Red Gate forums: ANTS Memory Profiler 7

RE: Profiling a different machine

jessica.ramos — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:10:02 GMT

I'm sorry to say that the Memory Profiler will need to be installed and running on the customer's machine. :/

RE: Windows 8/IE 10 and Silverlight 5 App`

Chris.Allen — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:44:27 GMT

We have good news- we have a patch that solves the Win8, SL5, IE10 issue:

ftp://support.red-gate.com/patches/ANTSMemoryProfiler/23Jan2013/

just overwrite your existing version.

When we bring out the next major version it will, of course, incorporate this patch code (and will have some really juicy new features too).

Profiling a different machine

AdamsGuitar — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:01:14 GMT

We have a customer who has an odd issue where our application is using up a huge amount of memory on the machine. We've so far been unable to reproduce the issue in our testing environment, so I'd like to use the Memory Profiler to examine snapshots. Unfortunately, we don't have permission to install new software on their computer, but I can copy files and run any executables.

Is there any way to either...

a) Deploy the memory profiler using XCopy (i.e. no Windows installer involved)
b) Capture a snapshot using a different utility, then perform analysis on the file back on my properly licensed machine?

RE: Not getting proper reference to the object

jessica.ramos — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:08:35 GMT

Hi there,

Thank you for your post. I believe we also have a support ticket open with you, but I've copied my last email below:

You can try expanding those objects' properties which might give some clues to determine the source where they were created. However, the profiler unfortunately gives no obvious link to the source code (as I understand it, this is for performance reasons) and so working out where exactly in the source code they were created can be quite tricky, especially when the objects don't directly relate to classes in your code. :/

RE: "By disposed objects" filter not available

bdemers — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:03:20 GMT

Philip,

I am experiencing the same issue as you; have you found any solutions since you posted last on this thread in April? For what it's worth, I found this page that says the "Disposed objects" filter is not available if your application targets .NET 1.1. Is that your problem? The application I am attempting to use this filter on is targeting 4.0.30319.296 so that, sadly, is not my issue.

Sincerely,
Brian Demers

Not getting proper reference to the object

RVA_Profiling — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:38:33 GMT

Hi,

I am using Prism in my application and while profiling I can that one of my user defined object is getting created by "Hashtable". The chain is ... "Hashtable"-->"System.Collections.Hashtable+bucket[]".. and so on ... Could you please help in determining the actual source of that object creation ?

RE: New Object Filter

james.billings — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:02:39 GMT

Thanks for your post. On the face of it, I'm not sure what would be happening here. According to the documentation, "New" is shown when the object in question is new between the two snapshots you're working with (not necessarily the baseline).

From your description then, it either sounds like we're spuriously detecting a new object when it's not actually the case, or something is triggering a new object to be created outside of your test processes.

I had a quick check in our bugtracker, and the behaviour you describe isn't currently listed as a known problem as far as I can see. Is it possible for you to recreate the problem in a smaller test-case (or are we able to obtain a copy of your application to test here?) If we can reproduce the same behaviour then I'm happy to log a bug and/or explain what's occurring

New Object Filter

aaronkupen — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:11:03 GMT

I'm currently trying to use this memory profiling software to determine the memory characteristics of some software that needs to have as close to 24/7 up-time as possible. I'm noticing some quirks when I try to do analysis using the "new object" filter.

What does it truly mean to be a new object? I'm aware of the context behind "new" when it comes to snapshots: if it wasn't in the baseline snapshot but exists in the current snapshot, then it is "new". But this doesn't necessarily seem to be working properly from my experience.

My procedure/scenario that I use to see this is as follows:

1) In my software I have a network object that gets created whenever a client connects to my service, creating the new network object on my service. The memory profiling software sees this and displays this behavior correctly.

2) After several minutes of idle time, and I can confirm that nothing is happening on the application level of my software, I take another snapshot and it correctly shows that no new objects were being created.

3) After another several minutes of idle time, I see that a new network object was created according to the memory profiler. My old one is no longer in the "surviving objects" filter. How can this be explained assuming that I am NOT instantiated a new networking object in my code?

