Opinions

IBM HeapAnalyzer versus the Eclipse Memory Analyzer Tool

IBM HeapAnalyzer (HA) is a fast-loading and simple-to-use heapdump analysis program. However, there are major issues with HeapAnalyzer:

1. All IBM development effort has moved to the Eclipse Memory Analyzer Tool (MAT).
2. HeapAnalyzer calculates retained heaps using heuristics rather than more accurate graph theory as in MAT. This may sometimes cause object "sizes" to be incorrect (in some cases being larger than the maximum heap size).
3. HeapAnalyzer was originally designed for PHDs that do not have memory contents so it is harder to use for system dumps and HPROFs.
4. HeapAnalyzer has limited capabilities for accurate GC accounting with system dumps.
5. HeapAnalyzer lacks MAT's paths-to-GC roots queries.

If you are new to heapdump analysis, consider using MAT. If you are used to HeapAnalyzer, you can continue to use it for simple problems, but use MAT for problems HA doesn't solve.

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