What is the Java Flight Recorder?

The JDK Flight Recorder (JFR) is the main profiling and diagnostics tool in JDK Mission Control. Think of it as analogous to the “black box” used in aircraft (FDR, or Flight Data Recorder), but for the JVM.

JDK Flight Recorder Explained

The recorder part is built into the HotSpot JVM and gathers data about both the HotSpot runtime and the application running in the HotSpot JVM. The recorder can both be run in a continuous fashion, like the “black box” of an airplane, as well as for a predefined period of time. For more information about recordings and ways of creating them, see http://hirt.se/blog/?p=370.