Crash Dump Analysis

Forthcoming Webinar on Pattern-Driven Software Diagnostics

2012 - The Year of Software Trace Analysis

Accelerated Memory Dump Analysis Training

Sponsored link: Memory Dump Analysis Services

Debugging Experts Magazine Online

Debugging Today Daily Newspaper

Debugging TV

Sometimes there are reported delays in application startup, session initialization, long response times and simply the absence of response. All these problems can be reflected in software traces showing sudden gaps in threads of activity. I call this pattern Discontinuity per analogy with continuous and discontinuous functions in mathematics. Here is an example I came upon recently and it will be covered fully in the forthcoming pattern cooperation case study spanning both memory dump and trace analysis. One process was reported to have a long period of CPU spiking calculation and a CDF trace was recorded. When we open it we see this periodic error:

N   PID  TID  Time         Message 
[…]
326 2592 5476 08:17:18.823 OpenRegistry: Attempting to open [… Hive path …] 
327 2592 5476 08:17:18.824 OpenRegistry: Failed: 2 
[…]

However when looking for any discontinuities for the thread 5476 we see this gap of more than 7 minutes:

N    PID  TID  Time         Message
[...]
3395 2592 5476 08:17:19.608 OpenRegistry: Attempting to open [... Hive path ...]
3396 2592 5476 08:17:19.608 OpenRegistry: Failed: 2 
3461 2592 5476 08:24:31.137 OpenRegistry: Attempting to open [… Hive path …]
3462 2592 5476 08:24:31.137 OpenRegistry: Failed: 2 
[…]

Therefore we have 3 possibilities here:

1. The process twice did lengthy CPU spiking calculations involving registry access and was quiet between them.

2. Registry access belonged to some background activity and ceased for 7 minutes and during that time it had CPU spiking intensive calculation.

3. This discontinuity is irrelevant because either the calculation module was not selected for tracing or it simply doesn’t have relevant tracing statement coverage for the code that does calculation.

Stay tuned because this story will be unfolded in other patterns and in the final case study.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ TraceAnalysis.org -

Sponsored link: Professional Software Debugging Services

/* Malware and Software Defects -> Victimware.org */

Copyright © 2006 - 2012. This is a non-profit research and scientific project.

           

Citrix and Microsoft Customer Forum

Museum of Debugging and Memory Dumps

7/7/2011 - 8/8/2011 Annual Competition: Tell Your Windows Debugging Story

Crash and Hang Analysis Audit Service

CARE: Crash Analysis Report Environment

Crash Dump and Software Trace Analysis Training and Seminars

Access OpenTask Titles on Safari Books Online

DATA (Dump Analysis + Trace Analysis) Facebook group
Please join the community of memory (dump) and trace analysis engineers. This group promotes scientific methods and memory dump-based worldview.

Twitter @ DumpAnalysis
You can now follow portal and blog news at DumpAnalysis on Twitter

LinkedIn Group Dr. Watson Enthusiasts
All about Dr. Watson errors and more. Get news, excerpts and progress reports about the forthcoming book The Science of Dr. Watson: An Illustrated History of Debugging (ISBN 978-1906717070)

2010 (0x7DA) - The Year of Dump Analysis
2011 (0x7DB) - 2020 (0x7E4) The Debugging Decade

International Memory Analysts and Debuggers Day:
07.07 and/or 08.08 starting from The Year of Dump Analysis, 2010, 7DA

Announcements

Coming Soon:

Resume and CV: As a Book

Fundamentals of Complete Crash and Hang Memory Dump Analysis

Management Bits: An Anthology from Reductionist Manager

Crash Dump Analysis: Practical Foundations (Windows Edition, Systematic Software Fault Analysis Series)

Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators and Support Engineers

New Magazines:

Debugged! MZ/PE: MagaZine for/from Practicing Engineers

New Books:

Advanced Windows Memory Dump Analysis with Data Structures: Training Course Transcript and WinDbg Practice Exercises with Notes

Accelerated .NET Memory Dump Analysis: Training Course Transcript and WinDbg Practice Exercises with Notes

Accelerated Windows Memory Dump Analysis: Training Course Transcript and WinDbg Practice Exercises with Notes

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

Also available:

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

New Children's Book:

Baby Turing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 3:57 pm and is filed under CDF Analysis Tips and Tricks, Debugging, Software Trace Analysis, Trace Analysis Patterns. 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.