Capture a memory dump with Debug Tools

10/16/2018 9:20 AM

5/26/2022 1:28 AM

When working with SolarWinds Support to troubleshoot a possible memory leak, you may be asked to use SolarWinds debug tools to capture a memory dump, also known as a core, crash, or system dump. This article describes how to use those tools.

For an alternative method, see Collect a process dump with the ProcDump utility.

Orion Platform

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To capture a memory dump:

1. Determine the process ID (PID), as indicated in the following steps:
   1. Open Task Manager (press Ctrl+Alt+Del, and then click Start Task Manager.)
   2. Open the Processes tab.
   3. Click View > Select Columns.
   4. Check PID (Process Identifier), and then click OK.
2. Record the PID assigned to the process that appears to be leaking memory.
3. Download the correct Debug Tools archive for your server (32- or 64-bit):
   • debugtools_32.zip
   • debugtools_64.zip
4. Extract the Debug Tools archive to an appropriate location on your Orion server.
5. Open a command prompt and navigate to the location of your extracted archive.
   Note: The extracted archive should include TakeSnapShot.bat.
6. Run TakeSnapShot.bat PID#, PID# is the PID of the apparently leaking process. For example, if you suspect that a process with a PID of 1234 is leaking, execute TakeSnapShot.bat 1234.
7. Wait for the minimized window in your task bar to open and close
   Note: The window may have a title similar to cdb.exe or the full path of the extracted archive. It may take a few minutes for the operation to start, finish, and close on its own.
8. There should be Output directory in the folder of the extracted archive. Create a .zip archive and send it to the SolarWinds Support representative who requested it.
   Note: The compressed archive may be rather large.