SUSE Manager subscription-matcher crashes with java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

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Environment

SUSE Manager 3.2

SUSE Manager 3.1

SUSE Manager 3

Situation

SUSE Manager is daily generating OutOfMemoryError exceptions in subscription-matcher.log and javacore dumps in /usr/sbin.

Extract of log in /var/log/rhn/subscription-matcher.log:

2018-05-22 11:27:54,106 ERROR Main - Unexpected exception: 
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
        at org.drools.core.reteoo.JoinNode.createLeftTuple(JoinNode.java:92)

Resolution

A maintenance update has been released to address this problem. It should be checked that the system is updated. After a restart of the services, the problem should disappear.

Additionally, as a workaround, the memory for the process can be increased by editing the following file:

/usr/bin/subscription-matcher

And changing the memory parameter:

-Xmx2G

This should be set to something bigger. Customers reported it would still with 4G, so 6 or even 8 might be a good approach:

-Xmx8G

Restart services afterwards:

spacewalk-service restart

Another workaround would be to simply disable the nightly run of the subscription-matcher process in order not to consume resources while the problem is being fixed:

SUSE Manager web UI - Admin - Task Schedules - gatherer-matcher-default - Disable schedule - Update Schedule

It can be manually triggered any time directly from the Subscription Matching page in the web-UI.

Cause

The problem lays on the logic that computes the penalty objects for 1-2 subscriptions (there is a code that accumulates the confirmed matches of 1-2 subscriptions within a single virtualization group (that means, the systems under the same virtual host or virtual host manager). This was optimized and the problem hence fixed.

Disclaimer

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