We have 2Gb heap allocated. The issue is not a java issue because this is an OS message produced on the native stdout, not SystemOut from java. The Solaris system is unable to allocate enough memory for the JVM, even though it reports to have 12Gb available. If we stop other large memory consuming processes it is possible to start this JVM process. How is it possible that Solaris can't allocate 2Gb to 3Gb memory when there's 6 times that much available?