[[heap-dump-path]]
=== JVM heap dump path

By default, Elasticsearch configures the JVM to dump the heap on out of
memory exceptions to the default data directory (this is
`/var/lib/elasticsearch` for the <<rpm,RPM>> and <<deb,Debian>> package
distributions, and the `data` directory under the root of the
Elasticsearch installation for the <<zip-targz,tar and zip>> archive
distributions). If this path is not suitable for receiving heap dumps,
you should modify the entry `-XX:HeapDumpPath=...` in
<<jvm-options,`jvm.options`>>. If you specify a directory, the JVM
will generate a filename for the heap dump based on the PID of the running
instance. If you specify a fixed filename instead of a directory, the file must
not exist when the JVM needs to perform a heap dump on an out of memory
exception, otherwise the heap dump will fail.