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Manually regenerating core dump files in VMware ESXi/ESX (1002769)

Details

This article provides instructions to extract a core dump file from the VMKCore diagnostic partition following a purple diagnostic screen error.

During a purple diagnostic screen, ESXi/ESX attempts to write a VMkernel core dump to a previously-configured VMKCore (type 0xFC) partition. This file is normally created during startup or while collecting vm-support logs.

For more information about:

Solution

The command line utility for extracting a VMkernel core dump differs between versions of ESXi/ESX.

ESXi/ESX 3.x

To generate a core dump file on ESXi/ESX 3.x:
  1. Log into the ESXi/ESX host:

  2. Determine the device identifiers for the core partition(s) by running the command:

    esxcfg-dumppart -t

    You see one of these outputs:

    • vmhba1:0:0:7 /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba1:0:0:7
    • naa.600508b1001030374543433532300700:7 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600508b1001030374543433532300700:7
    • naa.6d4ae520a23d1500178db21c1837fead:7 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6d4ae520a23d1500178db21c1837fead:7
      naa.600508b1001030374543433532300700:7 /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.600508b1001030374543433532300700:7

  3. If there is no output in step 3, set one of the volumes as the dump partition using the command:

    esxcfg-dumppart -s naa.ID

  4. Verify whether the dump partition is activated using the command:

    esxcfg-dumppart -d

    This command may return one of these message:

    • Dump Partition deactivated
    • Dump Partition activated

  5. If the partition is deactivated, activate it using the command:

    # esxcfg-dumppart -a
    Dump Partition activated.

  6. Change to a directory with sufficient space to store the core dump file.

    For example:

    cd /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/

  7. Dump the partition contents to a file by running the command:

    vmkdump --devname "identifier"

    Where identifier is the value recorded in step 2.

    For example:

    vmkdump --devname "/vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba1:0:0:0:7"

ESXi/ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x

To regenerate a core dump file on ESXi/ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.0:
  1. Log into the ESXi/ESX host:

  2. Determine the device identifiers for the core partition(s) by running the command:

    esxcfg-dumppart -t

    You see output similar to:

    mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0:2 /dev/sda2

    For ESXi 5.1 you may see output similar to:

    mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0:7  /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:L0:7

  3. Change to a directory with sufficient space to store the core dump file.

    For example:

    cd /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/

    Note: A core dump file will normally be between 100MB and 300MB in size. Be sure to select a location with sufficient free space.

  4. Dump the partition contents to a file by running the command:

    esxcfg-dumppart --copy --devname "/vmfs/devices/disks/identifier" --zdumpname /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/filename.1

    Where identifier is the value recorded in step 2.

    For example:

    esxcfg-dumppart --copy --devname "/vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0:2" --zdumpname /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/filename.1

Tags

collecting-data  core-dump  data-collection  data-collector  purple-diagnostic-screen

This Article Replaces

1002615,5478874

Update History

11/29/2011 - Added ESXi 5.0 to Products 07/24/2012 - Added note that in vMA 5.0 the vifpinit command is replaced with vifptarget 11/20/2012 - Added ESXi 5.1 to Products

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