> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developer.harness.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://developer.harness.io/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/kubernetes/pod/pod-jvm-trigger-gc.md).

# Pod JVM trigger GC

Pod JVM trigger GC is a Kubernetes pod-level chaos fault that forces a JVM running in a target container to run garbage collection repeatedly for a configurable duration. Only the targeted JVM is affected; other processes in the pod and other pods on the node are unaffected. When the fault ends, the JVM resumes normal GC scheduling immediately.

Use this fault to test how a Java application behaves under repeated GC pauses: spikes in request latency, missed scheduled tasks, paused background workers, or probe failures caused by the JVM stopping the world.

{% hint style="info" %}
**RUN YOUR FIRST EXPERIMENT**

If you have not configured the chaos infrastructure yet, go to [Quickstart](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/new-to-chaos-engineering/quickstart.md) to install the chaos infrastructure and run an experiment end to end.
{% endhint %}

***

### Use cases <a href="#use-cases" id="use-cases"></a>

Run this fault when you want to answer concrete questions like:

* **GC-pause tolerance:** When the JVM stops the world more often than usual, do request handlers handle it gracefully or do upstream timeouts cascade?
* **GC algorithm comparison:** Compare CMS, G1, ZGC, and Shenandoah under forced GC pressure to validate the choice for your workload.
* **Heap-sizing validation:** Does the heap have enough headroom that forced GCs stay short, or does each cycle take seconds?
* **Probe sensitivity:** Are readiness and liveness probes resilient to short stop-the-world events?
* **JIT and warmup interaction:** Confirm that forced GC does not deoptimize hot paths in a way that hurts steady-state throughput.

***

### Prerequisites <a href="#prerequisites" id="prerequisites"></a>

* **Kubernetes version:** 1.21 or later. Go to [What's supported](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/new-to-chaos-engineering/whats-supported.md) to confirm distribution support.
* **Target pod is Running:** The Java application pod is in the `Running` state.
* **Java agent attach available:** The Java process allows agent attach. Utilities such as `ps`, `pgrep`, and `bash` are present in the container, and the JVM is not built with a restricted runtime that strips attach modules.
* **Privileged pods allowed:** The cluster lets you schedule privileged pods in the chaos namespace. GKE Autopilot supports this fault but requires the one-time setup in [Chaos on GKE Autopilot](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/use-chaos-engineering/gke-autopilot.md); other locked-down distributions may need similar exemptions.
* **Container runtime access:** The chaos pod can reach the container runtime socket on the target node (`/run/containerd/containerd.sock`, `/var/run/docker.sock`, or `/var/run/crio/crio.sock`).
* **Workload selector defined:** The chaos experiment knows the target workload by kind, namespace, and either names or labels.

{% hint style="info" %}
**JVM CHAOS USES THE BYTEMAN AGENT**

This fault attaches a [Byteman](https://byteman.jboss.org/) agent to the target JVM over `BYTEMAN_PORT`. The port must be reachable from the chaos pod and must not be in use by the application.
{% endhint %}

***

### Supported environments <a href="#supported-environments" id="supported-environments"></a>

| Platform                                 | Support status                                                                                                 |
| ---------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Amazon EKS                               | Supported                                                                                                      |
| Azure AKS                                | Supported                                                                                                      |
| Google GKE                               | Supported                                                                                                      |
| Red Hat OpenShift                        | Supported                                                                                                      |
| Rancher                                  | Supported                                                                                                      |
| VMware Tanzu                             | Supported                                                                                                      |
| Self-managed Kubernetes (CNCF-certified) | Supported                                                                                                      |
| GKE Autopilot                            | Supported with [Autopilot setup](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/use-chaos-engineering/gke-autopilot.md) |
| EKS Fargate, ACI virtual nodes           | Not supported (no access to container runtime sockets)                                                         |

***

### Permissions required <a href="#permissions-required" id="permissions-required"></a>

The fault runs under the chaos infrastructure's service account.

| Resource (`apiGroup`)                                               | Verbs                                                                    | Why it is needed                                            |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| `pods` (`""`)                                                       | `get`, `list`, `create`, `delete`, `deletecollection`, `patch`, `update` | Discover target pods and run the chaos pod on the same node |
| `pods/log` (`""`)                                                   | `get`, `list`, `watch`                                                   | Stream chaos pod logs for status and debugging              |
| `deployments`, `statefulsets`, `replicasets`, `daemonsets` (`apps`) | `get`, `list`                                                            | Resolve the target workload to the pods it owns             |
| `events` (`""`)                                                     | `get`, `list`, `create`, `patch`, `update`                               | Record fault progress as Kubernetes events                  |
| `jobs` (`batch`)                                                    | `get`, `list`, `create`, `delete`, `deletecollection`                    | Run the chaos job that drives the fault                     |

The default Harness chaos infrastructure service account already includes these permissions.

