.NET Debugging Demos
This is a series of debugging demos aimed to help you get some hands on experience in debugging the most common types of Hang/performance, memory and crash scenarios in .net applications.
The demos are written in ASP.NET which means that you do need IIS and .net framework 2.0 installed on the development machine where you install the demos.
Each new demo will have a set of instructions on how to get started but the lab instructions are deliberately kept very brief in order to give you the most chance to explore on your own. Hints will be available for each demo in case you get stuck.
New demos will be published on http://blogs.msdn.com/Tess as time permits (I am planning to release one new lab per week).
All demos will use the same web site so there is only one application to install for all demos.
Note: These demos will cause high CPU usage, high memory consumption and crashes, so make sure that you are only installing these demos on development machines where no one else will be bothered by the system hanging or the web server crashing.
Installation
1. Download the demo site (attached to this post) and unzip the files to a folder on your harddrive. (Rev: just uploaded a new version that shouldn't require 3.5)
2. Set up a new virtual directory in IIS called BuggyBits
3. Browse to the default site http://localhost/BuggyBits/default.htm to make sure that you set up the vdir correctly.
4. Browse to the Company info site http://localhost/BuggyBits/CompanyInformation.aspx to make sure that you can view aspx pages correctly.
5. Download and install the debugging tools for windows fromhttp://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
6. Run the InternetConnections.reg file by double-clicking it to change the number of outgoing connections you can make to the same site in Internet Explorer (note: any registry modification are done at your own risk, if you feel uncomfortable with this you can view the regfile in notepad and make the changes manually)
7. Install tinyget (comes with the IIS6.0 resource kit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840671 ) we will be using this for stressing some of the pages in order to produce hangs and memory leaks.
Terminology and tools
Each demo/lab will assume that you are familiar with the following:
| Windbg | Debugger installed with the debugging tools for windows. By default this will be installed in the “debuggers directory” c:\program files\debugging tools for windows |
| Adplus | Script for automating taking memory dumps, also installed in the debuggers directory |
| Debuggers directory | Typically c:\program files\debugging tools for windows |
| SOS | Extension for managed/.net debugging. Comes with the framework and exists in the Framework directory (usually C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727) for simplicity you can copy sos.dll to the debuggers directory. |
| Loading SOS | Loading SOS in windbg can be done by running .load <path to sos>\sos.dll at the windbg command line, or by running .loadby sos mscorwks (which will load it from the framework directory). If sos is copied to the windbg directory you can simply type .load sos |
| Setting up symbols | Symbols are needed for native/non-dotnet debugging and for viewing the non-dotnet parts of the stack. See http://blogs.msdn.com/tess/archive/2005/12/05/why-do-i-get-weird-function-names-on-my-stack-a-discussion-on-symbols.aspx for more info. To set up the symbol path in windbg you run
.symfix c:\mycache where c:\mycache is where it will store the local copies of the cached symbols. If you choose to save workspace information when asked in windbg, this symbol path will be saved for the next debugging session. |
| Tinyget | “TinyGet 5.2 (TinyGet.exe) is a command-line Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client that supports multiple threads and looping. You can use TinyGet to test or to troubleshoot HTTP client-to-server communication. By using TinyGet, you can customize your test request by configuring many different factors, including the authentication method, the HTTP version, and the output format. You can also use scripts that specify looping and multithreading.” See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840671 for more info. |
Some familiarity with the sos commands and windbg is also useful. The following articles may be useful to use as reference material:
Available Labs: