Here is an example of a captured session : [ 399.597207] SysRq : Trigger a crash [ 399.599050] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null) [ 399.600421] IP: [] sysrq_handle_crash+0x16/0x20 [ 399.600745] PGD 3758e067 PUD 3d616067 PMD 0 [ 399.600745] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP ... * Starting enable remaining boot-time encrypted block devices[74G[ OK ] Cloud-init v. 0.7.5 running 'init' at Wed, 03 Jun 2015 07:33:31 +0000. Up 8.83 seconds. ci-info: ++++++++++++++++++++++++Net device info++++++++++++++++++++++++ ci-info: +--------+------+-----------+-------------+-------------------+ ci-info: | Device | Up | Address | Mask | Hw-Address | ci-info: +--------+------+-----------+-------------+-------------------+ ci-info: | lo | True | 127.0.0.1 | 255.0.0.0 | . | ci-info: | eth0 | True | 10.5.1.39 | 255.255.0.0 | fa:16:3e:09:27:0b | ci-info: +--------+------+-----------+-------------+-------------------+ ci-info: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Route info+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ci-info: +-------+-------------+----------+-------------+-----------+-------+ ci-info: | Route | Destination | Gateway | Genmask | Interface | Flags | ci-info: +-------+-------------+----------+-------------+-----------+-------+ ci-info: | 0 | 0.0.0.0 | 10.5.0.1 | 0.0.0.0 | eth0 | UG | ci-info: | 1 | 10.5.0.0 | 0.0.0.0 | 255.255.0.0 | eth0 | U | ci-info: +-------+-------------+----------+-------------+-----------+-------+ * Starting Ceph OSD[74G[ OK ] <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< * Starting Signal sysvinit that local filesystems are mounted[74G[ OK ] * Starting configure network device security[74G[ OK ] * Starting flush early job output to logs[74G[ OK ] ... * Starting Ceph OSD (start all instances)[74G[ OK ] * Starting regular background program processing daemon[74G[ OK ] * Starting deferred execution scheduler[74G[ OK ] Starting kdump-tools: * Starting Ceph MON (start all instances)[74G[ OK ] * Stopping save kernel messages[74G[ OK ] * Starting Ceph MON[74G[ OK ] * Starting automatic crash report generation[74G[ OK ] * Stopping CPU interrupts balancing daemon[74G[ OK ] * running makedumpfile -c -d 31 /proc/vmcore /var/crash/201506030733/dump-incomplete * Stopping Ceph MON (start all instances)[74G[ OK ] * Starting Ceph monitor (all instances)[74G[ OK ] The kernel version is not supported. The created dumpfile may be incomplete. cyclic buffer size has been changed: 32767 => 32640 Excluding unnecessary pages : [ 0.0 %] / * Starting Create Ceph client.admin key when possible[74G[ OK ] Excluding unnecessary pages : [100.0 %] | Excluding unnecessary pages : [100.0 %] \ Excluding unnecessary pages : [100.0 %] - Excluding unnecessary pages : [100.0 %] / Excluding unnecessary pages : [100.0 %] | * Starting OpenSSH server[74G[ OK ] Copying data : [ 9.4 %] \ Copying data : [ 25.1 %] - Copying data : [ 47.2 %] / Copying data : [ 59.8 %] | Copying data : [ 70.5 %] \ Copying data : [ 93.6 %] - * Stopping Read required files in advance (for other mountpoints)[74G[ OK ] Excluding unnecessary pages : [100.0 %] / Copying data : [100.0 %] | The dumpfile is saved to /var/crash/201506030733/dump-incomplete. makedumpfile Completed. * kdump-tools: saved vmcore in /var/crash/201506030733 * running makedumpfile --dump-dmesg /proc/vmcore /var/crash/201506030733/dmesg.201506030733 The kernel version is not supported. The created dumpfile may be incomplete. The dmesg log is saved to /var/crash/201506030733/dmesg.201506030733. makedumpfile Completed. * kdump-tools: saved dmesg content in /var/crash/201506030733 Wed, 03 Jun 2015 07:33:49 +0000 We can clearly see the Ceph OSD start messages during the kernel dump