MobileFirst 7.1 - Analytics dumping huge heapdump.phd and core.dmp files on server

Question

We are using analytics MobileFirst 7.1.0.00.20170505-1403 and we have noticed that analytics server is putting out huge files in GB's for heapdum.phd and core.dmp.

This is taking away all our San storage. How to turn off this dumping of huge files?

Answer 1

Heap dump is most likely because Analytics server has exhausted all the heap space allocated to it. This could indicate an under sized system without enough resources or a system that is heavily loaded most of the time.

Few quick things that you should keep in mind:

a) Do not install Analytics server and MFP server on the same runtime

b) Configure TTL values for your Analytics entries, so that they are not persisted for ever. Purge the data after an interval

c) In most cases, you will not need all the data to be pumped into your Analytics server. You can control the flow of data into Analytics. Eg: in production use, limit the amount of event data ( from client) going to Analytics, limit server logs being forwarded to Analytics .

d) Configure circuit breakers to prevent Analytics server from attempting to load too large a data block. This is an Elasticsearch setting:

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/1.7/index-modules-fielddata.html

To configure circuit breakers and other ES properties, create a elasticsearch yml configuration file. For example, "elasticsearch.yml"

And add the path to this file in your environment entries under the JNDI property:

"analytics/settingspath"

For example:

<jndiEntry jndiName="analytics/settingspath" value="/home/system/elasticsearch.yml" />