# Invalid initial heap size **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [August 7, 2018, 7:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248 "2018-08-07T07:00:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 7:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/1 "2018-08-07T07:00:37Z")
Hey guys, I have a machine running elasticsearch as a service, it initially had 3GB of RAM available, which worked, but now I could increase the RAM and get Elasticsearch 9GB of RAM, but I always get the error invalid initial heap size. How can I fix this error or what is the problem? Best regards ---
**Author:** ![Charaf\_Ahmed](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/charaf_ahmed/32/30467_2.png) [@Charaf\_Ahmed](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Charaf_Ahmed)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 7:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/2 "2018-08-07T07:12:49Z")
Because of the physical size of your machine, it is not recommended to assign more than half of the RAM to elasticsearch. ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 7:18am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/3 "2018-08-07T07:18:51Z")
My Physical RAM is 12 GB so as I know I can assign 6 GB but elasticsearch throws the exception each time I re-set the RAM to a higher number than 3, it throws an error by 4, 5, 6 ... 9GB ---
**Author:** ![Charaf\_Ahmed](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/charaf_ahmed/32/30467_2.png) [@Charaf\_Ahmed](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Charaf_Ahmed)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 7:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/4 "2018-08-07T07:35:14Z")
Effectively, if your physical memory is 12GB, you can not allocate more than 6GB (limit 6GB) elasticsearch ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 7:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/5 "2018-08-07T07:35:43Z")
Yes but 4, 5 & 6 GB of RAM are throwing this error too ---
**Author:** ![Charaf\_Ahmed](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/charaf_ahmed/32/30467_2.png) [@Charaf\_Ahmed](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Charaf_Ahmed)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 7:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/6 "2018-08-07T07:37:12Z")
> [@PolterFox](#): > > Yes but 4, 5 & 6 GB of RAM are throwing this error too Oh Ok ! Can I have a little more visibility regarding the error? ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/7 "2018-08-09T08:15:28Z")
What infomation do you need? ---
**Author:** ![Bernt\_Rostad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bernt\_Rostad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bernt_Rostad)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 8:56am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/8 "2018-08-09T08:56:44Z")
> [@PolterFox](#): > > Yes but 4, 5 & 6 GB of RAM are throwing this error too It sounds as if you may have two different values for the initial and maximum JVM heap size and that is not allowed. Both must have the same value, in your old case 3 GB and in the new case 6 GB. There are several ways to specify the initial and maximum heap size, it can be done through the **ES\_JAVA\_OPTS** environment variable but more commonly it's done in the **jvm.options** file which should be found in your Elasticsearch installation. For instance, if you want a 6 GB heap size make sure to set ``` -Xms6g -Xmx6g ``` in your elasticsearch-6.x.x/config/jvm.options file and then restart the service. This should set both initial and maximum JVM heap size to 6 GB. ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 9:06am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/9 "2018-08-09T09:06:24Z")
Thanks for your reply @Bernt_Rostad I set the initial and maximum heap size exactly as you said but the service entered the failed state and exit without an error in journal. ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/10 "2018-08-09T13:57:55Z")
@Charaf_Ahmed @Bernt_Rostad Here is the throwed error message: ``` Aug 09 15:55:12 elastic elasticsearch[7434]: Invalid initial heap size: -Xms6g Aug 09 15:55:12 elastic elasticsearch[7434]: The specified size exceeds the maximum representable size. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Bernt\_Rostad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bernt\_Rostad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bernt_Rostad)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 4:37am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/11 "2018-08-10T04:37:54Z")
> [@PolterFox](#): > > The specified size exceeds the maximum representable size. This error message clearly says that the server you are running Elasticsearch on doesn't have sufficient memory for you to allocate 6 GB for the JVM heap. Or are you running on a virtual server or in a container with a more limited memory than the physical hardware offers? Whatever reason, you'll either need to add more memory to the server or keep using 3 GB as JVM Heap size. ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 5:43am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/12 "2018-08-10T05:43:15Z")
Hey @Bernt_Rostad, When i run **free -h** I can see that 1GB should be availlable but this throws an error, here the output of the command: ``` total used free shared buff/cache available 11G 4.7G 1.7G 634M 5.2G 5.9G ``` ---
