Evaluation of Multi-core Scalability Bottlenecks in Enterprise Java Workloads

The increasing number of cores integrated into modern processors is blurring the line between supercomputers and enterprise-grade servers. Therefore, the same attention to lock contention bottlenecks must be given to Java-based business workloads as it is given to massively parallel, high-performance computing applications, especially when it comes to characterizing global trends that would ease the transition of today´s code base to tomorrow´s parallel configurations. This paper first presents the characteristics of a typical Java-based business application software stack and examines the locking contentions that can appear at each level of that stack. Second, it presents scalability evaluation of three enterprise-grade, Java-based workloads and details the lock contention founds. Third, it summarizes the results of our findings, emphasizing the need for a streamlined methodology for lock-contention analysis of enterprise Java workloads.