How do I provide JVM arguments to VisualVM?

Should be able to modify the memory settings in %JDK_HOME%\lib\visualvm\etc\visualvm.conf

Xms and Xmx are in the default_options line.

or I think this works too:

jvisualvm.exe -J-Xmx512m (or whatever amount you need)

-J on the .exe command line for onetime settings, or the .conf file noted in the other answer for changing defaults

I started with

jvisualvm -J-Xms1024m -J-Xmx2048m

and it worked.

In mac, you can configure them by editing this file.

/Applications/VisualVM.app/Contents/Resources/visualvm/etc/visualvm.conf

visualvm_default_options="-J-client -J-Xms4096m -J-Xmx5120m -J-XX:+IgnoreUnrecognizedVMOptions -J-Dnetbeans.accept_license_class=com.sun.tools.visualvm.modules.startup.AcceptLicense -J-Dsun.jvmstat.perdata.syncWaitMs=10000 -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true"

In VisualVM 2 the config file is in the VisualVM directory where the downloaded file was extracted, in etc/visualvm.conf

${VISUALVM}/etc/visualvm.conf