Can I delete java dump files (java core dump, heap dump, snap dump, etc)

Question

Can dump files like java core dump, heap dump, snap dump, be deleted? They are occupying lots of space on the server.

Is there any usage of this file? Will anything happen on production servers if i delete these? The files I see are:

heapdump.20158411.1405458303.28470.0001.phd
heapdump.29043851.1394540224.25760.0003.phd
Snap.20110411.143450200.25760.0004.trc
javacore.201457810411.140200.25760.0002.txt

Answer 1

Yes, then can be safely deleted. These are result of dump that have happened sometimes ago. For more information, please have a look at:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/951095/tool-for-analyzing-java-core-dump
• http://weblogs.java.net/blog/kellyohair/archive/2005/09/heap_dump_snaps.html

You might want to know why your runtime crashed...

Answer 2

If you have a Heap Dump it means that the server has thrown an exception of type:

OutOfMemoryExceptions: That is the jvm garbage collector can't release memory and probably exist some memory leak and can occur again.

You must store these dump (not necessary in the same machine) and send it to Development Team (or Support)

These can be analyzed whit Eclipse MAT

https://eclipse.org/mat/

Since you have PHD Dumps you must install the following plugin (to Eclipse MAT).

DTJF in order to read IBM files. http://wiki.eclipse.org/MemoryAnalyzer#System_Dumps_and_Heap_Dumps_from_IBM_Virtual_Machines

Answer 3

You don't need them unless you or your developers want to analyze them to find out what caused the crash. With that being said, I am unsure what the "snap" file is but the heap dumps are safe to remove or move.