You can collect data on Java programs subject to the following limitations:
You should use a version of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) no earlier than 1.5.0_03. By default, the collect command uses the path where the J2SE was installed by the Sun Studio installer, if any. You can override this default path by setting either the JDK_HOME environment variable or the JAVA_PATH environment variable. The Collector verifies that the version of java it finds in these environment variables is an ELF executable, and if it is not, an error message is printed, indicating which environment variable was used, and the full path name that was tried.
You must use the collect command to collect data. You cannot use the dbx collector subcommands or the data collection capabilities of the IDE.
Applications that create descendant processes that run JVM software cannot be profiled.
If you want to use the 64-bit JVM software, you must use the -j on flag and specify the 64-bit JVM software as the target. Do not use java -d64 to collect data using the 64-bit JVM software. If you do so, no data is collected.