How to enable Core dumps on RedHat/CentOS?

Context

We may need to enable Core dumps to help investigate stack traces.

Method

systemd environments

Create a location for the Core files

• sudo mkdir -p /opt/corefiles/
• chmod 0777 /opt/corefiles

Set kernel.core_pattern to desired path for coredump files

• Dynamically through sysctl :

sysctl -w kernel.core_pattern=/opt/corefiles/core.%e.%t.%p
sysctl -w kernel.core_pipe_limit=0
sysctl -w kernel.core_uses_pid=0
sysctl -w fs.suid_dumpable=1

• Or make the changes persistent in /etc/sysctl.conf and run sudo sysctl -p

• Verify Core pattern

  • cat /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern

Edit /etc/security/limits.conf

• add the following line entry at the bottom of the file (before # End of file)

* hard core unlimited
​​​​​​​* soft core unlimited

exit and re-enter current shell.

• Modify /etc/systemd/system.conf
  • add DefaultLimitCORE=infinity
• Modify your systemd aerospike service configuration
  • vi /etc/systemd/system/aerospike.service.d/override.conf
  • add the following:

[Service]
LimitCORE=infinity

• reload the new systemd config and restart aerospike service

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl stop aerospike
sudo systemctl start aerospike
sudo systemctl status aerospike

Notes

Test coredump

• Force asd to do a SIGSEGV

• Generate a kernel panic in non-prod environment

Applies To Earliest Version

Applies To Latest Version