New users or groups added to the external user directory are not available in Bamboo

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Summary

New users or groups added to the external user directory are not available in Bamboo after executing synchronisation. The last synchronisation status and Cog icon>Overview>User Directories page mentions: "Synchronisation failed. See server logs for details."

(Auto-migrated image: description temporarily unavailable)

Environment

Bamboo 6.6+ instance connected to any external user directory (LDAP, Active Directory, Jira, Crowd...)

Diagnosis

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError errors can be found at the atlassian-bamboo.log file:

1 2 ERROR [JobLauncher] Scheduled job with ID 'com.atlassian.crowd.manager.directory.monitor.poller.DirectoryPollerManager' failed com.atlassian.util.concurrent.LazyReference$InitializationException: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

Cause

The user synchronisation uses heap memory to process the data coming from the external user directory, if Bamboo does not have enough heap space to accommodate this data, the synchronisation will fail and new users will not be available.

Solution

  1. Stop Bamboo

  2. Increase the heap memory in Bamboo instance by changing the configurations below:

    1. Linux: JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY and JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY parameters

    2. Windows: Initial memory pool and Maximum memory pool options

  3. Start Bamboo back

ℹ️ For more information on how to change these configurations, please see this article: Configuring your system properties.

Updated on April 2, 2025

Still need help?

The Atlassian Community is here for you.