Notes & articles

Release notes - version 7

Version 7.4 – 12 August 2012

Bug fixes and enhancements

• Adds average time to the first SQL result, useful where a SQL query runs more than once.
• Easier to find timing controls to change timing between milliseconds/seconds/percentage/CPU ticks.
• Supports .NET 4.5.
• Supports Visual Studio 2012.
• Improved the reliability of Find options
• Other bug fixes.

Version 7.3.1 – 6 August 2012

Bug fixes and enhancements

• Re-fixed the bug 'Application pools in IIS should now always restart with the correct version of the .NET framework, and in the correct mode (classic or integrated pipeline mode)', which was accidentally undone in ANTS Performance Profiler 7.3.
• Improved the user experience of the consent dialog box displayed by the Customer Improvement Program. This change will not be visible to users upgrading from ANTS Performance Profiler 7.3 or earlier.

Version 7.3 – 10 July 2012

New features

This release introduces the following new features:

• HTTP call profiling. When profiling ASP.NET applications, you can now see inbound HTTP requests in the call tree. This gives you an instant overview of the HTTP calls made while your application ran, and helps you relate your results to user actions in your application: .NET methods are shown as children of the HTTP requests that initiated them. For details, see Working with the call tree.
• Method grid filtering. Right-click on any method in the methods grid to hide or show only the selected method, class, or namespace. For details, see Filtering the call tree and methods grid.
• SQL Server Compact Edition support. Calls to SQL CE servers are now displayed automatically in the call tree, with full timing and hit count data available in Database Calls view. For details of all servers supported, see Working with Database Calls view.

Bug fixes and enhancements

• You can now select a query in Database Calls view, and click to see its .NET parents in the call tree view. For details, see Working with Database Calls view.
• The latest version of the ANTS Performance Profiler licensing client lets you optionally associate an email address and username with your activation, to help manage multiple licenses.
• ANTS Performance Profiler Standard edition now lets you save and export results - features previously limited to Professional edition.
• "Find" now works in more cases on the methods grid and call tree.
• This release fixes several race conditions that caused crashes on shut down or on loading results. It also includes a fix to prevent the profiler from misidentifying .NET application pools in IIS.
• ANTS Performance Profiler Standard edition now lets you save and export results (this feature was previously limited to Professional edition).

Known issues

• In the call tree, when profiling applications hosted in IIS or IIS Express, timings and hit counts shown for HTTP nodes may be greater in "Methods with source" view than in "All methods" view. For full details, see the Knowledge Base article.
• In higher DPI modes, the Application Settings options to record file I/O and to profile child processes may disappear. As a workaround, these options can be set manually: see the Knowledge Base article.
• Unmanaged code that loads .NET COM objects may crash with a heap corruption exception when line-level profiling is used. If this error occurs, use a profiling mode that excludes line-level timings.
• If you have chosen a specific thread on the call tree view, the database call view link to switch back to the call tree will work only for calls that ran on the selected thread. To enable links, switch to the call tree, and select "All threads" on the results toolbar. For further details, see Changing results display options.
• For some applications, the call graph may show erroneous hit counts for HTTP nodes. Refer to the call tree for correct counts.

Version 7.2 – 29 May 2012

New features

This release introduces the following new features:

• Database call profiling. The Professional edition of ANTS Performance Profiler now automatically captures timings for any SQL call made by your .NET code, and displays them in the call tree. See how your .NET code calls any SQL, Oracle, or Amazon RDS server, with timing and hitcount data to help you understood bottlenecks in database performance. For details, see Profiling SQL queries.
• Remote SQL profiling support. See performance data for calls to remote databases, as well as those that run on your local machine.
• Redesigned database calls view. See an overview of all the database calls your application makes, with details of timings and hitcounts. For details, see Working with Database Calls view.
• Call tree filtering. Filter the call tree to hide (or show only) specific methods, classes, or namespaces. For details, see Working with the call tree.

Bug fixes and enhancements

• Windows Vista or later is no longer required for SQL call profiling.
• Assemblies and methods marked SecurityTransparent (or, in .NET 3.5 and earlier, marked as partially trusted) can now be profiled without crashing. Line level timings are by default unavailable for methods marked in this way, but line-level profiling can be enabled by modifying the assembly. For details, see Enabling line-level profiling for SecurityTransparent methods.
• Application pools in IIS should now always restart with the correct version of the .NET framework, and in the correct mode (classic or integrated pipeline mode). This fixes an issue introduced in the last release.
• Streamlined display controls. Switch more easily between views of your application's call stacks, database calls, and file I/O performance. Include all methods, or only those with source.

