Jira fails to start due to Native memory allocation (mmap) failure

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

Problem

Jira fails to start, throwing the following error during the startup process:

1 2 3 OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM warning: INFO: os::commit_memory failed; error='Cannot allocate memory'

Diagnosis

An error with the following pattern appears at the $JIRA_INSTALL/logs/catalina.out file:

1 2 3 # There is insufficient memory for the Java Runtime Environment to continue. # Native memory allocation (mmap) failed to map 8589934592 bytes for committing reserved memory.

Cause

In this particular case, the server is unable to allocate 8589934592 bytes (8gb) to the Java Virtual Machine that runs Jira, so it blocks the application from starting up.

Solution

Resolution

Check the amount of free memory your server has available, then change the memory allocated to Jira with the steps from this KB article accordingly, making sure that you're not allocating more memory to Jira than the server can provide.

Updated on April 2, 2025

Still need help?

The Atlassian Community is here for you.