OpenJDK 8u now contains the backport of JEP 328: Flight Recorder (https://openjdk.java.net/jeps/328) from later versions of OpenJDK.

JFR is a low-overhead framework to collect and provide data helpful to troubleshoot  the performance of the OpenJDK runtime and of Java applications. It consists of a new API to define custom events under the jdk.jfr namespace and a JMX interface to interact with the framework. The recording can also be initiated with the application startup using the -XX:+FlightRecorder flag or via jcmd. JFR replaces the +XX:EnableTracing feature introduced in JEP 167 providing a more efficient way to retrieve the same information. For compatibility reason +XX:EnableTracing is still accepted, however no data will be printed.

JFR It is not built by default. Downstream distributions need to pass the --enable-jfr flag at configure time.