High CPU, server node unresponsive

[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []

Symptom
The server becomes unresponsive with high CPU usage.
After taking a few thread dumps you should see that a specific thread is stuck at this stack traces:
“SAPEngine_Application_Thread[impl:3]_23″ prio=5 tid=0×000000000a9fdaf0
nid=0×28d4 runnable [0x000000000f9dc000..0x000000000f9dfb80]
at java.util.HashMap.containsKey(HashMap.java:345)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.admin.PcmAttributeSet.initializeDefaultImplAttrs
(PcmAttributeSet.java:1280)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.admin.PcmAttributeSet.getAttributeIds(PcmAttribu
teSet.java:758)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.iviewserver.layers.LayerAttrSet.getAttributeIds(
LayerAttrSet.java:46)
OR:
at java.util.HashMap.put(HashMap.java:382)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.admin.PcmAttributeSet.initializeDefaultImplAttrs
(PcmAttributeSet.java:1283)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.admin.PcmAttributeSet.getAttributeIds(PcmAttribu
teSet.java:758)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.iviewserver.layers.LayerAttrSet.getAttributeIds(
LayerAttrSet.java:46)
at com.sap.portal.pcm.iviewserver.LayeredObjectAttrSet.getAttributeIds
(LayeredObjectAttrSet.java:96)
at com.sap.portal.admin.propertyeditor.default_implementations.data_pr
oviders.PCMAdminPropertyObject.getPropertyIds(PCMAdminPropertyObject.java:106)
Other terms
PCM, high CPU, PcmAttributeSet, Performance, HashMap, put, containsKey, CPU
Reason and Prerequisites
SAP NetWeaver 7.00 SP17 or [...]