ProcDump Usage Guide and Primer

Products

CA Service Desk Manager CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

When a Service Desk process is crashing in a Windows Server Environment, you can use the ProcDump utility to monitor that process and generate a full user dump on that process at the next crash occurrence. This document is a Quick Guide for generating a crash dump using ProcDump.

ProcDump is a command-line utility provided by Microsoft whose primary purpose is monitoring an application for CPU spikes and generating crash dumps from such occurrences. With the dump available, an administrator or software support may be able to determine the cause of the spike or loss of the process.

Environment

Release: 17.3 and higher
Component: CA Service Desk Manager

Resolution

All commands should be executed from an Admin command prompt, and from the same command prompt instance where possible.

Download the ProcDump Utility

Save the zip file to an appropriate location of your choosing and decompress the zip file. In our example, we download/save the Procdump.zip to the root of the C drive and uncompress to the same location. Decompress to C:\Procdump, which is also where the procdump executable will run. Location will contain:

 Directory of C:\Procdump

06/04/2026  02:48 PM    <DIR>          .
06/04/2026  02:48 PM    <DIR>          ..
06/04/2026  02:48 PM             7,490 Eula.txt
06/04/2026  02:48 PM         1,344,872 procdump.exe
06/04/2026  02:48 PM           724,328 procdump64.exe
06/04/2026  02:48 PM           726,336 procdump64a.exe

Locate the PID (Process ID) for the process that is crashing. The best way to do this is to run the "pdm_status" and "findstr" commands in conjunction to locate the specific PID value of the process of interest.

For this document, we will use domsrvr as an example. From an Admin command prompt, run the following command:
```
pdm_status | findstr domsrvr
```
You will see an entry such as this:

The PID we want is the first "domsrvr.exe" process, 10172.

Note: There are multiple domsrvr processes depending on your particular configuration. In this case, there are (1) domsrvr, (2) domsrvr:wsp, (3) domsrvr:hw and (4) domsrvr:rem. For this specific case, we are interested in generating a dump of the first domsrvr instance. You will need to be sure what process exactly you have to generate a crash dump, because depending of the environment, there are a lot of process running for the same binary, but using different command line arguments.

You may also use the Task Manager or "tasklist" to locate PID values as well.
cd to the location where procdump was extracted (C:\Procdump in this scenario)
Run the command below, with the PID of interest as a parameter.
```
procdump64.exe -e -t -ma [PID of interest]
```
In this example, the PID entry is 10172, so the command would be:
```
procdump64.exe -e -t -ma 10172
```
After running procdump, you will see the output below:

Leave the command prompt window open while monitoring for a loss.
After a loss of the process, you will see the output below in the same command prompt:
Locate the dmp file and send it to Broadcom Support, along with materials needed to troubleshoot a "crashing" or "hanging" process for Service Desk. Attach all such materials to a new or existing support case that is relevant and tasked to investigate such losses

Note: The dmp file should be located in the same place where procdump had been executed.

Additional Information

After restarting Service Desk services, PID will be different and you need to attach ProcDump for the new PID.

See also: Working with Broadcom Support to troubleshoot a "Crashing" or "Hanging" CA Service Desk Manager Process