Maximum Java heap size of a 32-bit JVM on a 64-bit OS

Question

The question is not about the maximum heap size on a 32-bit OS, given that 32-bit OSes have a maximum addressable memory size of 4GB, and that the JVM\'s max heap size depen

Answer 1

Here is some testing under Solaris and Linux 64-bit

Solaris 10 - SPARC - T5220 machine with 32 GB RAM (and about 9 GB free)

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3750m MaxMemory
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve space for ObjectStartArray
$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3700m MaxMemory
Total Memory: 518520832 (494.5 MiB)
Max Memory:   3451912192 (3292.0 MiB)
Free Memory:  515815488 (491.91998291015625 MiB)
Current PID is: 28274
Waiting for user to press Enter to finish ...

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_30"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_30-b12)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 20.5-b03, mixed mode)

$ which java
/usr/bin/java
$ file /usr/bin/java
/usr/bin/java: ELF 32-bit MSB executable SPARC Version 1, dynamically linked, not stripped, no debugging information available

$ prstat -p 28274
   PID USERNAME  SIZE   RSS STATE  PRI NICE      TIME  CPU PROCESS/NLWP
28274 user1     670M   32M sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% java/35

BTW: Apparently Java does not allocate much actual memory with the startup. It seemed to take only about 100 MB per instance started (I started 10)

Solaris 10 - x86 - VMWare VM with 8 GB RAM (about 3 GB free*)

The 3 GB free RAM is not really true. There is a large chunk of RAM that ZFS caches use, but I don't have root access to check how much exactly

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3650m MaxMemory
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for object heap
Could not create the Java virtual machine.

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3600m MaxMemory
Total Memory: 516423680 (492.5 MiB)
Max Memory:   3355443200 (3200.0 MiB)
Free Memory:  513718336 (489.91998291015625 MiB)
Current PID is: 26841
Waiting for user to press Enter to finish ...

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_41"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_41-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 20.14-b01, mixed mode)

$ which java
/usr/bin/java

$ file /usr/bin/java
/usr/bin/java:  ELF 32-bit LSB executable 80386 Version 1 [FPU], dynamically linked, not stripped, no debugging information available

$ prstat -p 26841
   PID USERNAME  SIZE   RSS STATE  PRI NICE      TIME  CPU PROCESS/NLWP
26841 user1     665M   22M sleep   59    0   0:00:00 0.0% java/12

RedHat 5.5 - x86 - VMWare VM with 4 GB RAM (about 3.8 GB used - 200 MB in buffers and 3.1 GB in caches, so about 3 GB free)

$ alias java='$HOME/jre/jre1.6.0_34/bin/java'

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3500m MaxMemory
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for object heap
Could not create the Java virtual machine.

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3450m MaxMemory
Total Memory: 514523136 (490.6875 MiB)
Max Memory:   3215654912 (3066.6875 MiB)
Free Memory:  511838768 (488.1274871826172 MiB)
Current PID is: 21879
Waiting for user to press Enter to finish ...

$ java -version
java version "1.6.0_34"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_34-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 20.9-b04, mixed mode)

$ file $HOME/jre/jre1.6.0_34/bin/java
/home/user1/jre/jre1.6.0_34/bin/java: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, not stripped

$ cat /proc/21879/status | grep ^Vm
VmPeak:  3882796 kB
VmSize:  3882796 kB
VmLck:         0 kB
VmHWM:     12520 kB
VmRSS:     12520 kB
VmData:  3867424 kB
VmStk:        88 kB
VmExe:        40 kB
VmLib:     14804 kB
VmPTE:        96 kB

Same machine using JRE 7

$ alias java='$HOME/jre/jre1.7.0_21/bin/java'

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3500m MaxMemory
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for object heap
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.

$ java -XX:PermSize=128M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Xms512m -Xmx3450m MaxMemory
Total Memory: 514523136 (490.6875 MiB)
Max Memory:   3215654912 (3066.6875 MiB)
Free Memory:  511838672 (488.1273956298828 MiB)
Current PID is: 23026
Waiting for user to press Enter to finish ...

$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_21"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_21-b11)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 23.21-b01, mixed mode)

$ file $HOME/jre/jre1.7.0_21/bin/java
/home/user1/jre/jre1.7.0_21/bin/java: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped

$ cat /proc/23026/status | grep ^Vm
VmPeak:  4040288 kB
VmSize:  4040288 kB
VmLck:         0 kB
VmHWM:     13468 kB
VmRSS:     13468 kB
VmData:  4024800 kB
VmStk:        88 kB
VmExe:         4 kB
VmLib:     10044 kB
VmPTE:       112 kB