I have logging statements in my constructor that explicitly lets me know when these objects have been instantiated, and when I see the newly created object I am not seeing these logging statements. I'm 100% positive that my application code is idle and is not instantiating these or any other new objects during this time period.

I've seen this with other classes in other projects as well and have always ignored it until now. Back to my original question, does "new" in the context of snapshots mean "instantiated" during these snapshots? From what I am seeing, it definitely does not mean this. How can I interpret this? If it doesn't mean instantiated, then what actually does it mean? Under what circumstances can this happen?

RE: WebDev.WebDev40.exe Crash on Start

james.billings — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:06:12 GMT

If it's crashing the webserver then we'll need to get some more information on that. Are there any messages in the Windows Event Log that may be relevant? Also, what happens if you try using IIS Express to host the site, any different? I guess we'll see how you get on with out-of-browser as in your other post!

RE: Cannot Profile SL5 App

james.billings — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:04:37 GMT

Hi thanks for your post- I assume you're trying "out of browser" due to the webdev40 problem you reported in another post?

That's likely to be a different issue, but this one may be caused by a security update issued by Microsoft. We have a workaround described in this article - can you try that?

Cannot Profile SL5 App

JoshSommers — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:55:56 GMT

I am trying to follow the instructions here:
http://www.red-gate.com/supportcenter/content/ANTS_Memory_Profiler/help/7.4/amp_setup_silverlight

I have set the type to ".NET Executable"
I have chosen "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe" as the .NET executable.
I have set the working directory to: C:\Users\xxx xxx\Desktop\WebTS3\WebTS3\Bin\Debug (which is the location of my XAP)
I have set the arguments to: /emulate:"C:\Users\xxx xxx\Desktop\WebTS3\WebTS3\Bin\Debug\IBOL.xap" /origin:"C:\Users\xxx xxx\Desktop\WebTS3\WebTS3\Bin\Debug\IBOL.xap"

When I click the "Start Profiling" button nothing happens. I get a message "Profiling Stopped. No results to display. you need to take a snapshot during profiling to see results."

Contents of the log:
08 May 2013 12:48:10.345 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Logging.LogService - Starting new ANTS Memory Profiler 7 session
08 May 2013 12:48:10.376 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Logging.LogService - Assembly version: 7.4.0.41
08 May 2013 12:48:20.048 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.OS.Local.LocalWindowsVersionInspector - Detected Windows version: Windows Server 2008 Business (6.1 64-bit)
08 May 2013 12:48:20.048 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - IIS is supported on installed OS version
08 May 2013 12:48:20.157 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Result of check to see if inetinfo.exe running: False
08 May 2013 12:48:20.204 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Result of check to see if W3SVC running: True
08 May 2013 12:48:20.204 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Checks confirm that IIS is running.
08 May 2013 12:48:20.204 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Result of check to see if W3SVC running: True
08 May 2013 12:48:20.204 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Checks confirm that IIS is enabled.
08 May 2013 12:48:20.204 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Successfully detected IIS installation: IIS 7 (Auto-detected)
08 May 2013 12:48:20.220 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Checks confirm that IIS is installed.
08 May 2013 12:48:27.458 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Trigger.TriggerServer - Starting trigger process C:\Program Files\Red Gate\ANTS Memory Profiler 7\RedGate.Profiler.Trigger_x86.exe
08 May 2013 12:48:28.971 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Trigger.TriggerServer - Trigger process has connected
08 May 2013 12:48:28.971 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Trigger.TriggerServer - A suitable trigger process is now available
08 May 2013 12:48:36.881 [9] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - ENGINE - Guessing inetsrv path as C:\Windows\system32\inetsrv
08 May 2013 12:48:37.349 [9] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.SharePointHelper - SharePoint version: none found (looking for 2010 or 2007 using registry keys)
08 May 2013 12:48:43.854 [8] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Logger - ANTS Memory Profiler Engine has started.
08 May 2013 12:48:43.854 [8] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Logger - Version: 7.4.0.41
08 May 2013 12:48:43.854 [8] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.PipeConnection - Listening for connections on \\.\pipe\AMP7.
08 May 2013 12:48:44.337 [9] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Starting 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe'
08 May 2013 12:48:44.915 [38] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Process has finished.
08 May 2013 12:49:19.203 [11] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Starting 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe'
08 May 2013 12:49:19.235 [38] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Process has finished.
08 May 2013 12:50:00.949 [8] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Starting 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe'
08 May 2013 12:50:06.097 [29] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Process has finished.
08 May 2013 12:54:41.727 [12] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Starting 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\sllauncher.exe'
08 May 2013 12:54:41.789 [35] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Process has finished.

