The Crash Handler

Runtime > Monitor Runtime > The Crash Handler

The Crash Handler can be used to help determine the cause of an unexpected program shut down.

If Citect SCADA suffers an unexpected shut down, the Crash Handler will create a compressed file containing a number of log and data files that may be useful in determining the cause. These files include:

syslog.dat
Citect.ini
tracelog.dat
kernel.dat
debug.log
user.dmp (see below)

In a multi-process system, these files may use extended names, for example:

syslog.IOServer.Cluster1.dat

You can configure Citect SCADA to save the Crash Handler zip file to the local Logs directory. If an unexpected shut down occurs, the path to the saved zip file will be recorded in the syslog.dat. The compressed file can be also emailed to Schneider Electric for analysis, or to a specified email address.

These features are not enabled by default; to enabled and configure the Crash Handler you need to set the [CrashHandler] parameters.

Note: Schneider Electric may use the information included in an unexpected shutdown email to help resolve problems in future releases, but it cannot reply or follow up a problem with users directly. To discuss these, contact Technical Support.

Configuring user.dmp

User.dmp is a configurable file that logs exception details. When an unexpected shut down occurs, it captures objects and their variables in memory in a process referred to as a "mini-dump". This dump file can be analyzed by Technical Support.

The information included in this process is adjustable via the parameter [Debug]MiniDumpType. It supports a "light" mini-dump with local stack information for unmanaged code, through to a "heavy" dump (the default setting) including accessible memory for a process and thread information. You can also switch the mini-dump off.

To reduce the amount of disk space used by a heavy dump, it is compressed after it is created (along with other log files) into a file called "Citect32Exception_[timestamp].zip".

To help manage the amount of disk space used by this process, you can adjust the number of Citect32Exception_[timestamp].zip files that are stored using [Debug]MaxMiniDumps. You can also raise a hardware alarm to warn when disk space on the drive where these files are stored falls below a specified minimum amount using .