dot.NET Profiler

In the last entry I’ve touched upon the odds software developers face in view of a highly competitive market environment and how to overcome the dilemmas posed. Now I’d like to just highlight the advantages of integrating your profiling and tracing throughout the entire lifecycle of your application to achieve ultimate quality assurance. Please spare a moment to consider …

Optimize SW development right from the outset!

Streamline your developing process with SpeedTrace Pro to raise productivity and effectiveness by introducing quality management and software performance checks in the very early stages of development. Trim down your test phases and thereby minimize time for corrections. Shorten your development cycles without ungainly side-effects, achieve real competitive edge and increase your ROI.

Use SpeedTrace Pro – the sooner the better!

By proactively starting to profile your code in the initial stages and integrating your performance checks for every step in the development process, you will avoid the risk of dragging bugs and flaws throughout the project which may later cause stability issues. Build and raise your software architecture on a sound and stable foundation with SpeedTrace Pro. Identify performance issues and bottlenecks in no time and detect the flaws in your source code before they get a chance to become big sources of instability in the final stages.

Use SpeedTrace Pro – better late than never!

Even if you cannot manage to start profiling until the end of a development phase, SpeedTrace Pro’s super-fast trace engine is extremely apt to pinpoint your problem in next to no time. Its rich functionality (wide range of settings, views, filters, triggers, special features, etc.) will certainly help you to lay bare the complex processes that lead to it and finally enable you to drill down to the root causes in your code lines.

Version 3.4 cloud power expands diagnostics

Version 3.4 to be released shortly adds new cutting-edge functionality (test automation, remote/distributed tracing and profiling) essentially extending monitoring capabilities beyond the release phase into maintenance and support. It thus expands the diagnostics to the entire lifecycle of your application regardless of time or location, making it virtually ubiquitous on request.

Achieve competitive edge, integral quality management supreme customer satisfaction – with SpeedTrace Pro! Download SpeedTrace Pro 3.4 now!

Performance, speed and stability – Issue No. 1

In all fields of software development, consumer demands and immense competition are mounting pressures to increase performance, speed and stability at an accelerating pace. Increasingly realistic computer graphics, real-time rendition and stable flow scenarios require highly sophisticated computer hardware and software. Every millisecond counts! Any runtime lost can lead to jerky presentation, lags, loss of data or hung sessions.

Software quality in a competitive world

The development lifecycles of software are being forcibly narrowed under the growing pressures of highly competitive markets. Increasingly more sophisticated follow-up versions have to be released with shorter lifecycles. Whoever is first to release any software product, is apt to win the race. However, here comes the dilemma: Shortening lifecycles under pressure tend to lead to error-prone software. Consequently, a growing number of service packs have to be issued to correct imperfect versions. This in fact shows that the time to develop has actually been pushed into the support phase. Users are liable to become involuntary beta testers having to install one update after another …

Costs of error under pressure

Unaided and badly equipped software testers and developers might have indistinct hunches or vague ideas why their software does not behave as expected under certain circumstances. But they usually have an insufficient notion why, let alone where or how, so much memory space, capacity and time gets wasted on simple tasks and why things are not working out properly according to plan. This is also why a lot of time gets lost on trouble-shooting, bug-trapping, and futile attempts to resolve performance issues and memory leaks.

Resolve the dilemma of quality under pressure

The SpeedTrace concept provides software developers and testers with just the answers they have been looking for: Conclusive issue resolution by getting to the root on the basis of objective measurements (no intrusion!)  – performed in no time and at very little cost.

The key to competitive edge is integrated quality assurance and sound lifecycle management with a high-end profiler-tracer like SpeedTrace Pro.

Why not get a free trial period of SpeedTrace Pro Version 3.4 with test automation enabling you to trace and profile your software products and developments over the cloud!

Download SpeedTrace Pro 3.4 and apply for a trial period now!

SpeedTrace Pro 3.4.11 – new build now online!

As promised we have endowed our SpeedTrace Pro 3.4 CTP Version with integrated security locks to ensure maximum security and prevent foreign party misuse (unauthorized access, spying attempts, etc.).

New feature in version 3.4.11 – Security!

Security locks with a range of options from password-protected settings to authorization restrictions have been integrated.

Version 3.4.11 ready for download!

You can download the current BUILD 3.4.11 here:

Downlaod SpeedTrace 3.4.11

Profiling over the cloud – Upside

Tracing and profiling over the cloud has tremendous advantages enabling companies to introduce near to realtime, potentially ubiquitous deployment and thus seemingly to overcome all restrictions of time and space …

Security issues – Downside

However, wherever there is an upside there usually is also a downside to any new functionality: Without taking the necessary precautions, working in the cloud (remote tracing, distributed trace agents) is liable to raise serious security issues. You might find yourself at peril of being exposed to unauthorized access and spying activities if you don’t have any built-in security locks to prevent misuse. We believe that taking all necessary precautionary measures is a top priority concern for any software development.

Built-in security locks – Right side up!

To address the issue, SpeedTrace Pro now has integrated security locks that block any unauthorized access and/or spying attempts. You now have a fair amount of options to guarantee internet security ranging from password-protected settings to authorization restrictions. The new SpeedTrace Pro CTP Build 3.4.11, ready for download later on this week, implements these to perfection.

