VM-level memory monitoring for resolving performance problems

Memory anomalies, such as memory leaks, floating garbage, and excessive garbage collection pauses, impact application performance considerably. Sadly, these anomalies often remain inexplicable as detecting and locating them is a tedious task for which only little automated tool support exists. We propose to design a Java virtual machine extension that exposes parts of its internal memory state and allows memory monitoring tools to access this state at runtime. Furthermore our goal is to automate the tuning of the Java virtual machine to counteract memory anomalies. Together with domain experts from our industrial partner, Compuware Austria, we plan to validate our approach on real-world applications.