Oracle Linux: How to Configure "kdump" on Oracle Linux 8 (Doc ID 2962417.1)

Last updated on JULY 27, 2023

Applies to:

Goal

The Kdump feature provides a kernel crash information dumping mechanism in Oracle Linux. The kdump service saves the contents of the system’s memory for later analysis. The second kernel resides in a reserved part of the system memory.

Kdump uses the kexec system call to boot into the second kernel, called a capture kernel, without the need to reboot the system, and then captures the contents of the stopped kernel’s memory as a crash dump (vmcore) and saves it. The vmcore crash dump can help with determining the cause of the malfunction.

Enabling the Kdump feature is highly recommended because a crash dump might be the only information source that is available if a system failure occurs. Kdump is vital in many mission-critical environments.

Before enabling Kdump, ensure that the system meets all of the memory requirements for using Kdump. To capture a kernel crash dump and save it for further analysis, reserve part of the system's memory permanently for that purpose. When you do so, that part of the system's memory is no longer be available to the main kernel. For more Information see: Working With Kernel Dumps

This Note explains how to configure, test, and use the kdump service in Oracle Linux(OL) 8.

Solution

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