When there is a need to pass multiple JVM arguments to a Docker container or a Kubernetes pod, we can simply use the following:

NEO4J_dbms_jvm_additional: "-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true -Dlog4j2.disable.jmx=true"

However, because of a bug in Neo4j versions 4.3.0 to 4.3.4, declaring multiple JVM arguments on one dbms.jvm.additional would be parsed incorrectly.

The following error would occur:

Unrecognized VM option 'Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true -Dlog4j2.disable.jmx=true'

This bug is fixed in Neo4j 4.3.5.

So, for versions 4.3.0 to 4.3.4, use the following syntax:

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: "-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true -Dlog4j2.disable.jmx=true"

To confirm that the values have been correctly set for the virtual machine, execute this:

jcmd <neo4j pid> VM.system_properties | grep log4j

The output should be:

log4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true
log4j2.disable.jmx=true