This issue is known to affect CentOS 6.2 and possibly CentOS 6.5. It may also affect some versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, according to https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=770545.
Some users have reported seeing the following error:
kernel: java: page allocation failure. order:4, mode:0x20
Raising the value of min_free_kbytes was reported to fix this problem. This
parameter is set to a percentage of the amount of RAM on your system, and is described in more
detail at http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.1/Deployment_Guide/s3-proc-sys-vm.html.
To find the current value on your system, run the following command:
[user@host]# cat /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytesNext, raise the value. Try doubling, then quadrupling the value. Note that setting the value too low or too high could have detrimental effects on your system. Consult your operating system vendor for specific recommendations.
Use the following command to modify the value of min_free_kbytes,
substituting <value> with your intended value:
[user@host]# echo <value> > /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes