Automatic heap dump trigger using workflows

[suma_sidram]

Hi team,

I have enabled dumps in active gates. I want to trigger heap dumps when a threshold is met automatically. For this I created a custom event. Creating a workflow which is triggered on problem event would be possible? Kindly suggest

[michiel_otten]

Hi Suma,

I don't believe this is possible from Dynatrace workflows or APIs.
Off topic: nor do I think it's very wise to do.

Creating a heap dump involves copying all live objects in memory to a file. For large heaps, this can require a lot of additional memory temporarily. On a system already close to the heap limit, this can trigger OutOfMemoryError or crash the JVM. Dumping the heap is a blocking operation. Your application threads may be paused, causing latency spikes or downtime.

In my opinion, creating Heap dumps need handled carefully. You could push an entity literally over the edge with it.
Of course for analysis you could use other features to analyse, such as Memory Profiling and CPU analysis.