for running the Elasticsearch application, and if it becomes too full, it can cause the system to slow down or crash. This incident often requires investigation to identify the root cause of the high heap usage and may involve adjusting configuration settings or optimizing the Elasticsearch environment to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

### Parameters
```shell
export ELASTICSEARCH_CLUSTER_URL="PLACEHOLDER"

export ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL="PLACEHOLDER"

export ELASTICSEARCH_LOG_FILE_PATH="PLACEHOLDER"

export PATH_TO_ELASTIC_SEARCH_CONFIG_FILE="PLACEHOLDER"

export NEW_HEAP_SIZE="PLACEHOLDER"
```

## Debug

### Check Elasticsearch cluster health
```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_CLUSTER_URL}/_cluster/health
```

### Check Elasticsearch node stats
```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL}/_nodes/stats/jvm
```

### Check Elasticsearch JVM heap usage
```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL}/_nodes/stats/jvm?filter_path=nodes.*.jvm.mem.heap_used_percent
```

### Check Elasticsearch JVM heap size
```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL}/_nodes/stats/jvm?filter_path=nodes.*.jvm.mem.heap_max_in_bytes
```

### Check Elasticsearch logs for any error messages related to high JVM heap usage
```shell
tail -n 1000 ${ELASTICSEARCH_LOG_FILE_PATH} | grep -i "heap"
```

## Repair

### Increase the heap size of the JVM allocated to Elasticsearch. This can be done by updating the JVM options in Elasticsearch's configuration file.
```shell


#!/bin/bash



# Set the Elasticsearch configuration file path

conf_file="${PATH_TO_ELASTIC_SEARCH_CONFIG_FILE}"



# Set the new heap size

new_heap_size="${NEW_HEAP_SIZE}"



# Update the JVM options in the Elasticsearch configuration file

sed -i "s/-Xmx[0-9]*[mMgG]/-Xmx$new_heap_size/g" $conf_file



# Restart Elasticsearch

systemctl restart elasticsearch.service


```


This incident type refers to situations where the percentage of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) heap being used by Elasticsearch exceeds a certain threshold. The JVM heap is a portion of memory allocated to the JVM for running the Elasticsearch application, and if it becomes too full, it can cause the system to slow down or crash. This incident often requires investigation to identify the root cause of the high heap usage and may involve adjusting configuration settings or optimizing the Elasticsearch environment to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.


```shell
export ELASTICSEARCH_CLUSTER_URL="PLACEHOLDER"

export ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL="PLACEHOLDER"

export ELASTICSEARCH_LOG_FILE_PATH="PLACEHOLDER"

export PATH_TO_ELASTIC_SEARCH_CONFIG_FILE="PLACEHOLDER"

export NEW_HEAP_SIZE="PLACEHOLDER"
```


### Check Elasticsearch cluster health

```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_CLUSTER_URL}/_cluster/health
```

### Check Elasticsearch node stats

```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL}/_nodes/stats/jvm
```

### Check Elasticsearch JVM heap usage

```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL}/_nodes/stats/jvm?filter_path=nodes.*.jvm.mem.heap_used_percent
```

### Check Elasticsearch JVM heap size

```shell
curl -XGET ${ELASTICSEARCH_NODE_URL}/_nodes/stats/jvm?filter_path=nodes.*.jvm.mem.heap_max_in_bytes
```

### Check Elasticsearch logs for any error messages related to high JVM heap usage

```shell
tail -n 1000 ${ELASTICSEARCH_LOG_FILE_PATH} | grep -i "heap"
```


### Increase the heap size of the JVM allocated to Elasticsearch. This can be done by updating the JVM options in Elasticsearch's configuration file.

```shell


#!/bin/bash



# Set the Elasticsearch configuration file path

conf_file="${PATH_TO_ELASTIC_SEARCH_CONFIG_FILE}"



# Set the new heap size

new_heap_size="${NEW_HEAP_SIZE}"



# Update the JVM options in the Elasticsearch configuration file

sed -i "s/-Xmx[0-9]*[mMgG]/-Xmx$new_heap_size/g" $conf_file



# Restart Elasticsearch

systemctl restart elasticsearch.service


```


"High JVM Heap Usage in Elasticsearch"

Overview

Parameters

Debug

Check Elasticsearch cluster health

Check Elasticsearch node stats

Check Elasticsearch JVM heap usage

Check Elasticsearch JVM heap size

Repair

Increase the heap size of the JVM allocated to Elasticsearch. This can be done by updating the JVM options in Elasticsearch's configuration file.

Learn more

Related Runbooks

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