honestly none of these sound like compelling reasons to not just set -Xms to Xmx
You scan the live set (which most often is not dependent on the heap size). Bigger heap most often means better performance. Setting Xms to Xmx is good and valid if you know how much memory you need (which often is the case).
If you prefer high throughput, then relax the pause-time goal by using -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis or provide a larger heap. If latency is the main requirement, then modify the pause-time target. Avoid limiting the young generation size to particular values by using options like -Xmn, -XX:NewRatio and others because the young generation size is the main means for G1 to allow it to meet the pause-time. Setting the young generation size to a single value overrides and practically disables pause-time control. [1]
Setting -Xms and -Xmx to the same value increases predictability by removing the most important sizing decision from the virtual machine. However, the virtual machine is then unable to compensate if you make a poor choice. [1]
> However, the virtual machine is then unable to compensate if you make a poor choice.
> Test your systems under full load with Xms off and adjust, measure, experiment, repeat.
precisely what I'm saying.
>>You scan the live set (which most often is not dependent on the heap size).
This was an eye-opener for me; That GCs performance do not depend on the size of garbage but on the size of the live objects, finalizers excluded.
and now, rant time: well, Xms allegedly improves start times. Is that really important? No. Is that really true anyway? Not really. Xms hides problems... Yes. Give that memory to the OS. Let it fill it up with things like disk cache or COW artifacts. Xms is an attempt to help people that aren't planning properly or testing. Yes. Instead, Test your systems under full load with Xms off and adjust, measure, experiment, repeat.
Elastic is sort of a special case because it's a 'database', but, I'd rather know the minimum Xmx my system actually needs by experimentation, and you can't find that with Xms enabled. And even then, I don't see MySQL allocating 100% of its InnoDb bufferpools at startup.... :)