Debug your app using saved IntelliTrace data

Article
04/28/2015

Go to specific points in your application's execution when you start debugging from an IntelliTrace log (.iTrace) file. This file can contain performance events, exceptions, threads, test steps, modules, and other system info that IntelliTrace records while your app runs.

Make sure that you have:

Matching source files and symbol (.pdb) files for your application code. Otherwise, Visual Studio can't resolve the source locations and shows the message "Symbols not found." See Specify Symbol (.pdb) and Source Files in the Visual Studio Debugger and Set up your release to diagnose problems after deployment.
Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 on your development computer or another computer to open .iTrace files

An .iTrace file from one of these sources:

Source	See
An IntelliTrace session in Visual Studio Ultimate	Record code execution with IntelliTrace while debugging
A test session in Microsoft Test Manager. This attaches an .iTrace file to a Team Foundation Server work item.	Collect more diagnostic data in manual tests
Microsoft Monitoring Agent, either alone or with System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager, for ASP.NET web apps and SharePoint applications running in deployment	Set up your release to diagnose problems after deployment What's New for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager

What do you want to do?

Open an IntelliTrace log
Understand the IntelliTrace log
Start debugging from an IntelliTrace log

Open an IntelliTrace log

On a computer with Visual Studio Ultimate, open the .iTrace file.

Double-click the .iTrace file outside Visual Studio, or open the file from inside Visual Studio.

- or -
If the .iTrace file is attached to a Team Foundation Server work item, follow these steps in the work item:
- Under All Links, find the .iTrace file. Open it.
  
  - or -
- Under Repro Steps, choose the IntelliTrace link.

Tip

If you closed the IntelliTrace file during debugging, you can reopen it easily. Go to the Debug menu, choose IntelliTrace, Show Log Summary. You can also choose Show Log Summary in the IntelliTrace window. This is available only while debugging with IntelliTrace.

Understand the IntelliTrace log

Some of the following sections in the .iTrace file appear only if you collected data from a particular source, for example, from Test Manager or from SharePoint applications.

Section	Contains	Collection Source
Performance Violations	Performance events with function calls that exceed the configured threshold	Microsoft Monitoring Agent, either alone or with System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager for ASP.NET web apps hosted on IIS
Exception Data	Exceptions, including the full call stack for each exception	All sources
Analysis	For SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 applications only. Diagnose IntelliTrace and SharePoint events, such as debugger events, ULS events, unhandled exceptions, and other data that the Microsoft Monitoring Agent recorded.	Microsoft Monitoring Agent, either alone or with System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager
System Info	Settings and specifications of the host system	All sources
Threads List	Threads that ran during collection	All sources
Test Data	Test steps and their results from a test session	Test Manager
Modules	Modules that the target process loaded in the order that they loaded.	All sources

Here's some tips to help you find information in each section:

Choose a column header to sort data.
Use the search box to filter data. Plain text search works across all columns except the time columns. You can also filter searches to a specific column with one filter per column. Type the column name with no spaces, a colon (:), and the search value. Follow this with a semicolon (;) to add another column and search value.

For example, to find performance events that have the word "slow" in the Description column, type:

Description:slow

Start debugging from an IntelliTrace log

Performance Violations

Review the performance events that were recorded for your app. You can hide those events that don't happen often.

To start debugging from a performance event

Under Performance Violations, review the recorded performance events, their total execution times, and other event information. Then dig deeper into the methods that were called during a specific performance event.

You can also just double-click the event.
On the event page, review the execution times for these calls. Find a slow call in the execution tree.

The slowest calls appear in their own section when you have multiple calls, nested or otherwise.
Expand that call to review any nested calls and parameter values that were recorded at that point in time.

(Keyboard: To show or hide a nested call, press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow key respectively. To show and hide parameter values for a nested call, press the Space key.)

Start debugging from the call.

You can also just double-click the call or press the Enter key.

If the method is in your application code, Visual Studio goes to that method.

Now you can review other recorded values, the call stack, step through your code, or use the IntelliTrace window to move backwards or forwards "in time" between other methods that were called during this performance event.

Exception Data

Review the exceptions that were thrown and recorded for your app. You can group exceptions that have the same type and call stack so that you see only the most recent exception.

To start debugging from an exception

Under Exception Data, review the recorded exception events, their types, messages, and when the exceptions happened. To dig deeper into the code, start debugging from the most recent event in a group of exceptions.

Start debugging from exception event

You can also just double-click the event. If the events aren't grouped, choose Debug This Event.

