Uncategorized » ALM Rocks!

Question 1: Can you turn on call logging in IntelliTrace dynamically? The example I was given was the application under test takes a while to spin up and makes a bunch of calls that they don’t want IntelliTrace information for. They want to essentially be able to dynamically turn on call tracing in IntelliTrace.

This is not possible with Visual Studio 2010. IntelliTrace is needs to be there when the process starts, and once it does, the collection plan cannot change until the process is restarted.

Question 2: Using IntelliTrace against assemblies deployed in the GAC, and will it work, and do you have to do anything special?

IntelliTrace collects its information on the process, so collecting information against assemblies deployed in the GAC should not be an issue. Here is some great information from Ed Blankenship on this:

You’re actually collecting IntelliTrace diagnostic information from a .NET process and not necessarily a DLL. However, if the process loads some DLLs then they would be collected as well (depending on the settings of course). So if you wanted to collect information from a custom TFS build workflow activity, you would actually have to attach the TFSBuildService.exe process to get information from your custom activity’s .DLL if that makes any sense. Whether it was in the GAC shouldn’t matter.

Question 3: Someone is in a 2008 environment. (VS and TFS). They want to know if they could use the IntelliTrace command line executable to gather data in their application that they are testing. Obviously they aren’t testing via MTM.

The answer is, yes you can gather collection in this fashion. You will need VS 2010 Ultimate to be able to view the IntelliTrace information though.

I want to thank Ed Blankenship, Brian Keller, Brian Randell, Mark Groves, and Larry Guger for their quick input into these questions.

IntelliTrace Answers from my DEV320 Talk at Tech Ed 2001 NA

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May 192011

Once again I want to thank everyone who came out for my talk on IntelliTrace and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate yesterday at Tech Ed 2011!

After querying some MVPs and some product group members, we’ve come up with answers to some of the questions that were posed yesterday:

This is not possible with Visual Studio 2010. IntelliTrace is needs to be there when the process starts, and once it does, the collection plan cannot change until the process is restarted.

Question 2: Using IntelliTrace against assemblies deployed in the GAC, and will it work, and do you have to do anything special?

You’re actually collecting IntelliTrace diagnostic information from a .NET process and not necessarily a DLL. However, if the process loads some DLLs then they would be collected as well (depending on the settings of course). So if you wanted to collect information from a custom TFS build workflow activity, you would actually have to attach the TFSBuildService.exe process to get information from your custom activity’s .DLL if that makes any sense. Whether it was in the GAC shouldn’t matter.

Still working on this one. I hope to have an update for soon.

I want to thank Ed Blankenship, Brian Keller, Brian Randell, Mark Groves, and Larry Guger for their quick input into these questions.

Talk WrapUp – DEV320–Demystifying Debugging using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and IntelliTrace

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May 182011

[UPDATE: Go here for answers to the questions below]

My talk at Tech Ed 2011 on IntelliTrace (DEV320) went really well today. I was in room B101, which had about 600 chairs in it, and while I don’t have the final numbers, there were a lot of bodies there. The crowd seemed really interested in what all IntelliTrace could do.

So here are some links for people that attended my session:

May 2011 Refresh of Visual Studio 2010 RTM Virtual Machine with Sample Data and Hands-on-Labs – This is the new All-Up machine, similar to the one I was using in my session today, that you can use to spin around with IntelliTrace. I’ll get my test code posted this week as well for you to use.

And I’m working on answers to the following questions:

Can you turn on call logging in IntelliTrace dynamically?
Do you have to do anything special to use IntelliTrace against assemblies in the GAC?
Can someone in a 2008 Environment (VS/TFS) use the IntelliTrace command line executable to gather data on the application they are testing?

If you went to my session, and you don’t see your question here, please shoot me an email (you can get my email from the slide deck) and I’ll see what I can do to answer it.

T–1 Day Till My Tech Ed Presentation

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May 172011

So tomorrow at 3:15 I present on Debugging and IntelliTrace with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.

I went and found my room today. I’m presenting in B101, which is right next to the Hands On Labs. So just go to the Hands On Labs and you’ll be right there. I counted the seats, and there are around 600! I’d love to see a packed house.

My session is also a good place to come to get free stuff. I’ve got a copy of the book signed by all four authors, some T-Shirts, some other small items, and I’ll see what else I can scrounge up as well.

Today is final prep day. I’ll be in the speaker lounge this morning, working away. This afternoon you can find me at the VS 2010 Ultimate booth, or at the Blogging lounge. Come by and say hello!