**Author:** ![Bernt\_Rostad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bernt\_Rostad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bernt_Rostad)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 6:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/13 "2018-08-10T06:16:24Z")
Looks like only 5.9G is available for starting Elasticsearch, so you probably need to add more memory to the server to start up Elasticsearch with a JVM Heap size of 6G. ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 6:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/14 "2018-08-10T06:20:10Z")
Oh sry, the machine runs already elasticsearch in the result above (with 3 GB RAM), so there is enough RAM to use. ---
**Author:** ![Bernt\_Rostad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bernt\_Rostad](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bernt_Rostad)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 8:24am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/15 "2018-08-10T08:24:16Z")
On my servers the value of **available** reported by **free -h** is the fixed value of total memory available for starting a new application so I believe your value of **5.9G** is the **maximum** too - it certainly fits the error message you got when trying to start Elasticsearch - hence you cannot start an application using more than 5.9G. ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 9:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/16 "2018-08-10T09:36:23Z")
I think you dont understand me 🙂 On my machine elasticsearch runs with 3 GB of RAM, as I runned **free -h** , elasticsearch was already running with 3 GB RAM so at the time of running **free -h** , 3GB of RAM was already reserved for elastic, so **5,9GB of RAM are free to add** to the **3 GB RAM of elasticsearch which is already running**. Because elasticsearch can just run with the half of the installed RAM on the machine it can just use 6GB RAM from **12GB installed RAM** , so I can **add 3 GB RAM** to **elasticsearch (which is now running with 3GB RAM)**, so **2,9GB RAM are totally free after adding it to the jvm**. Best regards, Robert ---
**Author:** ![maziyar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/maziyar/32/18423_2.png) [@maziyar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/maziyar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/17 "2018-08-12T15:28:49Z")
Hello, Just to clarify the `free -m/h` command I am going to quote this here: > - `total` : Your total (physical) RAM (excluding a small bit that the kernel permanently reserves for itself at startup); that's why it shows ca. 11.7 GiB , and not 12 GiB, which you probably have. > - `used` : memory in use by the OS. > - `free` : memory not in use. > > `total` = `used` + `free` > > - `shared` / `buffers` / `cached` : This shows memory usage for specific purposes, these values are included in the value for `used` . Can you please tell me if this is a bare-metal server or a VM of a sort (KVM/Vmware/docker/etc.)? Also, it would be helpful if you can stop the Elasticsearch then show us `free -m`. I want to see what is available or free when nothing is running on your system. This is my `free -h` just as an example: ```auto -Xms30g -Xmx30g total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 94G 32G 753M 72M 61G 61G Swap: 0B 0B 0B ``` ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 12:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/18 "2018-08-29T12:17:59Z")
The vm is running with vmware and free -h shows me the following ``` total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 11G 5.1G 138M 606M 6.3G 5.5G Swap: 8.0G 3.8M 8.0G ``` ---
**Author:** ![PolterFox](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/polterfox/32/29781_2.png) [@PolterFox](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/PolterFox)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 11:44am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/19 "2018-09-13T11:44:15Z")
@maziyar any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![maziyar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/maziyar/32/18423_2.png) [@maziyar](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/maziyar)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 12:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248/20 "2018-09-13T12:06:00Z")
Sorry I missed your reply. is it possible to stop the elasticsearch, do a full reboot without elasticsearch and see the `free -h`? My best guest is that if ES has 3G and total used is `5.1GB` the you have about 2GB memory that is being used by the system itself. So you have to subtract that from 11GB and you will left out with 9/2 = `4.5GB`. Have you try this? What is the maximum heap memory you can have by try and fail? (like start with 3.5G and see where it crashes) Also, it could be due to the Host, sometimes you give the VM memory that the host doesn't have it. Something like vm ballooning where you don't expect all the VMs using all their CPU and memory so you give away x2 than you have available. But, starting with clean system after boot with no ES running and see the free -h can help. Adding this result to what is the highest heap memory before it crashes will be the answer. [Next page](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/invalid-initial-heap-size/143248.md?page=2)