When the operating system of an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance fails, a kdump file is generated. You can collect and submit kdump information to obtain troubleshooting assistance from Alibaba Cloud technical support personnel. This topic describes how to collect kdump information after the operating system of an instance fails.
Background information
Alibaba Cloud technical support personnel analyzes the submitted kdump information and identifies the root cause of the system failure. Then, you are notified about the results of the analysis.
You can also check kdump files by using the Windows Debugger (WinDbg) tool for Windows instances or the crash tool for Linux instances.
Linux instance
Connect to the Linux instance.
For more information, see Use Workbench to connect to a Linux instance over SSH.
Run the following command to collect kdump information:
sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs_dump_collector --params="-c"A command output similar to the following one indicates that kdump information is collected.

Windows instance
Connect to the Windows instance.
For more information, see Use Workbench to connect to a Windows instance over RDP.
Open Command Prompt.
Go to the assist directory.
cd C:\ProgramData\aliyun\assistView the information of files in the assist directory.
dirAccess the latest version of the directory. Example:
2.1.3.282.cd 2.1.3.282Collect kdump information.
acs-plugin-manager.exe --exec --plugin=ecs_dump_collector_win --params="-c"A command output similar to the following one indicates that kdump information is collected.

FAQ
If the error message shown in the following figure is displayed when you attempt to collect kdump information, it indicates that the dump service is not enabled in the operating system. 
Solution:
Run one of the following commands to enable the dump service.
Linux operating systems
sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin ecs_dump_config --params --enableWindows operating systems
acs-plugin-manager.exe -e -P ecs_dump_config_win -p "--enable"
Restart the instance in the ECS console for the new settings to take effect.