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.