Citrix states in their article: CTX108889

Document ID: CTX108889, Created on: Feb 22, 2006, Updated: Apr 26, 2006

Products: Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 for Microsoft Windows 2003, Citrix MetaFrame XP 1.0 for Microsoft Windows 2003, Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 for Microsoft Windows 2003, Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 x64 Edition

Summary

The Debug Diagnostics Tool (a subset of Microsoft’s IIS Diagnostics toolset) can be used to capture dumps from Windows or Citrix services or processes.

This tool can be used as an alternative to Dr.Watson, NTSD, ADPlus, and WinDBG (see a list of Citrix and Microsoft articles on these tools below) to generate dumps that can help Citrix Technical Support correctly identify the cause of a hanging service or a process/server crash.

The Debug Diagnostics Tool works by presenting the Administrator with the option to select what they wish to do or monitor, namely:

• Crashes

• IIS Hangs

• Memory and Handle leaks

In the event of a crash or deadlock of any sort, Citrix Technical Support may request a dump file to be created, which can be analyzed in the hope of determining what is causing the crash/deadlock on the server at the time of the reported problem.

There are many services which Technical Support could request a dump of, but the most common ones would be the Citrix IMA Service (ImaSrv.exe), the Citrix Print Manager Service (cpsvc.exe) and the Windows Print Spooler service (spoolsv.exe).

For more information on this toolset, see Internet Information Services Diagnostic Tools, and the included Debug Diagnostic Tool Overview, included in the Help Topics within the application.

Prerequisites

Any of the following Windows operating systems:

• Windows NT SP4 (IIS 4.0)

• Windows 2000 Server (IIS 5.0)

• Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 (IIS 6.0)

• Windows XP Professional Edition (IIS 5.1)

• Windows XP 64-bit Edition

• Any Citrix Product/service/executable installed on any of the above operating systems.

Installing the Debug Diagnostics Tool

Note: The information provided is for the installation of the Debug Diagnostics Tool ONLY – the other tools included with the IIS Diagnostics toolset are outside the scope of this document.

1. Download iisdiag.msi from the IIS Diagnostics Toolkit (x86) page.

2. Begin the installation. When you get to the Typical/Custom/Complete installation window, select your preference. Chose custom to select which modules to install.

3. To install the Debug Diagnostics Tool only, clear everything except the Debug Diagnostics Tool and hit Next.

4. There will now be a Start menu entry for the IIS Diagnostics Tool (x86).

How to Use the Debug Diagnostics Tool

This example creates a dump file for the Citrix IMA Service (ImaSrv.exe). There are two ways to configure this tool – by creating a Rule for unattended collection of dumps, or manually clear the wizard and create a dump on the fly by visiting the Processes tab and right-clicking the process you wish to create a dump of. This example demonstrates creating a once-off dump from the Processes tab.

1. To capture a dump of the IMA Service, open the Debug Diagnostics Tool from Start > (All) Programs > IIS Diagnostics 32-bit > Debug Diagnostics Tool 1.0.

2. A program’s user interface appears and a second later, a wizard window appears asking you to Select a rule type (what you want the program to do). The options are as follows:

a. Crash

b. IIS Hang

c. Memory and Handle Leak

3. To create a once-off dump file with this tool, clear the wizard dialog (click Cancel or press Esc) and click the Processes tab.

4. Locate and select the IMA Service (ImaSrv.exe) from the list of running processes.

5. Right-click on the process and you are presented with a context list of options, namely:

a. Monitor For Leaks

b. Create Full Userdump

c. Create Mini Userdump

d. Attach Debugger

e. Terminate Process

f. Copy > (the options under this sub-menu are not relevant to this article)

6. Select option B – Create Full Userdump. Full userdumps are far more informative than mini Userdumps.

7. Once the dump has been created, click OK on the information dialog that tells the path and name of the dump files. The default location for this is ..\Program Files\IIS Resources\DebugDiag\Logs\Misc\.

8. To find the dump file, click the yellow folder icon on the toolbar and it will open an Explorer window where the dump file was written to disk. Log files are written here, but open the Misc directory to find the actual dump files.

9. These dumpfiles are written out using the following naming convention: ProcessName_PID_xxxxx_Date_xx_xx_xxxx_Time_xx_xx_xxXM_xxx_Manual Dump.dmp.

10. Compress and send to Citrix Technical Support for dedicated problem analysis.

Citrix Links

CTX108173 – How to Attach NTSD to a Process and Save a Dump

CTX106566 – How to Attach WinDbg to a Process

CTX105888 – How to Set NTSD as a Default Windows Postmortem Debugger

Microsoft Links

278689 – How to Manually Create a User.dmp File with Dr.Watson

286350 – How to use ADPlus to troubleshoot "hangs" and "crashes"

824344 – How to debug Windows services

User Mode Process Dumper Version 8.0.2826

Uninstalling Debug Diagnostics Tool

You can either completely uninstall this tool using the Windows Add or Remove Programs applet, or just selectively add/remove other features included with the IIS Diagnostics toolset. See the included Help file for full details.