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The solution is to add the jmx options to CATALINA_OPTS instead, assuming you're running a newish version of Tomcat. (5.5.23+ and 6.0.15+.)
For older versions of tomcat, you can create your own version of CATALINA_OPTS, find the relevant spot in catalina.sh, and add it to the java options by hand.
More detail: https://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=36976