Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Questions about YourKit .NET Profiler
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eriksquires
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:31 pm

Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by eriksquires »

Hi,

It would be really nice if you explicitly included a few pointers for IIS. I suggest:

[*] "Treat IIS just like any other remote .Net application." Right now your documentation discusses remote profiling, but it's not clear if remote IIS is even supported. Leaving that out makes it seem like you are hiding the fact that it doesn't work, which isn't really the case. Sorry, I've seen many vendors go this route.
[*] "You will have to reboot the remote server."
[*] "You won't see any w3pc.exe programs until the server has activity on it." You say this somewhere, but perhaps having all three together would be a really really nice add on for your online docs.
[*] Though it's not necessarily your problem, it would be nice to discuss control of the multiple worker processes. Like how to lower them to 1, whether it's even necessary, etc. Even if this is just a pointer to a Microsoft doc, it would be useful.
[*] In discussing remote agent installation, maybe bold and highlight the fact that the DLL version goes with the .NET version, not the OS version, and discuss if both 32 and 64 can be run simultaneously or not.

It's not like your documentation is wrong, but I would have been spared a lot of trial and error with this.

Thanks,


Erik
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by Anton Katilin »

Hello Erik

Thank you for the suggestions.

Local IIS is explicitly described in
http://www.yourkit.com/docs/net70/help/ ... al_iis.jsp

There is no explicit topic for remote IIS.
You can either install the profiler locally on the remote machine and then follow the local IIS instructions, or read the topic about remote profiling of any types of applications including services and thus including IIS:
http://www.yourkit.com/docs/net70/help/ ... remote.jsp
[*] "Treat IIS just like any other remote .Net application." Right now your documentation discusses remote profiling, but it's not clear if remote IIS is even supported.
Yes, IIS should be treated as any other remote application, and thus the instructions for the remote profiling apply.

Anyway, to make this more explicit, we'll add a dedicated topic covering remote IIS.
[*] "You will have to reboot the remote server."
It is said in http://www.yourkit.com/docs/net70/help/ ... remote.jsp
under "Special notes on profiling a Windows service can be found here <link>"

We'll state this explicitly.
[*] "You won't see any w3pc.exe programs until the server has activity on it." You say this somewhere, but perhaps having all three together would be a really really nice add on for your online docs.
It is said in http://www.yourkit.com/docs/net70/help/ ... al_iis.jsp
as "The profiler will automatically connect to the profiled application as soon as the application receives first request, e.g. as soon as you open its page in your browser."

We'll clarify the wording.
[*] In discussing remote agent installation, maybe bold and highlight the fact that the DLL version goes with the .NET version, not the OS version,
I'm afraid it's not clear what you mean. Could you please clarify.
and discuss if both 32 and 64 can be run simultaneously or not.
Yes, both 32 and 64-bit agent DLLs can be registered simultaneously, and thus 32 and 64-bit processes can be simultaneously profiled on one machine with a 64-bit Windows installed.
The installer registers both the DLLs.
The instructions for manual remote profiling (i.e. if you don't use the installer and simply copy the DLLs to the remote machines) includes instructions on how to register both of them ("2. Register the DLL on the remote machine"):
http://www.yourkit.com/docs/net70/help/ ... remote.jsp
It's not like your documentation is wrong, but I would have been spared a lot of trial and error with this.
Thank you for the detailed suggestions. We'll add/improve the topics.

Best regards,
Anton
eriksquires
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:31 pm

Re: Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by eriksquires »

Hi Anton,

To most of your comments, I guess what I mean is, it would be nice to have this all under one topic. As you yourself pointed out by posting all the different links, they are scattered. A single page specifically for IIS that discussed all of these topics, especially about remote support would be a god send.
I'm afraid it's not clear what you mean [about 32-bit vs. 64-bit]. Could you please clarify.
This is again a case where your documentation is correct, but it's still easy to trip over. We tripped over this because we run Windows 2008 64 bit in some places and Windows 2003 32 bit elsewhere. However, the ASP .NET application that we are profiling in all cases is 32 bit. We made the mistake of installing the agent based on the OS, which meant Yourkit client could not see the IIS helper processes. Like I said, your documentation is correct but an exclamation point or warning would have been nice. In the Confluence wiki (may it's name be forever praised) this would be a little greay panel or something with a yellow triangle warning saying "Note: Be sure to match the dll version with the .NET/application bit type not with the OS bit type."

Thanks again!


Erik
eriksquires
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2012 7:31 pm

Re: Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by eriksquires »

Anton,

A follow up,
Anyway, to make this more explicit, we'll add a dedicated topic covering remote IIS.
It doesn't have to be it's own page for remote. Just a nice line in the IIS topic about it, and linking to the remote install procedures is all I need. Think of it from the perspective of some one who is using Yourkit ONLY for IIS. Many SaaS providers are like that. We don't really profile standalone applications. Sometimes they are remote, sometimes local but really our focus is 100% IIS.

By consolidating all of these pointers/suggestions/topics under a single IIS quickstart or something, it would REALLY lower the learning curve, burden and effort to search through the documentation for us as well as increase our confidence that yes, we really are doing the right thing for IIS profiling.

Thanks again,


Erik
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by Anton Katilin »

Hello Erik

We've added a request to rework corresponding help pages.

Best regards,
Anton
sprasai
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Mar 13, 2013 2:15 am

Re: Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by sprasai »

hi have a similar problem related to 2008 and 2003 windows server while setting up for remote profiling ( i have sent screen shots to [email protected] and additional information). I am using yourkit 8.0.3 for .net. All my applications run in 64 bit OS and the applications are in 64 bit .net version. I was able to register the ynpagent.dll from win64 folder on all of my 2008 servers. I could not setup a single 2003 server. The actual .net Framework version are from 2.0 to 4.0. I was getting

\\ Loadlibrary ("ynpagent.dll") - failed. The specified procedure could not be found. \\

Is there a separate dll I need to use for 2003?
Anton Katilin
Posts: 6172
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:37 am

Re: Online Doc suggestions for IIS users

Post by Anton Katilin »

If you register the 64-bit dll on Windows Server 2003 please substitute ynpagent.dll with ynpagent_xp.dll.
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