What does this tool do?

IBM Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool (PMAT) tool is used to analyze a garbage collection log.

How to use this tool

Download this tool to your local PC or add this tool to IBMs Support Assistant. This will download a file named ga458.jar. Double click ga458.jar to launch IBM Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool (PMAT). 

In IBMs Pattern Modeling and Analysis Tool (PMAT) tool, select File > Open verbosegc, select the garbage collection log file. On Tomcat, gc.log is the garbage collection log file. On WebSphere, native_stderr.log is the garbage collection log file. Recommendations will be displayed.

In this example, the analysis identifies a possible memory leak, as there is a steady increase in the java heap space used. 

It is usually a good idea to compare at least a few of the log's, to see if the tuning recommendations in each log are similar or different.