Method and apparatus for generating dynamic microcores

A method of generating a microcore file, which is a subset of a full core dump, for a networked storage system includes generating a microcore file according to a microcore specification, and dynamically defining the microcore specification at runtime of the network storage system. The microcore specification is dynamically defined with information provided by results of an event that triggers the generation of the microcore file. After the microcore specification is defined, a region of a system memory is identified according to the microcore specification. The method further includes dumping the data from the region of the system memory into the microcore file.