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 lower is installed
SAP NetWeaver 7.01 SP2 or lower is installed

Solution

The problem is fixed in:
NW 7.00 SP18
NW 7.01 SP3