Analyzing Java Heap with IBM Heap Analyzer Tool - Part1

IBM Heap Analyzer tool is an eclipse based tool used to analyze the java heap.
The main aim of this section (part1) of the post is to give you an overall idea about the capabilities of the tool. Before moving into the details of Heap Analyzer tool let us have a brief look at the file naming convention of heap dump.
I am using the file "heapdump.20150617.204848.5220.0005.phd" for analysis and you can see the details of the naming convention in below figure.The last "0005" is sequence number of the file.

Start the Heap Analyzer tool (Details of starting the tools will be covered in the upcoming part of the blog) You can see the Tool versions in the background figure and also in the console.

From file menu open the dump file. While opening you can see the file processing progress, Java Versions,Time stamp of the heap file generation and format of the dump file etc.

Note:- In the console you can see the Java Heap Request of the Heap Analyzer tool.

After loading the heap dump you will get below view in the tool. You can see the loaded heap dump file name, Heap dump information, Tree view of the dump file etc.

Note:- As i have used a clean dump file the "Leak Suspect" will be disabled

Below figure gives you the details of Icons used in "Tree View" of the tool.

In Analysis view you will be able to see the file format, dump file size, Time Stamp, Version of Java and Heap Usage etc.

In Tree View if you select any of the classes, Instance or Array you can see the details of that in the right pan as in the below figure.

The "Analyze" menu option has different kinds of views.

1.) Objects View.

2.) Types View.

3.)Root List.

4.)Root Types View.

As depicted in the below figure you have an option to perform "Gap Analysis" as well. (The topic "Gap Analysis" will be covered in upcoming sections of the post)

You also have different search options available in the Heap Analyzer tool.

As I mentioned initially the main idea of this post is to understand the capabilities of IBM Heap Analyzer Tool. Usage of the tool and other things will be covered in upcoming sections of the post. So keep watching this space. You can specify your mail id in the "Follow by Email" and submit so that you will get a mail alert on the posts.