I'm using VisualVM from JDK 1.6.0_26 to profile a Java webapp running under Tomcat, but VisualVM often tells me that it doesn't have enough memory to take a snapshot, and to use the -Xmx switch to provide more memory to Netbeans. The problem is, I'm running VisualVM outside of Netbeans, so how can I provide JVM arguments to jvisualvm.exe?
Should be able to modify the memory settings in %JDK_HOME%\lib\visualvm\etc\visualvm.conf
Xms and Xmx are in the default_options line.
or I think this works too:
jvisualvm.exe -J-Xmx512m
(or whatever amount you need)
-J on the .exe command line for onetime settings, or the .conf file noted in the other answer for changing defaults
I started with
jvisualvm -J-Xms1024m -J-Xmx2048m
and it worked.
In mac, you can configure them by editing this file.
/Applications/VisualVM.app/Contents/Resources/visualvm/etc/visualvm.conf
visualvm_default_options="-J-client -J-Xms4096m -J-Xmx5120m -J-XX:+IgnoreUnrecognizedVMOptions -J-Dnetbeans.accept_license_class=com.sun.tools.visualvm.modules.startup.AcceptLicense -J-Dsun.jvmstat.perdata.syncWaitMs=10000 -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true"
For Mac OSX 10.12+
If you have downloaded the visualvm dmg from https://visualvm.github.io/download.html and have moved it to the Applications directory. You can find the configuration file visualvm.conf under the location Applications/VisualVM.app/Contents/etc/visualvm.conf. In this configuration file, you can change the
visualvm_default_options="-J-client -J-Xms24m -J-Xmx256m
to(e.g.)
visualvm_default_options="-J-client -J-Xms24m -J-Xmx2048m
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9570921/how-do-i-provide-jvm-arguments-to-visualvm