Getting java.lang.outOfMemoryError when Storing Large Files to a MySQL database using Java's BufferedInputStream

Question

Im currently experimenting on storing large files on a MySQL 5.5 database using java. My main class is called FileDatabaseTest. It has the following method:

import java.sql.*;
import java.io.*;

...

public class FileDatabaseTest {

...

private void uploadToDatabase(File file, String description) {
        try {
            PreparedStatement stmt = connection.prepareStatement(
                "INSERT INTO FILES (FILENAME, FILESIZE, FILEDESCRIPTION, FILEDATA) " +
                    "VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)");
            stmt.setString(1, file.getName());
            stmt.setLong(2, file.length());
            stmt.setString(3, description);
            stmt.setBinaryStream(4, new FileInputStream(file));
            stmt.executeUpdate();
            updateFileList();
            stmt.close();
        } catch(SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch(FileNotFoundException e) {//thrown by FileInputStream constructor
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch(SecurityException e) { //thrown by FileInputStream constructor
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

...

}

The database has only one Table - the "FILES" table, and it has the following columns.

ID - AUTOINCREMENT, PRIMARY KEY

FILENAME - VARCHAR(100)

FILESIZE - BIGINT

FILEDESCRIPTION - VARCHAR(500)

FILEDATA - LONGBLOB

The program is working fine when uploading small documents, but when I upload files like 20MB, the upload process is very slow. So I tried putting the FileInputStream inside a BufferedInputStream in the following code:

stmt.setBinaryStream(4, new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file));

The upload process became very fast. Its like just copying the file to another directory. But when I tried to upload files more than 400mb, I got the following error:

Exception in thread "Thread-5" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
    at com.mysql.jdbc.Buffer.ensureCapacity(Buffer.java:156)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.Buffer.writeBytesNoNull(Buffer.java:514)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.escapeblockFast(PreparedStatement.java:1169)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.streamToBytes(PreparedStatement.java:5064)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.fillSendPacket(PreparedStatement.java:2560)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeUpdate(PreparedStatement.java:2401)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeUpdate(PreparedStatement.java:2345)
    at com.mysql.jdbc.PreparedStatement.executeUpdate(PreparedStatement.java:2330)
    at FileDatabaseTest$2.run(FileDatabaseTest.java:312)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)

So I tried using an embedded Apache-Derby database instead of MySQL, and I didn't get the error. I was able to upload 500MB to 1.5G files in the Derby database using the BufferedInputStream. I also observed that when using the BufferedInputStream with the MySQL server in uploading large files, the JVM is eating a lot of memory, while when I used it in the Derby database, the JVM's memory usage is maintaned at around 85MB TO 100MB.

I am relatively new to MySQL and I am just using its default configurations. The only thing I changed in its configuration is the "max_allowed_packet" size so I can upload up to 2GB file to the database. So I wonder where the error came from. Is it a bug of MySQL or the MySQL connector/J? or is there something wrong with my code?

What I am trying to achieve here is to be able to upload large files (up to 2GB) to the MySQL server using java, without increasing the java heap space.

Answer 1

Just for the heck of it, try upping your JVM heap size.

increase the java heap size permanently? http://javahowto.blogspot.com/2006/06/6-common-errors-in-setting-java-heap.html

Answer 2

There are another resolve method, if you don't want to upping your JVM heap size:

First, your MySQL version should newer than 5.0.

Second, Statement.getResultSetType() should be TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY and ResultSetConcurrency should be CONCUR_READ_ONLY(default).

Third, include ONE of these lines: 1).statement.setFetchSize(Integer.MIN_VALUE); 2).((com.mysql.jdbc.Statement)stat).enableStreamingResults();

now you will fetch result rows one by one

Answer 3

It seems more to be a MySQL JDBC problem. Of course you migth consider a GZip + Piped I/O.

I also found a terrible solution, doing the insert in parts:

UPDATE FILES SET FILEDATA = CONCAT(FILEDATA, ?)

We may conclude, that for large files, it is better to store it on disk.

Nevertheless:

final int SIZE = 1024*128;
InputStream in = new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(file), SIZE);
stmt.setBinaryStream(4, in);
stmt.executeUpdate();
updateFileList();
stmt.close();
in.close(); //?

The default buffer size is 8 KB I think, a larger buffer might show a different memory behaviour, maybe shedding some light on the problem.

Closing oneself should not hurt to try.

Answer 4

upping JVM heap size when running your java code:

right click your java file
    ->run as->run configurations->arguments->VM arguments