“Error occurred during initialization of VM; Could not reserve enough space for object heap” using -Xmx3G

Asked 16/2, 2012 at 0:37 Answered 4/5, 2023 at 9:59

104

First of all, I have a box with 8gb of ram, so I doubt total memory is the issue. This application is running fine on machines with 6gb or less.

I am trying to reserve 3GB of space using -Xmx3G under "VM Arguments" in Run Configurations in Eclipse.

Every time I try to reserve more than 1500mb, I get this error: “Error occurred during initialization of VM; Could not reserve enough space for object heap” using -Xmx3G

What is going on here?

Debark answered 16/2, 2012 at 0:37 Comment(4)

What version of java do you have? What operating system are you running on? – Vitrescent 16/2, 2012 at 2:7

This was Win7, and I had 3 different Java versions installed. One of those was the 32-bit JRE that Eclipse was using. – Debark 16/2, 2012 at 19:32

Don't forget to mark an answer as correct. – Shush 20/3, 2013 at 21:10

Just change setting in gridle.property with your sutaible space – Medulla 21/5, 2017 at 19:4

Could it be that you're using a 32-bit jvm on that machine?

Quondam answered 16/2, 2012 at 0:46 Comment(8)

Sorry for the stupid question, but how would I check that? And how can I use 64-bit? – Debark 16/2, 2012 at 0:48

Actually, I just tried java -d64 -version in the command line, and it came up with 64-bit server VM. – Debark 16/2, 2012 at 0:51

Apparently Eclipse was using the 32-bit version of JRE that I had installed previously, even though the 64-bit was the latest installation. I changed the settings in Preferences --> Installed JREs to solve this issue. Thank you very much for your answer! – Debark 16/2, 2012 at 19:28

in any case, shouldnt 32 bit be enough to address 4gb? – Folkmoot 24/5, 2013 at 12:36

It should be, but this solves my problem. No upvote for this answer because of the lack of explanation. This link explains how a 32bit jvm can't go over 1gb max heap space – Ibis 20/11, 2013 at 9:54

Please provide an answer in the answer, not a question – Cantatrice 28/5, 2015 at 8:36

@user1212731: Nothing dumb about that question! java -version will give you a hint. If it does not say 64-Bit, assume 32-bit. – Surge 19/10, 2015 at 9:49

@Folkmoot You'd think that, yes. But the 4GiB limit is for the whole process and not just the heap. The kernel takes a large chunk of that space. For example, on Windows, the OS maps fully half of that address space to itself. So you are already down to a maximum userspace memory of 2GiB. The JVM isn't memory-less, there are non-heap spaces, then you actually have to load code to execute and that needs to be JIT-compiled into actual code runnable by the CPU and pretty soon you find that your Java heap is limited to something like 1.5GiB. – Emelineemelita 20/7, 2019 at 0:44

Here is how to fix it: Go to Start->Control Panel->System->Advanced(tab)->Environment Variables->System

Variables->New:
Variable name: _JAVA_OPTIONS   
Variable value: -Xmx512M

Variable name: Path  
Variable value: ;C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin;F:\JDK\bin;

Change this to your appropriate path.

Blow answered 7/5, 2015 at 1:7 Comment(2)

Just a note for others. You add a SYSTEM variable, not a USER variable. I ran into this problem in Eclipse and did not have to reboot my machine after making the above changes... I only had to restart Eclipse. Thanks! – Scutt 22/3, 2017 at 15:12

For the curious people, the -Xmx flag in _JAVA_OPTIONS specifies the maximum allowed JVM heap size. This prevents JVM from requesting unreasonable space (especially unallocatable contiguously for 32-bit machines...) – Regain 27/2, 2019 at 17:23

This is actually not an Eclipse-specific issue; it's a general Java-on-Windows issue. It's because of how the JVM allocates memory on Windows; it insists on allocating a contiguous chunk of memory, which often Windows can't provide, even if there are enough separate chunks to satisfy the allocation request. There are utilities that will try to help Windows "defrag" its memory, which would, in theory, help this situation; but I've not really tried them in earnest so can't speak to their effectiveness. One thing that I've heard sometimes that might help is to reboot Windows and, before starting any other apps, launch the Java app that needs the big chunk of memory. If you're lucky, Windows won't have fragmented its memory space yet and Java will get the contiguous block that is asks for.

Somewhere out on the interwebs there are more technical explanations and analyses of this issue, but I don't have any references handy.

I did find this, though, which looks helpful: https://mcmap.net/q/48390/-java-maximum-memory-on-windows-xp

Didier answered 16/2, 2012 at 1:32 Comment(1)

In my case, your answer seems work. I did not restart windows but I tried closing other apps in my windows and then run java and it was able to kick up the VM. – Centigrade 16/2, 2015 at 10:8

First the JRE of 32bits can't use more ~1.5Gb of ram. So if you want more, use a 64bits JRE.

Second, When a new JVM starts, this sum the -Xmx property of the all JVM that are running, and check if there is enough memory left on the system to run at their own -Xmx, if is not enough then the error occurs.

