Computer memory usage by releasing unused heap space

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10929287-B2
Application number	US-201916440042-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2019
Priority date	Jul 18, 2013
Publication date	Feb 23, 2021
Grant date	Feb 23, 2021

Abstract

A method, information processing system, and computer readable storage medium, periodically monitor, with a processing system, information related to an application's memory usage including a maximum heap memory size and a garbage collection activity level. Based on determining that the garbage collection activity level is below a first threshold, releasing memory from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. In a processing system including an application, a run-time system, and a heap memory used by the application, wherein unused memory in the heap memory is reclaimed by a garbage collector, a method for managing memory used by the application comprising:
periodically monitoring, with the processing system, information related to the application's memory usage including a maximum heap memory size and a garbage collection activity level; and
based on determining that the garbage collection activity level is below a first threshold, releasing memory from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
based on determining that the garbage collection activity level is below a first threshold, estimating an amount of memory that can be released from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising
based on determining that the estimated amount of memory that can be released from the application is above a second threshold, releasing memory from the application.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the estimating an amount of memory that can be released from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size comprises:
determining a difference between a committed heap memory size and an in use heap memory size.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the estimating an amount of memory that can be released from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size comprises:
performing a compacting garbage collection; and
determining a difference between a committed heap memory size and an in use heap memory size.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the releasing memory from the application further comprises:
performing a compacting garbage collection to instantiate a reduced value of the maximum heap memory size.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
increasing the maximum heap memory size to allow the application to allocate more heap memory.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the application comprises a Java virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the garbage collection activity level is determined based on at least one of:
a time since a garbage collection was performed on the heap memory; a frequency of garbage collection performed on the heap memory; or
a time spent in garbage collection performed on the heap memory.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the garbage collection activity level is determined based on at least one of:
a time since a compacting garbage collection was performed on the heap memory;
a frequency of compacting garbage collection performed on the heap memory; or
a time spent in at least one compacting garbage collection performed on the heap memory.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitored garbage collection activity level is determined by normalizing a metric representing garbage collection overhead by an amount of processing time spent by the application not including garbage collection.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a plurality of options to a user for specifying a level at which the processing system attempts to reduce memory used by the application.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing system comprises at least part of a cloud computing system.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising periodically monitoring, with the processing system, at least one of a committed heap memory size and an in use heap memory size.

15. An information processing system comprising:
a memory comprising a heap memory for use by at least one application;
a processor communicatively coupled to the memory;
a garbage collector communicatively coupled to the processor and the memory, wherein unused memory in the heap memory is reclaimed by the garbage collector; and
wherein the processor, responsive to executing computer instructions, performs operations comprising:
periodically monitoring information related to the application's memory usage including a maximum heap memory size and a garbage collection activity level; and
based on determining that the garbage collection activity level is below a first threshold, releasing memory from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size.

16. The information processing system of claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
based on determining that the garbage collection activity level is below a first threshold, estimating an amount of memory that can be released from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size, and wherein the estimating an amount of memory that can be released from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size comprises:
performing a compacting garbage collection; and
determining a difference between a committed heap memory size and an in use heap memory size.

17. The information processing system of claim 15 , wherein the garbage collection activity level is determined based on at least one of:
a time since a compacting garbage collection was performed on the heap memory;
a frequency of compacting garbage collection performed on the heap memory; or
a time spent in at least one compacting garbage collection performed on the heap memory.

18. A computer readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions which, responsive to being executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations, the processor being in an information processing system comprised of a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory comprising a heap memory, and a garbage collector communicatively coupled to the processor and the memory, wherein unused memory in the heap memory is reclaimed by the garbage collector, and wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions, performs operations comprising:
periodically monitoring information related to the application's memory usage including a maximum heap memory size and a garbage collection activity level; and
based on determining that the garbage collection activity level is below a first threshold, releasing memory from the application by reducing the maximum heap memory size.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the releasing memory from the application further comprises:
performing a compacting garbage collection to instantiate a reduced value of the maximum heap memory size.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the garbage collection activity level is determined based on at least one of:
a time since a garbage collection was performed on the heap memory; a frequency of garbage collection performed on the heap memory; or
a time spent in garbage collection performed on the heap memory.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bobroff Norman
• Iyengar Arun
• Westerink Peter

Classifications

• G06F3/0673

  Single storage device · CPC title

• G06F2212/1044

  Space efficiency improvement · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0608

  Saving storage space on storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0631

  by allocating resources to storage systems · CPC title