Activity Stream fails to load in Jira DC

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

Symptoms

The activity stream feed fails to load, displaying the error message: An error occurred while trying to retrieve recent activity.
Looking at the browser's developer tools, you can see a stuck request waiting:

<BASE_URL>/plugins/servlet/streams?maxResults=5&relativeLinks=true&_=1738248096313

Diagnosis

Jira is installed in a Virtual Machine(VM) using VMWare (e.g. VMware ESXi, 8.0.2).
You may find Stuck Threads detected in Catalina's logs with below stack:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 1904-Feb-2025 11:32:33.204 WARNING [Catalina-utility-2] org.apache.catalina.valves.StuckThreadDetectionValve.notifyStuckThreadDetected Thread [http-nio-8080-exec-14] (id=[36]) has been active for [120,873] milliseconds (since [2/4/25 11:30 AM]) to serve the same request for [<BASE_URL>/plugins/servlet/streams?maxResults=5&relativeLinks=true&providers=&_=1738668632238] and may be stuck (configured threshold for this StuckThreadDetectionValve is [120] seconds). There is/are [1] thread(s) in total that are monitored by this Valve and may be stuck. java.lang.Throwable at java.base@17.0.7/java.io.FileInputStream.readBytes(Native Method) at java.base@17.0.7/java.io.FileInputStream.read(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/java.io.FilterInputStream.read(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/sun.security.provider.NativePRNG$RandomIO.readFully(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/sun.security.provider.NativePRNG$RandomIO.ensureBufferValid(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/sun.security.provider.NativePRNG$RandomIO.implNextBytes(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/sun.security.provider.NativePRNG$Blocking.engineNextBytes(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/java.security.SecureRandom.nextBytes(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/java.security.SecureRandom.next(Unknown Source) at java.base@17.0.7/java.util.Random.nextLong(Unknown Source) at org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomUtils.randomLong(RandomUtils.java:397) at org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomUtils.nextLong(RandomUtils.java:202) at org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomUtils.randomLong(RandomUtils.java:383) at org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomUtils.nextLong(RandomUtils.java:192) at com.atlassian.streams.internal.FeedBuilder.getFeed(FeedBuilder.java:78) at com.atlassian.streams.internal.servlet.StreamsActivityServlet.doGet(StreamsActivityServlet.java:70) ...

Low entropy levels are reported in the system:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail

(e.g., output shows a value of 40)

A value below 100-200 bits might indicate that the system is low on entropy.

Cause

The stack trace indicates that the Thread to gather stream data is stuck during the processing of generating a Pseudo-Random Number (via Pseudo-Random Number Generator) waiting for data from `/dev/random`.

It is particularly common to happen in Virtual Environments where the entropy sources may be limited. Virtual machines may not have direct access to hardware interrupts, leading to less entropy being generated.

Although it also might happen out of VMs if multiple applications or services are requesting random numbers simultaneously (like secure connections, cryptographic token generation, etc.), the entropy pool may deplete faster than it can be replenished.

Solution

Resolution

Use Haveged (short for HArdware Volatile Entropy Gathering Daemon) is a daemon designed to improve the availability of random numbers in Linux systems, particularly in environments where traditional sources of entropy are insufficient. It is especially useful in virtualized environments, such as those running on VMware, where the entropy pool can become depleted, leading to issues with applications that rely on secure random number generation.

Debian-based system

# Installed the haveged package:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install haveged

# Started the haveged service:
sudo systemctl start haveged

# Enabled the service to run at system startup:
sudo systemctl enable haveged

RPM-based Linux distributions

# Installed the haveged package:
sudo yum install haveged

# Started the haveged service:
sudo systemctl start haveged

# Enabled the service to run at system startup:
sudo systemctl enable haveged

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