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

So the question arises: how to make sure the customer 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 from Citrix support web site:

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 heap was 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 modify environment by installing extension. Is there any command line version of this tool?

A. Yes, there is. The following article contains a download link to a command line version of Citrix DumpCheck:

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 the answer to the previous question. Also I’m planning to port this extension to 64-bit soon and will announce as soon as I release it.

- Dmitry Vostokov  @ DumpAnalysis.org -

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Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators and Support Engineers

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Introduction to Pattern-Driven Software Problem Solving

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology: Color Supplement for Volumes 4-5

Windows Debugging Notebook: Essential User Space WinDbg Commands

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 5

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 4

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology: Color Supplement for Volumes 1-3

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 3

First Fault Software Problem Solving: A Guide for Engineers, Managers and Users

x64 Windows Debugging: Practical Foundations

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Windows Debugging: Practical Foundations

DLL List Landscape: The Art from Computer Memory Space

Dumps, Bugs and Debugging Forensics: The Adventures of Dr. Debugalov

WinDbg: A Reference Poster and Learning Cards

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 14th, 2006 at 8:53 am and is filed under Crash Dump Analysis, Crash Dumps for Dummies, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.