Distributed functionality …

SpeedTrace Pro 3.4.8 adds a special new feature to test automation and remote tracing: Previously, you had to start several SpeedTrace clients or instances, one for each machine you wanted to trace remotely. Now, you can activate    s e v e r a l   projects from within    o n e  and the  s a m e  UI to do so. This not only enables Remote but full-fledged Distributed Tracing. So you can not only trace and profile processes on any number of target machines belonging to customers or clients anywhere on the globe, but you can now do this simultaneously within one single user interface (UI).

… enables easier management …

For example, Machine A communicates with mit Machine B which communicates with Machine B … etc. Now, with distributed functionality, the SpeedTrace Client can record all three machines within one and the same UI at the same time. Whether you trace all 3 clients of a single customer or you trace 3 customers with their clients simultaneously from one UI, makes no difference.

… and a more structured analysis of distributed systems

Accordingly, an interface has been designed which provides a single point of reference to deal with logs and traces produced by various components of a distributed system. By recording and correlating the events throughout a distributed system of customer application, and thus being able to address the interactive relationships of its system components, SpeedTrace Pro prepares the ground for even more systematic and profound analyses of distributed application problems.

Download and request a trial license of the the new SpeedTrace (CTP) Version 3.4.8 Build from here:

http://www.ipcas.com/trace-and-profile/download.html#pro_ctp

We have enhanced our SpeedTrace Pro 3.4 Version.

New feature in version 3.4.8:
Support for tracing distributed .net applications running on multiple computers.

You can download the current BUILD 3.4.8 here:

Version 3.4.7 of our .Net
Tracing and Profiling Solution is available now.

A small bug in the DataTrace Engine was fixed.

Here you can download the latest build.

We have improved our SpeedTrace Pro 3.4 Version even further!

You can download the current BUILD 3.4.6 here:

Two separate setup installations

To enable the free distribution of recorders (trace agents) and independent tracing for advanced test automation, the program has been divided into two separate setups that run independently from one another.

The installation consists of 2 setups and 1 sample program
1st setup:       Just the recorder
2nd setup:      Recorder + SpeedTrace client

Both setups can be dowloaded directly from here:

http://dotnet-profiler.com/get-net-profiler-and-tracer-now/#pro_ctp

Test automation interface …

SpeedTrace Pro First Preview 3.4 Upgrade thus adds the following new features:

1. TraceAgentService (1st setup) runs independently without SpeedTrace license. So you now have a setup without the graphic configuration and analyzing component.

2. You now also have a test automation interface (2nd setup)!
a) Via Library (Tracing API)
- Recording API
- Analysis API
b) Via Command Line Interface (command files control the recorder)

… enables regular sanity check monitoring

This is only the first part of the features Version 3.4 will eventually have. But the features should come in useful to perform the sanity checks you might want to carry out regularly on your own or your clients’ apps:

(A) Command Line Interface

• The command line interface tool ipcas.SpeedTrace.SpeedTraceTool.exe is located in the folder <SpeedTraceAppDir>\etc.
• A sample command line file  (TestJob.txt) is located in the folder <SpeedTraceAppDir>\Samples\Testautomation\viaCLI

(B) Tracing API (Recording & Analysis)

• sample AutomationRecorderTester.csproj can be found in the folder <SpeedTraceAppDir>\Samples\viaAPI\AutomationRecorderTester

We welcome your evaluation feedback …

Since these features are still in the initial stages of testing, we would warmly welcome any suggestions you may have and ask you to report any difficulties the moment they crop up so that we can set things right as soon as possible. Should you have any questions, comments, or wishes, please do not hesitate to contact us at holger.heinrich@ipcas.de or bruce.roberts@ipcas.de

… and offer our fullest support

Of course, you will on request receive our ample support for best practices to profile and trace your app to your best advantage. We’d also be delighted to be able to demonstrate the full scope of SpeedTrace Pro to you and your colleagues and answer any further questions you may have in a cost-free Webinar.

You may also download the SpeedTrace Pro pre-release Version 3.4 from our SpeedTrace download section.

New major cutting-edge features

New features of the 3.4 Version (CTP to be released next week) include:

• Test automation interface
• Remote machine tracing
• Performance counters, e.g. CPU usage, I/O, Memory linked to the SpeedTrace outputs

So far the test automation interface and remote tracing have been implemented.

The test automation environment …

By separating the trace and analysis (profiling) components even further, you are now able to treat an almost unlimited array of clients (projects, applications, components, etc.) simultaneously in a distributed parallel fashion within your own test environment. All you have to do now is have each client download a “Redistributable Recorder Package” free of charge to install an independent (“distributed”) trace agent that traces the respective applications and records the entire operation process automatically similar to the “black box” in the field of aviation.

… and remote tracing capabilities …

Supported by this new test environment and remote tracing potential  (also for distributed apps) added to the SpeedTrace Pro software, you now have – at the server end – direct remote access to all your clients’ trace scenarios. Remote tracing of distributed apps is also enabled. At regular intervals or in emergency situations you can from there immediately view and interpret these trace recordings with our licensed software, perform the respective performance analyses, and evaluate for quick remedial action and expedient quality improvements.

… help you integrate QA into your development cycle!

Test automation and remote tracing is geared to streamline the organization of your performance analysis, testing routine, and problem-solving to the high level of systematic monitoring and quality control. It thereby thoroughly integrates QA into your development lifecycle management.

More specifics and the respective links for download will be submitted in our next entry in a couple of days …