***

### Fault tunables <a href="#fault-tunables" id="fault-tunables"></a>

Configure the following fault parameters when you add Pod JVM trigger GC to an experiment in Chaos Studio. Defaults are shown for reference.

**Chaos parameters**

| Tunable                | Description                                                                                 | Default |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| `TOTAL_CHAOS_DURATION` | Duration of the fault in seconds. The JVM is asked to run GC repeatedly across this window. | `60`    |

**JVM**

| Tunable        | Description                                                                                                   | Default |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| `BYTEMAN_PORT` | Port on which the Byteman agent listens inside the container. Must not conflict with any port already in use. | `9091`  |
| `JAVA_HOME`    | Absolute path to the Java installation inside the container. Empty auto-detects from `PATH`.                  | `""`    |

**Targeting**

| Tunable                   | Description                                                                                                          | Default    |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |
| `TARGET_PODS`             | Comma-separated list of pod names to target. Empty selects from the workload's pods using `POD_AFFECTED_PERCENTAGE`. | `""`       |
| `TARGET_CONTAINER`        | Container in the pod running the JVM. Empty targets the first container in the pod spec.                             | `""`       |
| `NODE_LABEL`              | Label selector to filter target pods by the node they run on. Empty disables node-based filtering.                   | `""`       |
| `POD_AFFECTED_PERCENTAGE` | Percentage of the workload's pods to target. `0` means one pod.                                                      | `0`        |
| `SEQUENCE`                | When multiple pods are targeted, inject `parallel` (all at once) or `serial` (one after another).                    | `parallel` |

**Runtime and helper**

| Tunable             | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Default                           |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| `CONTAINER_RUNTIME` | Container runtime on the target nodes. One of `containerd`, `docker`, `crio`.                                                                                                                                    | `containerd`                      |
| `SOCKET_PATH`       | Path to the container runtime socket on the target node. Set to match `CONTAINER_RUNTIME`.                                                                                                                       | `/run/containerd/containerd.sock` |
| `RAMP_TIME`         | Wait period in seconds before and after the fault. Go to [ramp time](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/common-tunables-for-all-faults.md#ramp-time) to read how it is applied. | `0`                               |

Common pod selection tunables (`TARGET_WORKLOAD_KIND`, `TARGET_WORKLOAD_NAMESPACE`, `TARGET_WORKLOAD_NAMES`, `TARGET_WORKLOAD_LABELS`) are documented in [common pod fault tunables](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/kubernetes/pod/common-tunables-for-pod-faults.md). Tunables that apply to every fault are documented in [common tunables for all faults](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/common-tunables-for-all-faults.md).

{% hint style="info" %}
**PAIR WITH GC LOGS**

Enable GC logging on the target JVM (`-Xlog:gc*:file=/tmp/gc.log`) before the fault so you can compare pause counts and durations during and after the injection.
{% endhint %}

#### Configure for your container runtime <a href="#configure-for-your-container-runtime" id="configure-for-your-container-runtime"></a>

Set `CONTAINER_RUNTIME` and `SOCKET_PATH` to match the runtime on the target node:

| `CONTAINER_RUNTIME`    | `SOCKET_PATH`                     |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| `containerd` (default) | `/run/containerd/containerd.sock` |
| `docker`               | `/var/run/docker.sock`            |
| `crio`                 | `/var/run/crio/crio.sock`         |

***

### Fault execution in brief <a href="#fault-execution-in-brief" id="fault-execution-in-brief"></a>

Attaches a Java agent to the target JVM and calls `System.gc()` repeatedly for `TOTAL_CHAOS_DURATION` seconds.

***

### Expected behavior during fault execution <a href="#expected-behavior-during-fault-execution" id="expected-behavior-during-fault-execution"></a>

* Garbage collection runs more often than usual. Each cycle stops the world for at least a brief moment, depending on the GC algorithm and heap size.
* Application request latency spikes during each pause; throughput drops correspondingly.
* GC logs show a higher rate of full collections (or cycles, for concurrent collectors).
* Allocator pressure may show as elevated CPU as the JVM compacts heap regions.

