Configuring complete memory dump for NMI crash

Configuring complete memory dump for NMI crash

Enable complete memory dump:

Step 1:  Create a paging file

a)      Click Start , right-click Computer , and then click Properties . 

b)      Click Advanced system settings on the System page, and then click the Advanced tab. 

c)       Click Settings under the Performance area. 

d)      Click the Advanced tab, and then click Change under the Virtual memory area. 

e)      Select the system partition where the operating system is installed.

Note To enable the system partition, you have to click to clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box. 

f)       Set the value of Initial size and Maximum size to the amount of physical RAM that is installed plus 1 megabyte (MB) under the Custom Size button. 

g)      Click Set , and then click OK three times. 

Step 2: Create a complete memory dump file

a)      Click Start , right-click Computer , and then click Properties . 

b)      Click Advanced system settings on the System page, and then click the Advanced tab. 

c)       Click Settings under the Start and Recovery area, and under Write Debugging information, make sure Complete memory dump is selected. 

Note By default, Complete memory dump is disabled. You can enable the option if your computer has more than 2 GB of physical RAM.

Note If you want to enable the Complete memory dump option, manually set the CrashDumpEnabled registry entry value to 1 under the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl

By default the dump file will be generated under system disk, if your system disk has no enough space, you could change the path manually:

a)      Click Start , right-click Computer , and then click Properties . 

b)      Click Advanced system settings on the System page, and then click the Advanced tab. 

c)       Click Settings under the Start and Recovery area, and then replace the path with an appropriate value in the Dump file field. In other words, you can change the path from %SystemRoot%\Memory.dmp to point to a local drive that has enough disk space, such as E:\Memory.dmp. 

Note A network drive, a shared drive, or a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive cannot be used as a destination for a memory dump file because it might not be available before the file copy begins.

Step 3 : Enable NMI crash

a)       In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey:
          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl
b)       Right-click CrashControl, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
c)       Type NMICrashDump, and then press ENTER.
d)       Right-click NMICrashDump, and then click Modify.
e)       In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

Step 4: Enable generating dump by keyboard

a.       Start Registry Editor. 

b.       Add following registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters 

Name : CrashOnCtrlScroll

Data Type : REG_DWORD

Value : 1 

And

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters

Name : CrashOnCtrlScroll

Data Type : REG_DWORD

Value : 1

c.       Exit Registry Editor.

Step 4: Restart the server to make above configuration take effect

After configuring the above settings press CTRL+ ScrLk+ ScrLk to test if the server is getting crashed with a BSOD. Modern servers have NMI option in the remote management console (Like HP ILO and Dell Drac). Dell servers have NMI button on Power management tab of the DRAC. Once the server shows the blue screen after the NMI, wait and watch till the memory dumping reaches 100% and complete