Microsoft KB Archive/919711

= How to configure SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services to generate memory dump files =

Article ID: 919711

Article Last Modified on 10/24/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services

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INTRODUCTION
This article describes how to configure Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) to automatically generate different types of memory dump files when it encounters exceptions. The article also outlines how to use the Sqldumper.exe utility to manually obtain a memory dump file for the SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services process.



MORE INFORMATION
By default, SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services automatically generates minidump files when an exception occurs. For the default installation, the minidump files are written to the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\ \OLAP\Log folder and include the following information:
 * All thread stacks
 * Second-order memory that is referenced by pointers on the stack
 * Information about the Process Environment Block (PEB)
 * Information about the Thread Environment Block (TEB)
 * Information about recently unloaded modules
 * Thread state information

Note  is a placeholder for the corresponding value for the system. To determine the corresponding value for the system, determine the value of the MSSQLSERVER or the named instance registry entry under the following registry subkey:

The Exception section in the Msmdsrv.ini file controls the memory dump file generation. The file is located in the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\ \OLAP\Config folder. When you open the file in Notepad, you notice a section in the Exception XML tag that resembles the following:  1  0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 0xC1000000, 0xC1000001, 0xC1000016, 0xC11D0005, 0xC102003F</MinidumpErrorList> <ExceptionHandlingMode>0</ExceptionHandlingMode> <CriticalErrorHandling>1</CriticalErrorHandling> </Exception> You can control the behavior of generating the memory dump file by modifying the settings in this section. You can also modify these settings in SQL Server Management Studio. For more information about these settings, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174827(d=ide).aspx

How to disable the automatic memory dump file for Analysis Services
The value of the CreateAndSendCrashReports setting determines whether a memory dump file will be generated. This setting can have one of the values that are listed in the following table.

When the CreateAndSendCrashReports setting is set to 1 or 2, the other settings in the Exception section can control the type of the memory dump file and what information to include in the memory dump file.

How to configure SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services to generate a full dump file automatically
To configure SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services to generate a full dump file automatically when an exception occurs, you can set the SQLDumperFlagsOn setting to 0x34. Additionally, if you want to configure SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services to generate a full dump file that includes the handle information, you can set the SQLDumperFlagsOn setting to 0x34 and the MiniDumpFlagsOn setting to 0x4. For example, the Exception section in the Msmdsrv.ini file may resemble the following: <Exception> 1</CreateAndSendCrashReports> <CrashReportsFolder/> 0x34</SQLDumperFlagsOn> 0x0</SQLDumperFlagsOff> 0x4</MiniDumpFlagsOn> 0x0</MiniDumpFlagsOff> <MinidumpErrorList>0xC1000000, 0xC1000001, 0xC1000016, 0xC11D0005, 0xC102003F</MinidumpErrorList> <ExceptionHandlingMode>0</ExceptionHandlingMode> <CriticalErrorHandling>1</CriticalErrorHandling> </Exception>

How to generate a full dump file that includes handle information manually
To troubleshoot issues such as a server that stops responding (hangs), you may want to generate a full dump file that includes handle information manually. To do this, you can run the Sqldumper.exe utility at the command prompt together with the following arguments:

Sqldumper.exe  0 0x34:0x4 0

Note  represents the process ID of the SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services process. represents the folder to which the dump file is written.

You must run this command from the 90\Shared directory where you installed the instance, or you must specify the full path of the Sqldumper.exe file in the command. For example, the default directory is as follows:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared

For more information about how to use the Sqldumper.exe utility to generate a dump file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

827690 How to use Sqldumper.exe to generate dump files for Windows applications

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