Known issues

• Support for the early access version of continuous profiling, present in version 7.0, has been removed from version 7.2.
• Results files created in version 7.2 cannot be opened in earlier versions of ANTS Performance Profiler. Results files created in earlier versions can be opened in the latest release.
• Assemblies compiled into NGen profile images, e.g. by tools like BugAid, may crash under instrumented profiling modes. For details see the Knowledge Base.

Please note that ANTS Performance Profiler version 7.1 was an internal build and not given a public release.

Version 7.0 – 16 February 2012

Features, enhancements, and bug fixes

This release of ANTS Performance Profiler adds full support for profiling SharePoint 2010 sites, web applications running in IIS Express, and web applications deployed to Windows Azure or Amazon EC2.

The new integrated decompilation tool, using .NET Reflector technology, lets you decompile methods without source directly from the ANTS interface. You can navigate decompiled source from third-party and framework assemblies as if it was your own code. If you have the PDB file, you can even view line-level timings for the decompiled code, letting you identify the exact code that caused the bottleneck.

The release also includes an early access version of the ANTS Performance Profiler continuous profiling tool, a new profiler mode under development at Red Gate. It's designed to log performance data on live, running ASP.NET applications. The tool logs method calls as they happen on your site, and stores results to display in a web interface: browse back through the timeline to see historical performance data, and analyze problems as they really occurred.

• Watch your code execute while your site is used, with hit counts, timings, and CPU figures.
• View real data captured while performance issues occurred: no need to stop your site, relaunch with a profiler, and guess at reproduction steps.
• Access results directly in your web browser.

This early access build of continuous profiling features an automatic installer, a timeline showing CPU usage, and a call tree that lets you see the method calls executing during a selected period of your application's execution. For full details, see Setting up continuous profiling.

Supported .NET Framework Versions

• 1.1
• 2.0
• 3.0
• 3.5
• 4.0
• Silverlight 4
• Silverlight 5

The .NET 3.5 runtime must be installed in order for ANTS Performance Profiler to run.

Supported OS Versions

• Windows XP SP2 or later
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008 R2

Supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of all listed OSs. Windows 2000 is no longer supported.

Applications running on Windows Azure and Amazon EC2 platforms can also be profiled.

The following feature requires the .NET 4.0 runtime and Windows Vista or later:

• Attach to process

The following features require Windows Vista or later:

• File I/O counters
• SQL counters

Supported Visual Studio Versions

The following versions of Microsoft Visual Studio are supported by the ANTS Performance Profiler 7 add-in:

• Visual Studio 2005
• Visual Studio 2008
• Visual Studio 2010

System Requirements

• 512MB RAM (minimum)
• 1GB free hard disk space for profiler results

Known Issues

• While the continuous profiler IIS module is installed, other profilers – including the desktop – will be unable to profile applications running in IIS on this computer. To re-enable other profilers with IIS, uninstall the IIS profiler module. See Setting up continuous profiling.
• Line-level timings are not available for Silverlight applications.
• Sandboxed web parts created in SharePoint 2010 cannot be profiled as child processes of the parent SharePoint collection. Instead the dedicated SPUserCodeV4 process can be profiled as a Windows service. For details, see Profiling SharePoint
• SharePoint subsites do not appear in the dropdown SharePoint site selection menu in Application Settings. Subsites can still be profiled by entering the URL directly into the ASP.NET web application (URL) field: for details, see Profiling SharePoint subsites.
• "My" sites in SharePoint can be profiled only on the original port, not on an unused port. For details on "My" sites, see Introduction to "My" site (MSDN).
• Some cheaper motherboards have an issue that causes their high performance timer to jump backwards or forwards in time by significant periods. This can cause anomalous results to appear in ANTS Performance Profiler 7, since the product relies on that timer to accurately measure application performance. If you experience this issue you should upgrade your motherboard drivers to the latest version.
• A limitation in Windows means that it is not possible to successfully attach to a .NET 4 process more than once.
• If you have Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista or later, it is not possible to profile websites on IIS.
• On Windows Vista and Windows 7, after profiling IIS using attach to process, ANTS Performance Profiler 6 sometimes cannot stop the session.  If this happens, restart ANTS Performance Profiler before starting a new profiling session. 
• In some cases, Windows Services do not restart properly after profiling.
• To profile an XBAP application, Internet Explorer must be set as your default browser and it must be closed before profiling.
• Custom event markers are not available when profiling Silverlight applications.

 

 

See also version 6.xx release notes.