Can I programmatically create a memory snapshot on a PC without Visual studio?

Question

Can I programmatically create a memory snapshot on a PC without Visual studio?

Josh Hart 21

The profiling tool is very useful at debugging memory leaks using the memory snapshot feature.
However if there is a memory leak that is happening on a client/customers PC that we do not know how to reproduce then we can not figure out what is wrong.

Is there a way to programmatically generate a memory snapshot file that the customer can then send us so that we can load it into the profiling tool to analyse the memory usage and where the memory leaks could be happening?

My application uses a mixture of managed and unmanaged memory however I am fairly certain that the problem lies in the unmanaged code

David Lowndes 4,726 Reputation points

2021-04-21T08:31:05.253+00:00

Have you tried MiniDumpWriteDump?
Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-21T21:49:01.54+00:00

The profiling tool that is built into visual studio that is very useful is the one in the screenshot below.
The fact that I can take snapshots then view the native heap in stack view is very useful
Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-21T22:00:10.897+00:00

Thanks for the Reply David
There are already .dmp files created upon crashes however when there is a crash related to a memory leak then there is not enough memory to create the dump file.
I could possibly monitor the memory and then create a dump file early to get around this issue however I also do not know how to see the heap or get a memory snapshot from this dump file.
Is a type of dump file that does allow me to see the native heap and where memory is building up? If so how do I do this?
David Lowndes 4,726 Reputation points

2021-04-21T22:49:38.117+00:00

Perhaps UMDH is what you need?
Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-28T22:35:34.963+00:00

Thanks David
This seems to be the closest I can find to a solution.
I have tested on a PC without visual studio and I found that I needed to copy the Debuggers folder within windows kits from a PC with visual studio to the PC without.
This also is not really automated and is a little tricky so a customer that is not very tech savy would need us to remotely access they're PC in order to run UMDH to generate these files.
That being said it is still good that now I have a way to get the information that I need from a customers PC and I could possibly write an app or batch file that could make this process possible for a non technical user
David Lowndes 4,726 Reputation points

2021-04-28T23:45:37.69+00:00

FWIW, rather than copy things, I think you're supposed to install UMDH via the Debugging Tools for Windows aspect of the Windows SDK installation, so maybe check that and just provide instructions for your customers.

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David Lowndes 4,726 Reputation points

2021-04-21T08:31:05.253+00:00

Have you tried MiniDumpWriteDump?
Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-21T21:49:01.54+00:00

The profiling tool that is built into visual studio that is very useful is the one in the screenshot below.
The fact that I can take snapshots then view the native heap in stack view is very useful
Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-21T22:00:10.897+00:00

Thanks for the Reply David
There are already .dmp files created upon crashes however when there is a crash related to a memory leak then there is not enough memory to create the dump file.
I could possibly monitor the memory and then create a dump file early to get around this issue however I also do not know how to see the heap or get a memory snapshot from this dump file.
Is a type of dump file that does allow me to see the native heap and where memory is building up? If so how do I do this?
David Lowndes 4,726 Reputation points

2021-04-21T22:49:38.117+00:00

Perhaps UMDH is what you need?
Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-28T22:35:34.963+00:00

Thanks David
This seems to be the closest I can find to a solution.
I have tested on a PC without visual studio and I found that I needed to copy the Debuggers folder within windows kits from a PC with visual studio to the PC without.
This also is not really automated and is a little tricky so a customer that is not very tech savy would need us to remotely access they're PC in order to run UMDH to generate these files.
That being said it is still good that now I have a way to get the information that I need from a customers PC and I could possibly write an app or batch file that could make this process possible for a non technical user
David Lowndes 4,726 Reputation points

2021-04-28T23:45:37.69+00:00

FWIW, rather than copy things, I think you're supposed to install UMDH via the Debugging Tools for Windows aspect of the Windows SDK installation, so maybe check that and just provide instructions for your customers.

Answer 1

Dylan Zhu-MSFT 6,426

Hi JoshHart,

Maybe you can refer to Profiler API, you need to call and use it in your project and it will output the collected data into a .vsp file.

By the way, according to your requirement, we suggest you could use VSDiagnostics.exe tool to collect the data. The tool locates at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Team Tools\DiagnosticsHub\Collector, and you can write a script (exe or other)for it, then you can package the script and the tool with dependencies , then move it to other machine which doesn't have visual studio.

Best Regards,
Dylan

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Josh Hart 21 Reputation points

2021-04-21T21:43:40.237+00:00
Hi Dylan,
Thanks for the response, I have looked into both of your suggestions above
Profiler API:

I got stuck with the dwId, can I assign this as anything or does it need to reflect some sort of ID in the app.

I could not find any function within Profiler API to take a snapshot or specify a file location

Does the profiler need to start when the app is started or can it just be started then stopped straight away to get a memory snapshot

I got a little further with VSDiagnostics.exe as I was able get a .diagsession file out of it however that file did not open in visual studio 2019.

I do not like the fact that I had to select the agent and the agent is called DotNetObjectAllocBase.json because I believe that usually DotNet is managed code whereas I want to see the Native memory.

Josh Hart 21

This is the commands from the batch file that I used for the VSDiagnostics tool

  cd /d C:
    cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Team Tools\DiagnosticsHub\Collector"

    VSDiagnostics.exe start 1 /attach:36468 /loadConfig:AgentConfigs\DotNetObjectAllocBase.json

    VSDiagnostics.exe stop 1 /output:"D:\ProfilerOutput\prof1"

    pause

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Can I programmatically create a memory snapshot on a PC without Visual studio?

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