State of knowledge

May 2021

This article explains how you can create a so-called full memory dump from MetaDirectory and make it available for analysis.

Please use these settings only if it really is a crash.

The debug logs from the MetaDirectory are also needed in case of a crash:

Creating a debug log for MetaDirectory

Procedure

Microsoft Windows Error Reporting

If the MetaDirectory has crashed and this is also visible in Windows Error Reporting, the following path can be used to check whether Windows itself has created a dump:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\

It should be noted that Windows does create a file for each crash. However, if the service crashes several times for the same reason, these files are not filled.
A filled memory dump has an approximate size of 150 MB – 2 GB. If the files have only a few KB, they are empty and useless for analysis.

If crash dumps are not written, this can be enforced with the following article: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb787181(v=vs.85).aspx

Dump via MetaDirectory service

Alternatively, it is possible to have the MetaDirectory service write a dump itself.

This is only possible if the operating system still allows it.

Procedure

  1. Run regedit.exe 

  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESTOS\MetaDirectory\Server

  3. Click in the menu Edit -> New -> DWORD-Value (32-Bit).

  4. Enter "DUMP" as the name.

  5. Enter "2" as the value (decimal).

  6. Restart the MetaDirectory service.

  7. In case of a future crash, a full memory dump is created under "c:\crashreport".


The generated files are relatively large and therefore cannot simply be included as an attachment to a ticket. To provide the files, you can make them available on your file share system. Alternatively, provide us with the corresponding information in the ticket so that we can offer you the options to upload the files to us.