John's Blog: Windows Crash Dumps
April 19, 2016
A simple fact of computer software is that it is safe to assume that all non-trivial software has bugs. As much as I'd love to tell you that Rumpus never crashes, the truth is that Rumpus is an extremely sophisticated piece of software. So, while we can't eliminate bugs, we can sure do our best to squash them when they are found.
Crashing bugs get a high-priority, because they cause server outages. The good news is that trouble-shooting tools for crashing problems in particular are really good and can often lead to a quick diagnosis and resolution.
If your Rumpus for Windows server is stopping unexpectedly, the most important thing you can do is direct the system to save crash dumps where they are easily accessible. To do this, download this file to the server, unzip it, and double-click:
Once you have done this, Windows will save files called "rumpusd.exe.12345.dmp" into the Rumpus logs folder at "C:\Rumpus\Logs\".
Allow the problem to occur 2 or 3 times. Multiple crash dump files help us confirm that the problem is consistent, but more than 3 dumps are not necessary. Send the 2 or 3 files to "support@maxum.com" along with any other information about the nature of the problem you have, and we'll investigate.
Details about the problem, aside from the crash dump, can be very helpful, so please include whatever information you have. Is the problem consistently reproducible? If there is a reliable way to cause the crash, we can almost always get to the bottom of the problem, and resolve it, quickly. Does the problem occur for certain users? For certain files? Does it occur during Web activity? When clients are using an FTP client? During SFTP sessions? What version of Rumpus are you running? Providing this information up front will always speed up the process of diagnosing and resolving problems.
