CF911: Lies, damned lies, and when memory problems not be at all what they seem, Part 1
Note: This blog post is from 2010. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.Following on my earlier entry, CF911: Lies, Damned Lies, and CF Request Timeouts...What You May Not Realize, another common source of confusion and misunderstanding for people is when they think their server is "running out of memory", when in fact the problem is often not at all what they think. In this entry, I want to apply the same "cranky" tone :-) and extended explanation to this equally controversial/confusing topic.
I hear people raise concerns with memory problems quite often, whether in my CF Server Troubleshooting practice, or just in my participating in many mailing lists. Indeed, addressing this issue more than a few times the past couple of weeks has motivated me to create this, which will be a series of blog entries.
The series parts are expected to be:
- Step 1: Determine if indeed you are getting "outofmemory" errors (this entry)
- Step 2: Realize that having high memory usage is not necessarily a problem (entry to come)
- Step 3: Realize that OutOfMemory does not necessarily mean "out of heap" (entry to come)
- Step 4: Diagnose why you really are running out of heap (if you are) (entry to come)
- Step 5: Realize that CF is maybe suffering because you set the heap too large (entry to come)
- Step 6: If CF is hanging up but NOT due to memory, what could it be? (entry to come)
Let's get started and see how far we get...
If you mean you'd like help with it, perhaps I could, as part of my CF server troubleshooting services, which can be offered remotely (without you granting me "remote access", creating an account for me, opening any firewall holes) and often very quickly. Please check out my consulting page for more info on my rates, approach, and satisfaction guarantee, and more: http://www.carehart....
So you are thinking that the nullpointer problem you're facing has something to do with memory? which is why you'd hoped I'd finish those remaining entries I'd planned?
Well, I'll say that in my experience, I've never seen a nullpointer problem to be related to memory, not once. Of course, I could be wrong and missed if it happened to others, but I really would not expect it to be related to memory.
So otherwise, I wish you well on your venture to solve the problem you do have on your own, but again keep my services in mind should it remain unresolved.
As for the remaining entries, I just have to find the motivation/muse to get back into them. As readers can see from other recent posts, I certainly have no problem writing once I can get started on a topic. :-)
No good single resource, as there's so much to cover (and why this was going to be multiple parts).
I will say that if you present to me a single problem or question, I may have a more specific answer.
I can also point you to an FR webinar I did on solving memory problems with FusionReactor. See https://www.fusion-r...
Finally, I will say that if you have a problem you just need to solve, and it may not be a simple single question or issue, I will say that of course I help people with such problems on a consulting basis all the time, at carehart.org/consulting. Some problems can be solved in as little as an hour, even if it may have plagued you for hours, days, or weeks.