Java Stored Procedure failed with java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

Oracle database Jave stored procedure failed with "java.lang.OutOfMemoryError", the error stack looks like

ORA-29532: Java call terminated by uncaught Java exception: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

ORA-06512: at "USER01.MYJAVAPROC", line 28

ORA-06512: at line 7

This error is thrown when there is insufficient space to allocate an object in the Java heap. In this case, The Java garbage collector cannot make space available to accommodate a new object, and the heap cannot be expanded further.  

As we know, Java stored procedure is impleted in Java, so that the excution of the procedure also follows the same rule as normal Java application doing. The only difference is that the procedure is running on JVM built inside database, not normal Java Runtime Engine (java.exe).

When normal Java application got out of memory error, parameter -Xmx can be used while starting the application to configure the heap memory with larger value. However, as the Oracle Databae JVM is running in the process space of the Oracle executable, there is no way to use the -Xmx parameter.  But it is also configurable using a method in the "Java Runtime" class "oracle.aurora.vm.OracleRuntime". The class has following methods,

    getMaxMemorySize   - Get current setting of heap size

    setMaxMemorySize   - Set new heap size

In order to call the methods inside database, we have to create Java stored procedure to expose the method to Oracle database, the example code as following

create or replace function get_java_heap_size return number is

    language java name 'oracle.aurora.vm.OracleRuntime.getMaxMemorySize() returns long';

create or replace function set_java_heap_size(mem_size number) return number is

    language java name 'oracle.aurora.vm.OracleRuntime.setMaxMemorySize(long) returns long';

The out of memory error can be fixed by running created Jave store procedure set_java_heap_size before running the application Java stored procedure which triggers the error. For example

declare

  heap_size number;

begin

  -- Set heap size to 1GB

  heap_size := set_java_heap_size(1024*1024*1024);

  -- Run application Java stored procedure

  user01.myjavaproc;

end;

/