{% hint style="info" %}
**WHEN THE FAULT ENDS**

The JVM resumes normal GC scheduling immediately. Heap state and live objects are unchanged by the forced cycles.
{% endhint %}

#### Signals to watch <a href="#signals-to-watch" id="signals-to-watch"></a>

Attach [resilience probes](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/use-chaos-engineering/probes.md) to assert each layer:

* **GC pause time:** Use a [Prometheus probe](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/use-chaos-engineering/probes/apm-probes.md) on `jvm_gc_pause_seconds` or equivalent micrometer/JMX metric.
* **Application latency:** Use an [HTTP probe](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/use-chaos-engineering/probes/http-probe.md) on a representative endpoint to detect tail-latency spikes.
* **Pod readiness:** Use a [Kubernetes probe](/resilience-testing/chaos-testing/probes/k8s-probe.md) to fail when the target pod oscillates `NotReady`.

***

### Verify the fault execution effect <a href="#verify-the-fault-execution-effect" id="verify-the-fault-execution-effect"></a>

While the experiment is running, confirm GCs are running:

1. **Inspect GC counts.**

   ```bash
   kubectl exec -n <namespace> <target-pod> -c <target-container> -- jstat -gc 1 1000 5
   ```

   `YGC` and `FGC` counters should increment faster than the application's baseline rate.
2. **Confirm application-level impact.**

   Watch the application's p99 latency or an HTTP probe. Latency spikes should correlate with the GC events.

***

### Recovery and cleanup <a href="#recovery-and-cleanup" id="recovery-and-cleanup"></a>

* **End of duration:** The JVM resumes normal GC scheduling automatically.
* **Abort the experiment:** Stopping the experiment from Chaos Studio triggers the same cleanup path.
* **Stuck JVM:** If the application is wedged, restart the pod to clear the state.

***

### Limitations <a href="#limitations" id="limitations"></a>

* **Serverless Kubernetes (EKS Fargate, ACI virtual nodes):** These platforms do not expose container runtime sockets and reject the privileged access the fault needs. GKE Autopilot is supported once the one-time setup in [Chaos on GKE Autopilot](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/use-chaos-engineering/gke-autopilot.md) is in place.
* **Windows containers:** This fault is supported on Linux pods only.
* **Non-JVM processes:** This fault targets a Java process.
* **JVMs that ignore `System.gc()`:** Some configurations (`-XX:+DisableExplicitGC`) suppress explicit GC requests. Remove the flag or accept that this fault has no effect on that JVM.

***

### Troubleshooting <a href="#troubleshooting" id="troubleshooting"></a>

<details>

<summary>Pod JVM trigger GC experiment stays Pending or never starts in Harness Chaos Engineering</summary>

Inspect the chaos pods in the experiment namespace with kubectl describe pod -n . The most common causes are taints on the target node that the chaos pods do not tolerate, insufficient resources, or a PodSecurity admission policy blocking privileged pods. Add the required tolerations or run in a namespace with privileged Pod Security level.

</details>

<details>

<summary>No GC activity observed during pod-jvm-trigger-gc</summary>

The most common causes are: the JVM was started with -XX:+DisableExplicitGC and ignores System.gc(); the wrong container is targeted (set TARGET\_CONTAINER explicitly); JAVA\_HOME is not detectable; or BYTEMAN\_PORT is already in use. Verify with kubectl exec -- jstat -gc 1 1000 5 before and during the fault.

</details>

<details>

<summary>Connection to container runtime fails for pod-jvm-trigger-gc in Harness Chaos Engineering</summary>

The default SOCKET\_PATH is /run/containerd/containerd.sock. For Docker, set CONTAINER\_RUNTIME=docker and SOCKET\_PATH=/var/run/docker.sock. For CRI-O, set CONTAINER\_RUNTIME=crio and SOCKET\_PATH=/var/run/crio/crio.sock.

</details>

***

### Related faults <a href="#related-faults" id="related-faults"></a>

* [Pod JVM CPU stress](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/kubernetes/pod/pod-jvm-cpu-stress.md): Saturate CPU inside the JVM.
* [Pod JVM method latency](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/kubernetes/pod/pod-jvm-method-latency.md): Add latency to a Java method invocation.
* [Pod memory hog](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/kubernetes/pod/pod-memory-hog.md): Consume container memory until OOM.
* [Common pod fault tunables](/resilience-testing/chaos-engineering/faults/chaos-fault-categories/kubernetes/pod/common-tunables-for-pod-faults.md): Shared environment variables for selecting target pods and workloads.