MECHANISM FOR PERFORMING LOITERING TRACE OF OBJECTS THAT CAUSE MEMORY LEAKS IN A POST-GARBAGE COLLECTION HEAP

A mechanism for performing loitering trace is disclosed. A method of embodiments of the invention includes initiating a loitering trace of objects that cause a memory leak and remain in a heap after surviving at least one garbage collection operation. Initiating the loitering trace includes detecting the objects remaining in the heap via a loitering module of a profiling structure at a first virtual machine of an application server of a first computer system. Initiating the loitering trace further includes performing time-based sampling for the objects remaining, the time-based sampling having method statistics identifying an average runtime associated with each of the objects remaining. The method statistics is calculated based on a number of uses called for each of the objects remaining and a time length associated with each use of each of the remaining objects. The method further includes providing, from the first virtual machine, the time-based sampling to a second virtual machine of the first computer system or a second computer system, and performing an act on the objects remaining in the heap based on the time-based sampling.