Enable disk-backed cache for Assets imports

This recommendation is shown when Assets imports are running during periods of degraded page performance and at least one import is not using disk‑backed cache, while JVM memory usage is high. Enabling disk‑backed cache reduces how much heap memory is used during imports, which can help improve overall stability and performance.


Signals used

Details of how we detect this issue.

Conditions

The following conditions need to occur together:

  • At least one key experience, such as viewing or editing an issue, shows degraded page load times (RFU).

  • During the same time window, one or more Assets imports were running.

  • At least one of those imports was not using disk‑backed cache

  • JVM memory utilization is high, and all nodes where the imports ran are saturated.

How we detect it

Signal

Details

RFU degradation

We look for Ready for User (RFU) degradation - cases where key Jira experiences take significantly longer than their historical baseline. This helps us confirm that users are actually experiencing slower page loads, not just one-off spike.

Assets import activity

We use Assets import completed events to determine whether imports were running during the RFU degradation window, and whether they were CPU‑bound.

Disk‑backed cache usage

For each import that run during the degraded window, we check if it was using the disk-backed cache. This is the ‘Process data sources via temp files’ setting that you can enable in global Assets configuration (Administration > Assets configuration).

JVM memory usage

We use JVM memory metrics to determine whether memory usage was saturated on nodes where the imports were running. All such nodes must be saturated for the recommendation to appear, indicating that imports are contributing to high memory pressure.

Filters

When this issue occurs multiple times, we group occurrences under different time filters, for example a 24‑hour or 7‑day period. In this case:

  • For degraded experiences, we show the highest RFU degradation from all occurrences in the selected time filter.

  • For configuration settings, we show the sum of all identified imports during the selected time filters, plus your disk-backed cache configuration.

This helps you see whether the problem is short‑lived or persistent, and which imports are most often involved when memory is saturated and disk‑backed cache is disabled.

Frequency chart

The frequency chart shows how often this issue has occurred over time. This can help you identify patterns such as:

  • periods when imports frequently run without disk‑backed cache while memory usage is high

  • whether enabling disk‑backed cache on more import configurations reduces how often this recommendation appears


Enable disk‑backed cache for Assets imports

Start by reviewing the Assets import configurations that were running during the degraded RFU windows and are not currently using disk‑backed cache. This will help you understand the scale of the issue.

If the number of identified imports is high, consider enabling disk-backed cache to reduce the memory footprint of imports, which can help lower overall heap usage and reduce the risk of memory saturation.

To enable disk-backed cache, go to Jira administration > Assets configuration, and enable the Process data sources via temp files setting.

Learn more about global Jira settings

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