I stumbled upon a nice blog post by Peter Lorenzen about the entropy generator in Linux, for creating random numbers (used in encryption and many other features).
When you encounter Java performance problems (stalling and lagging), please read Peter’s blog carefully, I think it’s very informative. Also take note of the possible security issues he mentions.
Update
I’ve found another solution that was really helpful in getting our EM console up to speed. I’ve written a blog post on my company’s website. Check it out at the Whitehorses Blog. The TLDR; version is:
I used the linux program haveged, which is a userspace entropy daemon which is not dependent upon the standard mechanisms for harvesting randomness for the system entropy pool.
After installation, the entropy pool is replenished much faster, so programs do not have to wait (or stall) when the entropy pool is depleted.
