Here is the issue:
https://glassfish.dev.java.net/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3814
As a simple rehash:
Trivial web app, static 139MB PDF file in the web app. Stock GFv2 install. Mac OS 10.4 (though I've seen this on Solaris as well).
Deploy webapp, try and download PDF, observe (through JConsole, or gc:verbose) memory surge up 150MB and stay there, and never GC. Also note the OutOfMemory exception in the GF log. This is using the 512MB stock GF heap.
This is a real show stopper for us as this effectively renders the server unusable.
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