Infact,  storm python script doesn't use JAVA_HEAP_MAX. The .cmd files use JAVA_HEAP_MAX as  childopts value. If required, we could consider new variable for childopts. My concern is....does JAVA_HEAP_MAX required ? If required, how could we run storm daemons with both JAVA_HEAP_MAX and chilopts value specified on the command line..as they both seem to be in same format as .. -Xmx%%%m