WebDev.WebDev40.exe Crash on Start

JoshSommers — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:23:26 GMT

When I launch Memory Profiler 7.4 from within the Visual Studio 2012 IDE (or otherwise) to profile a Silverlight 5 Asp.net app, WebDev.WebServer40.exe immediately crashes before anything else happens.

Seems like MP is using the wrong version of WebServer40 (it's using the VS2010 version). This may have something to do with it?

Here is a log from an attempted session:

08 May 2013 12:17:43.040 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Logging.LogService - Starting new ANTS Memory Profiler 7 session
08 May 2013 12:17:43.058 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Logging.LogService - Assembly version: 7.4.0.41
08 May 2013 12:17:47.699 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.OS.Local.LocalWindowsVersionInspector - Detected Windows version: Windows Server 2008 Business (6.1 64-bit)
08 May 2013 12:17:47.700 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - IIS is supported on installed OS version
08 May 2013 12:17:47.735 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Result of check to see if inetinfo.exe running: False
08 May 2013 12:17:47.757 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Result of check to see if W3SVC running: True
08 May 2013 12:17:47.758 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Checks confirm that IIS is running.
08 May 2013 12:17:47.763 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Result of check to see if W3SVC running: True
08 May 2013 12:17:47.764 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Checks confirm that IIS is enabled.
08 May 2013 12:17:47.768 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Successfully detected IIS installation: IIS 7 (Auto-detected)
08 May 2013 12:17:47.771 [1] WARN RedGate.Profiler.IISSupport.Local.LocalIisInspector - Checks confirm that IIS is installed.
08 May 2013 12:17:50.122 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Trigger.TriggerServer - Starting trigger process C:\Program Files\Red Gate\ANTS Memory Profiler 7\RedGate.Profiler.Trigger_x86.exe
08 May 2013 12:17:50.433 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Trigger.TriggerServer - Trigger process has connected
08 May 2013 12:17:50.435 [1] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Trigger.TriggerServer - A suitable trigger process is now available
08 May 2013 12:17:59.398 [12] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Logger - ANTS Memory Profiler Engine has started.
08 May 2013 12:17:59.402 [12] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Logger - Version: 7.4.0.41
08 May 2013 12:17:59.404 [12] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.PipeConnection - Listening for connections on \\.\pipe\AMP7.
08 May 2013 12:17:59.605 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:01.124 [10] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.WebDevSession - Located VS2010 DevServer at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevServer\10.0
08 May 2013 12:18:01.126 [10] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.WebDevSession - Located VS2010 WebDev at: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevServer\10.0\WebDev.WebServer40.exe
08 May 2013 12:18:01.141 [10] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Starting 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevServer\10.0\WebDev.WebServer40.exe'
08 May 2013 12:18:01.184 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:01.262 [Profiler pipe monitor] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.PipeConnection - Process ID 0x2510 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevServer\10.0\WebDev.WebServer40.exe' has connected.
08 May 2013 12:18:01.311 [Profiler pipe monitor] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.PipeConnection - Suggesting that target write to C:\Users\Josh Sommers\AppData\Local\Red Gate\ANTS Memory Profiler 7\tmp1a60_8d019fd2c7c07d3_0
08 May 2013 12:18:03.239 [Profiler pipe monitor] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.PipeConnection - Connected and receiving data through C:\Users\Josh Sommers\AppData\Local\Red Gate\ANTS Memory Profiler 7\tmp1a60_8d019fd2c7c07d3_0.
08 May 2013 12:18:03.586 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.589 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.591 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.593 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.595 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.597 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.599 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.601 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.603 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:03.604 [10] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.IIS.IISUtilities - WaitForPort on address 127.0.0.1, port 65052
08 May 2013 12:18:38.718 [Profiler pipe monitor] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.PipeConnection - Pipe has been closed; most likely the process being profiled has terminated.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.727 [Profiler pipe monitor] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Basic.Pipe - Recycling pipe
08 May 2013 12:18:38.755 [32] INFO RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Sessions.BaseSession - Process has finished.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.760 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process 9488 is apparently not running: Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.764 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.766 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - System.ArgumentException
08 May 2013 12:18:38.775 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - at System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessById(Int32 processId, String machineName)
at ???.???.�?(Int32 )
08 May 2013 12:18:38.780 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process 9488 is apparently not running: Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.782 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.783 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - System.ArgumentException
08 May 2013 12:18:38.785 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - at System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessById(Int32 processId, String machineName)
at ???.???.�?(Int32 )
08 May 2013 12:18:38.789 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.WindowsPerfCounter - Error while trying to read performance counter data
System.InvalidOperationException: Counter is not single instance, an instance name needs to be specified.
at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.NextSample()
at ???.???.NextSample()
08 May 2013 12:18:38.800 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process 9488 is apparently not running: Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.802 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.804 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - System.ArgumentException
08 May 2013 12:18:38.805 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - at System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessById(Int32 processId, String machineName)
at ???.???.�?(Int32 )
08 May 2013 12:18:38.809 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process 9488 is apparently not running: Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.811 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - Process with an Id of 9488 is not running.
08 May 2013 12:18:38.812 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - System.ArgumentException
08 May 2013 12:18:38.814 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.PerformanceCounterSource - at System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessById(Int32 processId, String machineName)
at ???.???.�?(Int32 )
08 May 2013 12:18:38.816 [21] WARN RedGate.Profiler.Engine.Startup.Counters.WindowsPerfCounter - Error while trying to read performance counter data
System.InvalidOperationException: Counter is not single instance, an instance name needs to be specified.
at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.NextSample()
at ???.???.NextSample()

