Crash Dump Analysis with Bruce Mackenzie-Low

Are you tired of feeling helpless when your Windows servers crash? Do you pray your hung server will reboot after you press the reset button? Are you frustrated from spending hours on the phone with vendors that blame others for your downtime? If so, this clip is definitely for you! Learn how to determine what driver is causing your server to crash or what application is hanging your server. This clip will provide cookbook techniques for using the Windows debugger to identify the culprits and bring finger pointing to an end!

Getting Started

In this introduction clip you will learn a bit about Bruce Mackenzie-Low, your instructor for this series and a Level 3 support for HP.

You will also see an overview of the Crash Dump Analysis series.

The Art of Crash Dump Analysis

Hang and Crash Dump Analysis is the art of interpreting the contents of memory to determine what caused the system to hang or crash.

This clip will walk you through the top 10 causes of crashes and hangs, the various degrees of unresponsiveness, deadlocks and spinlocks, the types of memory dumps and much more.

Configuring Memory Dumps

In order to have a proper recording of your memory saved in a dump file you have to configure your memory dump settings within your OS.  This clip will show you how to do that.  You will also learn some 'Restrictions & Gotchas' to watch out for.

Manually Forcing Crash Dumps

In order to see a crash and learn how to analyze the results you either have to have a system that crashes or initiate a manual crash (and subsequently a manual crash dump file).  This lesson will show you how to do just that.

Windows Debugger (Windbg)

This clip explains some important aspects of downloading the debugging tools.

Symbols

Symbols provide meaningful references to memory locations.  There are two types of symbol files, a public and private.  In this lesson you will learn how to obtain symbol files and how to set up the symbol file path.

Windbg Commands

This clip will explain the use of the Windbg commands.  Commands that will be explained include some of the following:

• !analyze -v -hang
• !locks
• !qlocks
• !running -t

Case Study 1

This case study walks you through a symptom, a cause and a resolution for a server that intermittently hangs.  The cause is a deadlock condition and the resolution...?  Well, you will have to watch it and find out.  You will also note the various Windbg commands used to work through the process of narrowing down the problem.

Case Study 2

In this second case study you will exam the symptom, the cause and the resolution for a server that hangs frequently for no apparent reason.  The cause is a spinlock condition.  The resolution...?  Well, you will have to watch the clip to see how the problem was located and what resolution eliminated it.

Conclusion

This clip will outline some additional resources that are recommended by Bruce Mackenzie-Low.