How to debug Crashed Dump File?

Question

I run Debug Diagnostic tool on my windows server 2008. It created dump files. Because my asp.net application gives an exception time to time.

I need step by step instruction how to debug dump file. Do I need to debug in production server or locally? What do I need to have? How to configure?

How to determine where in application is the problem?

Is there any other ways how to read Dump files?

Here is the post I found it has pretty good explanation about dump files but they didn't explain the debugging part

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tess/archive/2009/03/20/debugging-a-net-crash-with-rules-in-debug-diag.aspx

Answer 1

All you need to debug the dump is WinDbg, which can be downloaded from Microsoft and SOS which ships with the framework.

Start WinDbg and load the dump file from the File menu. This will tell you some initial information about the dump. This will tell you the kind of dump you're looking at.

Set up symbols by using the command .symfix.

Load SOS by using the command .loadby sos clr (.NET 4) or .loadby sos mscorwks (previous versions of .NET).

Take a look at the threads in the dump file using the !threads command. Notice the exception column on the far right. If you see any exceptions in this column use the !pe <EXCEPTION OBJECT> command to get the details.

For additional info read some of the posts on Tess' blog.