Crash Dumps for Dummies (Part 2)

Crash Dumps for Dummies (Part 2)

Part 2 follows the discussion of various dump typesdepicted here:Dumps for Dummies (Part 1)

So the question arises: how to make surethecustomer got the right dump? And if the dump type is not what you asked for provide a recommendation for further actions. Troubled with such questions during my first years in Citrix technical support I decided to develop a lightweight Explorer extension and a command line version of dump checking tool called Citrix DumpCheck:

Here it does basic checks for dump validity and shows the dump type: Complete memory dump

If it found small mini dump type (64Kb) the tool would have suggested to change settings in Control Panel.

The extension can be downloaded fromCitrix support web site (requires free registration):

Citrix DumpCheck Explorer Extension version 1.4

FAQ:

Q. Is it possible to show more information like process name in a user dump or whether full page heapwas enabled?

A. Certainly it is possible to include. However it requires access to OS symbol files during runtime and most customers don’t have them installed or downloaded from MS symbol server. So the design decision was not to include these checks in version 1.x. I consider to include this in next versions 2.x.

Q. The customer doesn’t want to modifyenvironment by installing extension. Is there any command line version of this tool?

A. Yes, there is. The followingarticle contains adownload link toa command line version of Citrix DumpCheck (requires free registration):

Citrix DumpCheck Utility (Command Line) version 1.4

Q. Does this extension work in 64-bit Windows?

A. No, but you can use command line equivalent shown in theanswer to the previous question. Also I’m planning to portthis extension to 64-bit soon and will announceas soon as I releaseit.

- Dmitry Vostokov -