Keefer answered 26/6, 2012 at 5:56 Comment(0)

I was using Liferay with Tomcat server from eclipse IDE. I was stuck with this same error on click on server start up. Double click on server from eclipse. it open up Server Overview page. Updated memory arguments from -Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m to -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m. Then it was working for me.

Taut answered 24/12, 2013 at 10:35 Comment(1)

genericarticles.com/mediawiki/… – Cosme 8/8, 2014 at 20:50

Make sure that Eclipse is actually running the same JVM you think it's running. If you use java in your web browser ever, you likely have a 32-bit version floating around too that might be taking precedence if it installed or updated lately.

To be absolutely sure, I recommend adding these two lines to your eclipse.ini file at the top:

-vm 
C:/Java/jdk1.6.0_27/bin

...where on my machine C:/Java/jdk1.6.0_27/bin where the JVM I know is 64-bit is located. Be sure to have the bin folder there.

(As a bonus, on Windows 7, this also allows you to actually "pin the tab" which is why I had to do this for my own usage)

Vitrescent answered 16/2, 2012 at 2:11 Comment(5)

The -vm argument should point to the Java executable, not just a folder. See wiki.eclipse.org/%C2%A0eclipse.ini#Specifying_the_JVM – Didier 16/2, 2012 at 15:3

Wrong. See this Eclipse bug: bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=314805 – Vitrescent 16/2, 2012 at 16:18

This was indeed the issue! Eclipse was using the 32-bit version of JRE that I had installed at some point. Thank you very much for the answer and leading me in the right direction! I very much appreciate it. – Debark 16/2, 2012 at 19:25

@AdamRofer, that bug is interesting, but specifically about Windows 7 and to work around a problem with pinning Eclipse to the taskbar. In general, eclipse.ini should point to the java executable, although the Equinox launcher seems to be intelligent in that it will look for a java executable if -vm points to a folder (on Windows, at least). – Didier 16/2, 2012 at 20:12

@Didier "should" is too strict for my taste :) Hopefully they resolve the bug without having to change the vm argument sometime. Here's more information that would be be good for them to update on their eclipse.ini page: wiki.eclipse.org/… – Vitrescent 16/2, 2012 at 20:41

This is the issue of Heap size. Edit your .bat (Batch file). It might be showing Heap size 1024. Change it to 512 Then it should work.

Inferno answered 12/10, 2012 at 9:10 Comment(0)

Just put # symbol in front of org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536m in gradle.properties

 # org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536m

Kroon answered 25/11, 2019 at 14:57 Comment(1)

Not sure how it worked while trying Kotlin-multiplatform on mac os! anyways, thanks! – Osswald 26/4, 2020 at 15:13

I also had the same problem while using Eclipse which was 32 bit and the JVM used by it was 64 bit. When I routed the Eclipse to 32 bit JVM then it worked

Galbanum answered 11/8, 2014 at 16:9 Comment(0)

I know that i am a bit late, but here my answer comes:

I just installed the Java online Version from Oracle(not the offline 64-Bit one).

After having added the JAVA_HOME ENV variable, it just worked!

Hope I could help :)

Scarberry answered 27/8, 2020 at 17:2 Comment(0)

Probably you are trying wrong options anyways. I got a similar error with supporting error log:

Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM warning: ignoring option PermSize=32M; support was removed in 8.0
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM warning: ignoring option MaxPermSize=128M; support was removed in 8.0

Im my case, the software did not support java 8 yet(script was using old JVM arguments) but I had had java 8 by default.

Copyedit answered 15/1, 2015 at 19:50 Comment(0)

One of the reason for this issue is no memory available for Tomcat to start. Try to delete the unwanted running software from windows and restart the eclipse and tomcat.

Christiano answered 25/12, 2015 at 16:23 Comment(0)

Solution is simple. No need to go deep into this issue.

If you are running on 64bit machine then follow below steps:

Unistall 32 bit java first (check in C:\Program Files (x86) for its existence)
Install the newer version JDK kit 64 bit (includes JRE)
Set the environment path (To avoid conflict error if you have two different 64bit JRE)
Check in command prompt by typing javac command.
Restart / Done

You can have two different Java installed but don't forgot to set path.

Rossanarosse answered 7/1, 2021 at 15:54 Comment(0)

Please set JAVA_OPTS=-Xms256m -Xmx512m in environment variables, it should solve the issue, it worked for me.

Throughcomposed answered 12/8, 2021 at 7:45 Comment(0)

Find out if you are using a 32bit version or 64bit version of Java. To know that use the command

java -version

The 3rd line of the output should give you if it 32bit or 64bit.

If it is 32bit uninstall and install a 64bit version.

Dorrisdorry answered 8/4, 2022 at 2:4 Comment(0)

I know this is a eclipse-related question, but I faced this problem in Android studio. I am posting what I did, in case someone gets this error in Android studio. First of all, I have the following line in gradle.properties

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2048m

If I remove the line, the problem is solved but this is not the proper way. What you need to do is, set the proper gradle JDK. Go to File->Settings->Build, Execution, Deployment->Build Tools-Gradle and set the Gradle JDK to something like xx java version "xx.x.xx" C:/Program Files/Android/Android Studio/jbr

Please note: This solution is applicable to Android studio only

Orlop answered 4/5, 2023 at 9:59 Comment(0)

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