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Rapid web site profiling with VSPerfASPNETCmd

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

The VSPerfASPNETCmd command-line tool enables you to easily profile ASP.NET web applications. In comparison to the VSPerfCmd command line tool, options are reduced, no environment variables have to be set, and rebooting the computer is not required. Using VSPerfASPNETCmd is the preferred method for profiling with the standalone profiler. For more information, see How to: Install the stand-alone profiler.

Note

Enhanced security features in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 required significant changes in the way the Visual Studio profiler collects data on these platforms. UWP apps also require new collection techniques. See Performance tools on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 applications.

In some scenarios, such as collecting concurrency data or pausing and resuming profiling, using VSPerfCmd is the preferred profiling method.

Note

To get the path to the profiling tools, see Specify the path to command line tools. On 64-bit computers, both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of the tools are available. To use the profiler command-line tools, you must add the tools path to the PATH environment variable of the Command Prompt window or add it to the command itself.

Profile an ASP.NET application

To profile an ASP.NET web application, type one of the commands described in the following sections. The Web site is started and the profiler starts to collect data. Exercise your application and then close the browser. To stop profiling, press the Enter key in the command prompt window.

Note

By default, the command prompt does not return after a vsperfaspnetcmd command. You can use the /nowait option to force the command prompt to return. See Use the /NoWait option.

To collect application statistics by using the sampling method

Sampling is the default profiling method of VSPerfASPNETCmd tool and does not have to be specified on the command line. The following command line collects application statistics from the specified web application:

vsperfaspnetcmd websiteUrl

An example of a local server-hosted websiteUrl might be http://localhost/MySite/default.aspx. An example of an external site is https://www.contoso.com. For more information, see the example URLs in To profile a web site without opening a project in Visual Studio.

To collect detailed timing data by using the instrumentation method

Use the following command line to collect detailed timing data from a dynamically compiled ASP.NET web application:

vsperfaspnetcmd /trace websiteUrl

If you want to profile statically compiled .dll files in your web application, you must instrument the files by using the VSInstr command-line tool. The vsperfaspnetcmd /trace command will include data from the instrumented files.

To collect .NET memory data

The /Memory option collects data about the allocation of objects in .NET memory and can collect data about the lifetime of those objects. Allocation data collection is the default mode of the /Memory data option and does not have to be specified on the command line.

vsperfaspnetcmd /memory websiteUrl

Use the Lifetime parameter to collect object lifetime data in addition to the allocation data:

vsperfaspnetcmd /memory:lifetime websiteUrl

You can also use the /Trace option to include detailed timing information with the .NET memory data:

vsperfaspnetcmd /memory[:lifetime] /tracewebsiteUrl

To collect tier interaction data

Warning

Tier interaction profiling (TIP) data can be collected using any edition of Visual Studio. However, tier interaction profiling data can be viewed only in Visual Studio Enterprise.

To collect TIP data on Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, you must use the instrumentation (/trace) option.

To collect tier interaction data with sampling data:

vsperfaspnetcmd /tip websiteUrl

To collect tier interaction data with instrumentation data:

vsperfaspnetcmd /trace /tip websiteUrl

To collect tier interaction data with .NET memory data:

vsperfaspnetcmd /memory[:lifetime] /tipwebsiteUrl

Use the /NoWait option

By default, the command prompt does not return after a vsperfaspnetcmd command. You can use the following syntax option to force the command prompt to return. You can then perform other operations in the command prompt window. To end profiling, use the /shutdown option in a separate vsperfaspnetcmd command.

To begin profiling:

vsperfaspnetcmd [/Options] /nowaitwebsiteUrl

To end profiling:

vsperfaspnetcmd /shutdown websiteUrl

Additional options

You can add any of the following options to the commands listed earlier in this section, except the vsperfaspnetcmd /shutdown command.

Option Description
/Output: VspFile By default, the profiling data (.vsp) file is created in the current directory with the file name PerformanceReport.vsp. Use the /output option to specify a different location, file name, or both.
/PackSymbols:Off By default, VsPerfASPNETCmd embeds symbols (function and parameter names, and so on.) in the .vsp file. Embedding the symbols can make the profiling data file very large. If you will have access to the .pdb files that contain the symbols when you analyze the data, use the /packsymbols:off option to disable the embedding of the symbols.