Java objects allocated directly in the old generation

Issue

• Full garbage collection (GC) runs continuously every few seconds even if there is not much load on the system.
• GC throughput is low (more time is spent doing GC than running the application).
• The old generation is filling every few seconds.
• GC logging shows one full GC after another with memory reclaimed, and the old generation filling up without any objects being promoted from a young collection. For example:

...
109739.049: [Full GC [PSYoungGen: 1236772K->0K(3728256K)] [ParOldGen: 10835042K->3157360K(11184832K)] 12071814K->3157360K(14913088K) [PSPermGen: 278939K->278938K(524288K)], 1.8344130 secs] [Times: user=5.27 sys=0.01, real=1.84 secs]
109742.848: [Full GC [PSYoungGen: 1315093K->0K(3728256K)] [ParOldGen: 11164102K->4375236K(11184832K)] 12479195K->4375236K(14913088K) [PSPermGen: 278961K->278939K(524288K)], 2.0211530 secs] [Times: user=5.98 sys=0.00, real=2.02 secs]
109746.481: [Full GC [PSYoungGen: 1344147K->0K(3728256K)] [ParOldGen: 11167110K->4386943K(11184832K)] 12511257K->4386943K(14913088K) [PSPermGen: 279106K->279072K(524288K)], 2.1062840 secs] [Times: user=6.19 sys=0.01, real=2.11 secs]
109750.174: [Full GC [PSYoungGen: 1297141K->0K(3728256K)] [ParOldGen: 11178817K->4386454K(11184832K)] 12475959K->4386454K(14913088K) [PSPermGen: 279104K->279081K(524288K)], 2.0597390 secs] [Times: user=6.07 sys=0.01, real=2.06 secs]
...