You just need to generate the java heap dump from one of the cells.  What you’ll need to succeed:

• JCONSOLE
• IP tables disabled on the cell you are connecting to.
• Disk space available on the cell to accommodate the dump – I believe these can be between 8 and 10 GB in size
• Unless an emergency, do this operation outside of normal business hours as it will be CPU intensive for up to 3 minutes, can impact API call performance, and can potentially cause the VCD cell inventory service to hang.

Step #1: Disable iptables on the cell

• ssh to the desired cell and run the following command:

# service iptables stop

Step #2: Connect with jconsole (java console)

• domain credentials should work here depending on your environment
• connect to port: 8999
• connect to desired cell

• If you get this message “Secure connection failed. Retry Insecurely?” just click the ‘insecure’ button to continue

 

Step #3: Generate the heap dump

1. On the MBeans tab, in the com.sun.management/HotSpotDiagnostics object, select the Operation section.
2. In dumpHeap parameters, enter the following information:

   p0: [heap-output-path]

   p1: true – do a garbage collection before dump heap

   For example:

   p0: /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/vcd_cell_name_heap-dump-file.hprof

   p1: true

3. Click the dumpHeap button.

 

• There will be no indication that the heapdump completes.  I just watch the size of the file until the growth stops on the cell.  This process typically takes less than two minutes.

Step #4: Cleanup and send-off

• Locate the heap dump in /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/ and move off to a location where you can compress and upload to VMware FTP site as you would for logs.
• Start the iptables on the cell: # service iptables start