One of the good outcomes of the previously announced restructuring: the book Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators (Windows edition) has been prioritized to be published on 30th of November, 2009 due to the overwhelming demand. The book will soon be available for pre-orders.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
DumpAnalysis.org accepts hardware such as laptops for reviewing in relation to their suitability for extreme debugging, computer forensics, crash dump analysis and memory visualization. If you work for a H/W company like HP, Apple, Dell, Acer, Sony or any other respectable manufacturer please don’t hesitate to forward this post to your management: it could be your company brand or laptop model that debugging and software technical support community chooses next time of upgrade or for T&D / R&D! H/W reviews will be posted on the main portal page which currently has an audience of more than a hundred thousand unique visitors per year from more than 20,000 network locations (*).
If your company is interested please don’t hesitate to use this contact form:
http://www.dumpanalysis.org/contact
(*) From Google Analytics report.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
The following book is planned for publication during the 1st quarter of 2009:
Title: Reference Stack Traces: Windows Server® 2008 and Windows Vista™
ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-23-0
It features visual separation between kernel and user space in thread stack traces and useful footnotes for IRP and modules. Its publishing was delayed by a few months but fortunately my editing just got new breath by introducing thread stackprint images for kernel stacks (12Kb bitmaps):
Thread stackprints were generated from a complete memory dump using WinDbg scripts and Dump2Picture.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
As one of the new initiatives for the Year of Debugging DumpAnalysis Portal will publish bimonthly full color 16 page publication called:
Debugged! MZ/PE: MagaZine for/from Practicing Engineers
The only serial publication dedicated entirely to Windows® debugging
The first issue is planned for March, 2009 and will have ISBN-13: 978-1-906717-38-4. If it goes well I’m planning to have ISSN number assigned to it too. More details will be announced soon.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Got this book yesterday in the post and started reading. Table of contents is amazing for its practical depth and breadth. If you want me to provide a review in a language of concurrency (I’m reading many books in parallel) I would simply say one word:
Priority!
It simply means priority reading for any Windows software developer and maintainer. Invaluable for any engineer debugging complex software problems and analyzing Windows crash dumps. Simply because Microsoft OS and CLR developers use all this concurrent stuff and best practices described in the book so it is vital to be able recognize them in memory dumps. After reading this book you also get priority boost in your understanding of process and thread dynamics and your ability to plan, architect, design and implement concurrent applications and services.
Concurrent Programming on Windows (Microsoft .NET Development Series)
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
CtxHideEx32 tool has been updated to the version 1.1 and can be downloaded from Citrix support. It now allows a substring search for a window title or class, for example:
CtxHideEx32.exe HIDE "*error" "" OK
As by-product coupled with an optional command line I discovered that it allows to automatically dump any process displaying a message box with an error message in its window title. Here is an example using TestDefaultDebugger64 to simulate an application fault message where the following instance of CtxHideEx32 was setup to dump a process showing WER dialog on Vista:
CtxHideEx32.exe NONE "*Microsoft Windows" "" "C:\kktools\userdump8.1\x64\userdump.exe %d"
We click on a big lightning button:
and then WER dialog appears:
Immediately CtxHideEx32 kicks in and starts dumping the owner process incessantly so you better to dismiss this dialog by choosing something:
We see it was WerFault.exe.
Note: I think I have to amend CtxHideEx32 to make it wait until the spawned command line interpreter finishes its job. Stay tuned.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Matthieu Suiche has released the new version of win32dd tool with the ability to save physical memory in a WinDbg-compliant memory dump file including pages that normally are not saved in a complete memory dump.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Previously announced book Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators and Support Engineers (Windows Edition) has got its draft cover featuring WinDbg output from a kernel memory dump forced by Citrix SystemDump tool.
Front:
Back:
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Paperback edition of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2 is finally available on Amazon
Listmania! Crash Dump Analysis and Debugging
Hardcover edition will be available on Amazon and B&N in 2-3 weeks.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
“Everything is memory dump.”
I’m very excited to announce that Volume 2 is available in paperback, hardcover and digital editions:
Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2
In one or two weeks paperback edition should also appear on Amazon and other bookstores. Amazon hardcover edition is planned to be available by the end of October.
I’m often asked when Volume 3 is available and I currently plan to release it in October - November, 2009. In the mean time I’m planning to concentrate on other publishing projects.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
The book is nearly finished and here is the final TOC:
Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2: Table of Contents
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Today Citrix officially joined the club of public symbol server companies! Please refer to the following article for details:
How to Use the Citrix Symbol Server to Obtain Debug Symbols
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
“Crash dumps are fossils”
Here is the draft TOC for the previously announced book Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators and Support Engineers (Windows Edition) which I’m co-authoring with Thomas Monahan, a Lead Escalation Engineer at Citrix Systems:
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
I’m thinking big for a full-color book to celebrate the forthcoming anniversary of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology. Preliminary details:
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
This new book will be published later this year:
Although it is featured in Microsoft .NET Development Series I believe that it might be very interesting read for both unmanaged and managed code developers and escalation engineers. Understanding concurrency and having the ability to see its patterns is the crucial skill for crash dump analysis and debugging of complex software issues. I pre-ordered it myself and write a review once it is in print.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
This is a must have book for system administrators of complex Windows server platforms and client workstations to understand and choose the best course of action to address system and application crashes, hangs, CPU spikes and memory leaks. It is also invaluable to general Windows users and technical support engineers.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
This is the next scheduled book from Crash Dump Analysis Publishing Roadmap:
Draft Table of Contents will be published next month together with a sample chapter.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Due to demand from people that prefer ebooks I published Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1 in a digital format that can be purchased in Crash Dump Analysis Store. This format has color pictures inside.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
I’m very proud to announce that it is finally available in both paperback and hardback. Why have I made available both editions? Because I personally prefer hardcover books. You can order the book today and it will be printed in 3-5 days (paperback) or 5-10 days (hardcover) and sent to you:
Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1
Note: although listed on Amazon and other online bookstores it is not immediately available at these stores at the moment due to the late submission. I apologize for this. However, I expect that in a few weeks pre-orders taken there will be eventually fulfilled. In the mean time, if you want the book now, you can use the link above.
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
Because Citrix CDF traces are ETW based it should be possible to process and analyze them using XPrerf and XPerfView from the latest Microsoft Windows Performance Tools:
Windows Performance Tools Kit, v.4.1.1
- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -
