Verifying your dump device

If a system crash occurs and paging space was used as the dump device, the dump is copied to the /var/adm/ras/vmcore.n file by default, where n is a sequence number. If there is not enough space to perform the copy, the user is prompted during reboot to save the dump to some other media. To avoid losing a dump due to a lack of a tape drive configured to the partition, always create a separate dump device that is the same size as your paging space, given that paging space is currently your dump device.

To verify your dump device, type smitty dump, and select Show Current Dump Devices. If paging space is your dump device, the output will be similar to the following:

                                  COMMAND STATUS

Command: OK            stdout: yes           stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

primary              /dev/hd6
secondary            /dev/sysdumpnull
copy directory       /var/adm/ras
forced copy flag     TRUE
always allow dump    FALSE
dump compression     OFF