Investigating SQL Server memory dumps

• repent_kog_is_near

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  January 8, 2010 at 7:50 pm

  #214341

  Is there any tools that will help us analyze a SQL Server memory dump, or a mini dump, to see the root cause for a crash in a Server OS environment?

  Thanks

  Dan

• Gail Shaw

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  January 9, 2010 at 2:58 am

  #1101335

  If you understand Assembler, you can download a debugger and the public symbols from Microsoft and read through the dump yourself. Other than that, no. The Customer Support team have tools to read and interpret memory dumps, but they are internal-only tools.

  If you can't read Assembler and you're getting dumps often, I suggest opening a case with Microsoft's Customer Support and get them to investigate.

  Gail Shaw
  Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
  SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

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• Paul White

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  January 9, 2010 at 8:41 am

  #1101381

  See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917684.aspx

  That's quite a long (and interesting document) but you just want the section entitled 'Nonyielding Examples Reported to Microsoft'. Just loading the dump and looking at the call stack is often enough to give some good clues. No assembly language skills required...

  Paul White
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  @SQL_Kiwi