Using -Xrunhprof:heap=all and/or -Xrunhprof:cpu=samples leads
to reproducable JVM crashes or empty log files.

to reproduce problem:
customer is using HeapTest application from
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Programming/JVMPerf
customer also uses a program HeapDumpServer based on bill foote's NetDumper
but instead of the server you can use kill -3.

customer is getting a mixture of jvm crashes & empty log files.

they just need some way of getting this data.