RE: WebDev.WebServer40.exe Dies upon Snapshot

Brian Donahue — Mon, 06 May 2013 10:21:39 GMT

Hi Kyle,

Unfortunately, the error code is a bit vague, so we will have to contact you by email. The only way to even begin to troubleshoot an access violation exception is by getting a memory dump from the process.

However I suspect this can happen with IIS if you enable 32-bit as well, but you are not using IIS.

WebDev.WebServer40.exe Dies upon Snapshot

knovak72 — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:53:03 GMT

I'm profiling a .Net 4.0 WCF service running under the Visual Studio Development Server (WebDev.WebServer40.exe). I start WebDev.WebServer40.exe from the New Session Window by selecting the ASP.NET web application (web development server) and entering the path to my .svc file. When I hit Start Profiling, the service starts and I'm able to capture an initial snapshot. I'm able to run 1 - maybe 2 APIs and take a snapshot after each run. However, I'm unable to capture anymore than 1 or 2 snapshots because WebDev.WebServer40.exe dies after the 2nd or 3rd snapshot request. I also tried running Memory Profiler as an administrator and still receive the same symptoms.

This is the error in the event viewer:

Faulting application name: WebDev.WebServer40.exe, version: 10.0.40219.1, time stamp: 0x4d5f345a
Faulting module name: clr.dll, version: 4.0.30319.296, time stamp: 0x50484aa9
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00025ae4
Faulting process id: 0x2060
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce482ab291f8f9
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevServer\10.0\WebDev.WebServer40.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\clr.dll
Report Id: b9231a99-b41e-11e2-a73a-002713ca685c

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Thanks,

Kyle

RE: Crash trying to profile memory on large process

Chris.Allen — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:53:58 GMT

Yes, you're right- its on our list of things to improve for the future.