If the exception happened in your application code, Visual Studio goes to where the exception happened.

Go to application code from an exception event

Now you can review other recorded values, the call stack, or use the IntelliTrace window to move backwards or forwards "in time" between other recorded events, related code, and the values recorded at those points in time.

Column	Shows the
Type	.NET type of the exception
Newest Message for grouped exceptions or Message for ungrouped exceptions	The message provided by the exception
Count for grouped exceptions	The number of times the exception was thrown
Thread ID for ungrouped exceptions	ID of the thread that threw the exception
Newest Event Time or Event Time	Time stamp recorded when the exception was thrown
Call Stack	Call stack for an exception. To see the call stack, choose an exception in the list. The call stack appears below the exception list.

Analysis

Diagnose problems with SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 applications by using a SharePoint correlation ID or review any unhandled exceptions that Microsoft Monitoring Agent found.

Use a SharePoint correlation ID to find its matching web request and events. Choose an event and then start debugging at the point where and when the event happened.
If Microsoft Monitoring Agent found unhandled exceptions, choose an exception and then start debugging at the point where and when the exception happened.

Start debugging with a SharePoint correlation ID

Copy the SharePoint correlation ID from its source.

For example:
Open the .iTrace file, then go to Analysis and enter the SharePoint correlation ID to review the matching web request and recorded events.
Under Request Events, examine the events. Starting from the top, events appear in the order that they happened.
1. Choose an event to see its details.
2. Choose Start Debugging to start debugging at the point where the event happened.

You can see these kinds of SharePoint events along with IntelliTrace events:

User profile events

These events happen when SharePoint loads a user profile and when user profile properties are read or changed.
Unified Logging System (ULS) events

Microsoft Monitoring Agent records a subset of SharePoint ULS events and these fields:

IntelliTrace field

SharePoint ULS field

Id

EventID

Level

Level

Category Id

Category Id

Category

Category

Area

Product

Output

Message

Correlation Id

Correlation Id

IntelliTrace field	SharePoint ULS field
Id	EventID
Level	Level
Category Id	Category Id
Category	Category
Area	Product
Output	Message
Correlation Id	Correlation Id

Start debugging from an unhandled exception

Choose a SharePoint correlation ID for an exception. Exceptions are grouped by type and call stack.
(Optional) Expand Call Stack to see the call stack for a group of exceptions.
Choose Debug Exception to start debugging at the point where and when the exception happened.

For a walkthrough, see Walkthrough: Debugging a SharePoint Application by Using IntelliTrace. For the kinds of data that the agent records, see Record code execution with IntelliTrace while debugging.

Threads List

Examine the recorded threads that ran in the target process. You can start debugging from the first valid IntelliTrace event in a selected thread.

To start debugging from a specific thread

Under Threads List, choose a thread.
At the bottom of Threads List, choose Start Debugging. You can also double-click a thread.

To start debugging from where the app begins, double-click Main Thread. See Record code execution with IntelliTrace while debugging.

Thread data that the user creates might be more useful than threads that a server creates and manages for IIS-hosted Web apps.

Column	Shows the
ID	Thread ID number
Name	Thread name. Unnamed threads appear as "<No Name>".
Start Time	Time the thread was created
End Time	Time the thread was completed

Test Data

Examine the IntelliTrace data that Test Manager recorded while testing your app.

To start debugging from a specific test step

Expand Test Steps Grid. Choose a test step.
At the bottom of Test Steps Grid, choose Start Debugging. You can also double-click a test step.

This starts debugging from the first valid IntelliTrace event after the selected test step.

When test data exists, IntelliTrace tries to resolve the associated Team Foundation Server build that was used to perform the test run. If the build is found, the associated symbols for the app are resolved automatically.

Field	Shows the
Test Session	Test sessions that were recorded. Typically, there is only one. This list is empty if test data was created using a manual exploratory test.
Test Case	Test cases from the selected test session. This list is empty if test data was created using a manual exploratory test.
Test Steps Grid	Test steps that were recorded with the test result of pass or fail

System Info

This section shows you details about the system that hosted the app, for example, hardware, operating system, environmental and process-specific information.

Modules

This section shows you the modules that the target process loaded. Modules appear in the order that they loaded.

Column	Shows the
Module Name	Module file name
Module Path	Disk location where the module was loaded
Module ID	Unique identifier of the module that is version-specific and contributes to the matching symbol (PDB) files. See Finding symbol (.pdb) files and source files.