Kdump in an hour
What you'll learn
- How to configure and use kdump on Linux
- How kdump works
- How to generate a custom initrd for use with kdump
- How to test a crash and validate your kdump setup
- How to inspect a dump file
Requirements
- A non-production physical or virtual Linux machine
Description
When your Linux system crashes or panics, you'll want to have some sort of recourse to learn what happened and how you can fix it. This is where kernel dumps--or kdump--comes in handy. In this course, you'll learn how to install and set up kdump in Linux. I'll show you how to set aside some memory for the dump capture kernel, and how to choose where the dump file gets saved to, which could be a local disk or a network location.
You'll simulate a panic/crash of a system and then watch kdump work and create a dump file. Once the machine reboots back into the working system, you'll investigate that dump file using the crash command.
You'll also create a custom initrd and modify it for use with kdump using the dracut command. And I'll show you how to do some fine-tuning of it for your specific needs.
This course is for users familiar with Linux and I'll be assuming some base knowledge here such as editing config files, restarting services, interacting with grub, connecting to a console, etc. It will also be helpful if you have knowledge about software development and things like viewing source code, what structs and functions are, etc.
By the end of the course, you'll know how kdump works and how to do some basic debugging of a crash.
Who this course is for:
- Linux administrators
- Systems / software engineers
- People curious about kdump
Instructor
- 4.0 Instructor Rating
- 4 Reviews
- 21 Students
- 2 Courses
I have a bachelor's degree in information technology. I have been writing bash scripts for ten years, and created several different open source command line utilities and projects, which you can find on GItHub.
I currently work in the high performance computing industry working exclusively with Linunx on a daily basis.
I remember when I first started working in Linux and feeling completely lost. I kept thinking it was easy to just click and point to do stuff. Writing cryptic commands on an old-looking terminal prompt seemed so bizarre. As I used it, I began to see the potential and how you could accomplish more on the command line than in a graphical interface.
The world of Linux, macOS, and the command line is filled with fun, nerdy things, which I'll show you along the way.
I'm not on social media but I do have GitHub and my personal blog, which is filled with all sorts of fun things I've done with scripting.