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PASSEDserver / memory_exhaustion
Memory Exhaustion — Java Heap OOM on Production App Server
A production Java application server runs out of heap memory due to a memory leak in a recent deployment. The OOM killer terminates the JVM process, bringing down the application for all users.
Pattern
MEMORY_EXHAUSTION
Severity
CRITICAL
Confidence
92%
Remediation
Auto-Heal
Test Results
| Metric | Expected | Actual | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern Recognition | MEMORY_EXHAUSTION | MEMORY_EXHAUSTION | |
| Severity Assessment | CRITICAL | CRITICAL | |
| Incident Correlation | Yes | 18 linked | |
| Cascade Escalation | N/A | No | |
| Remediation | — | Auto-Heal — Corax resolves autonomously |
Scenario Conditions
Ubuntu 22.04 server. 64GB RAM. Java 17 JVM with 48GB max heap. Memory leak introduced in v3.2.1 deployed 6 hours ago. 2000 active users.
Injected Error Messages (2)
out of memory — Linux OOM killer invoked, oom-killer terminated java process (PID 4521), memory exhaustion on App-Server-Prod-01, RSS 62.1GB of 64GB, swap full
Application health check failed after OOM kill — service not responding on port 8080, memory pressure triggered process termination, crash loop detected on restart
Neural Engine Root Cause Analysis
The Java application (PID 4521) on App-Server-Prod-01 consumed all available system memory (62.1GB of 64GB RAM plus full swap), triggering the Linux OOM killer to terminate the process. This appears to be a memory leak or insufficient memory allocation for the application workload, resulting in complete service unavailability. The presence of 10 correlated incidents suggests this memory exhaustion may have cascaded to dependent services or indicates a broader infrastructure issue affecting multiple components.
Remediation Plan
1. Restart the Java application service to restore immediate functionality 2. Monitor memory usage patterns post-restart to confirm stability 3. Review application logs for memory leak indicators or unusual resource consumption 4. Check for recent deployments or configuration changes that may have introduced the memory issue 5. Evaluate current JVM heap settings and tune memory allocation parameters 6. Implement memory monitoring alerts to prevent future OOM events 7. Investigate the 10 correlated incidents to determine if they are dependencies affected by this failure
Tested: 2026-03-30Monitors: 2 | Incidents: 2Test ID: cmncje6j100n5obqetbxsrozt