Is there a way to do a live heap dump with ibm-jdk for linux?

You need to be aware that there are "system" dumps (basically OS core files) and "heap" aka portable heap dumps (PHD). The later ones are less usefull as they do not contain actual data. They are hower enabled by default.

On AIX or Linux Typically you will set up -Xdump:system (short for -Xdump:system:events=gpf+user) to allow kill -3 <pid> to trigger a heap dump.

BTW, you can with the default options use kill -ABRT <pid>. However this will terminate your JVM.

Run java -Xdump:what to see your defaults, like:

> /usr/java6/bin/java -Xdump:what -version

Registered dump agents
----------------------
-Xdump:system:
    events=gpf+abort+traceassert,
    label=/home/u0002824/core.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.dmp,
    range=1..0,
    priority=999,
    request=serial
----------------------
...
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build pap3260sr9fp2-20110627_03(SR9 FP2))

With turned on system dumps:

> /usr/java6/bin/java -Xdump:system -Xdump:what -version

Registered dump agents
----------------------
-Xdump:system:
    events=gpf+user+abort+traceassert,
    label=/home/u0002824/core.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.dmp,
    range=1..0,
    priority=999,
    request=serial
----------------------
-Xdump:heap:
    events=systhrow,
    filter=java/lang/OutOfMemoryError,
    label=/home/u0002824/heapdump.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.phd,
    range=1..4,
    priority=500,
    request=exclusive+compact+prepwalk,
    opts=PHD
----------------------
-Xdump:java:
    events=gpf+user+abort+traceassert,
    label=/home/u0002824/javacore.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.txt,
    range=1..0,
    priority=400,
    request=exclusive+preempt
----------------------
-Xdump:java:
    events=systhrow,
    filter=java/lang/OutOfMemoryError,
    label=/home/u0002824/javacore.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.txt,
    range=1..4,
    priority=400,
    request=exclusive+preempt
----------------------
-Xdump:snap:
    events=gpf+abort+traceassert,
    label=/home/u0002824/Snap.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.trc,
    range=1..0,
    priority=300,
    request=serial
----------------------
-Xdump:snap:
    events=systhrow,
    filter=java/lang/OutOfMemoryError,
    label=/home/u0002824/Snap.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.%pid.%seq.trc,
    range=1..4,
    priority=300,
    request=serial
----------------------
...

Do not forget to run jre/bin/jextract on the core. * .dmp files.

You have a few options:

• HotSpot Diagnostic MBean
• Required settings to Generate Heapdumps
• Using the -Xdump Option

This list isn't exhaustive.

OK, I'll finally answer to myself : the application has a remote admin interface, so I will implement a new command that is calling the com.ibm.jvm.Dump.HeapDump() method.