.NET Application Monitoring with AVIcode Intercept Studio

Transcription

1 .NET Application Monitoring with AVIcode Intercept Studio Solvec B.V. Internet Solutions Kornalijnhorst JG Den Haag Tel.: Fax: Internet:

2 Abstract AVIcode sintercept Studio provides immediate visibility into application-level and business process errors in.net applications and web services. Intercept Studio enables you to monitor your.net software for unhandled exceptions and performance bottlenecks out of the box, in realtime, on your production server, without having to modify a single line of source code. This white paper will introduce you to the features and benefits of this unique product. This document shall not be duplicated or used for any purposes other than that for which it is being provided. The information disclosed herein was originated by and is the property of AVIcode Inc. and except for rights expressly granted by written consent, such information shall not be disclosed or disseminated in whole or in part. AVIcode reserves all rights hereto. The word AVIcode and Intercept and the AVIcode and Intercept logos are service marks of AVIcode Inc. Throughout this document, other trademarked names may be used. Rather than put a trademark symbol in every occurrence of a trademarked name, we state that we are using the names only in an editorial fashion, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement AVIcode. All rights reserved.

3 Introducing Intercept Studio... 4 What Does Intercept Studio Do?... 4 What Information Does Intercept Studio Provide?... 4 Exception Event Highlights... 5 Performance Event Highlights... 6 Integration Suite... 7 The Benefits of Using Intercept Studio... 9 Benefits for the CIO... 9 Benefits for IT Management...10 Benefits for Quality Assurance...10 Benefits for Network Operations...10 Benefits for Application Development...11 Summing Up: How AVIcode Intercept Studio will Benefit Your Organization...11 AVIcode s Credentials

4 Introducing Intercept Studio AVIcode Intercept Studio is the most powerful and flexible solution for detecting and pinpointing the root cause of exception and performance problems in applications and web services built on the.net framework. Intercept Studio monitors your.net software for unhandled exceptions and performance bottlenecks out of the box, in real-time, on your production server, without having to modify a single line of source code. AVIcode Intercept Studio protects software investments by simplifying application maintenance and troubleshooting. Intercept Studio: Reduces Total Cost of Ownership for.net applications Extends Service Level Agreements to include application monitoring Improves control and reliability of information gathering and analysis from runtime applications Maximizes total up time for end-users of.net applications The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of features and benefits of using AVIcode Intercept Studio to monitor.net applications in production. What Does Intercept Studio Do? Intercept Studio monitors.net applications at runtime, seamlessly integrating into the.net framework with minimal impact on performance. Intercept Studio: Runs in your production environment Monitors for critical exceptions Monitors for performance bottlenecks Pinpoints the root-cause of application problems Is completely non-intrusive will not impact your server or your applications Does not require any code modifications Provides instantaneous feedback as detailed events Consolidates event information from resources across the enterprise What Information Does Intercept Studio Provide? Intercept Studio provides event visualization through its own structured event viewer (SE-Viewer), which shows the exact details that you need to fix a performance or exception issue. The following sections describe what you will see when you use Intercept Studio, and how it will help you to diagnose problems in your.net applications. 4

5 Under most circumstances, you have little control over your software once it is in the production environment. For example, a customer might try to perform a search in your.net Application, when he encounters either the default, or a customized,.net error page. Normally, diagnosing this type of problem would require relying on screen shots from the end-user or modifying the code to add more logging. With Intercept Studio, you receive immediate notification of the problem via an , your curent network monitoring software, or Intercept s own structured event viewer. Intercept exception events provide instantaneous information about: the type of error that occurred whether it is exception or performance related the application at fault how many events have the same root cause the last and first time this type of error occurred Clicking on the event description will display the event details. Intercept provides the complete call stack and highlights the failed function call so that it can be located quickly. Clicking on the defective call link displays a tabbed area that provides detailed information about: function parameters, with the actual value that the customer originally searched for local variables 5

6 the object state of member variables the source code Intercept displays several lines of code on either side of the exception target, as well as providing the line number and a link that opens Visual Studio.Net to the exact line of problem code. What is even more interesting about Intercept exception monitoring, is that it has the unique ability to notify you only about critical events that have not already been explicitly handled. Performance Event Highlights In addition to catching unhandled exceptions, Intercept is also invaluable for detecting performance bottlenecks in ASP pages and Web Services. Intercept utilizes user-defined thresholds to determine when a bottleneck is occurring. By clicking on the event description of a performance event, Intercept displays event details that show how many seconds a page took to execute. In order to provide root cause information for performance events, Intercept collects information about all resource calls performed for that page and highlights the slowest ones. For example, you can look at a single SQL query, and see how long it took to execute. As with the exception events, you can drill down to find out more details. For resource calls such as the SQL command pictured above, Intercept provides you with the exact query that is executed as well as the names and values for query parameters. In addition to the SQL resources, Intercept also collects information about resources such as LDAP queries, Oracle queries, Web Services and Ole DB. Intercept is also easily configurable to gather information about any other resources that you may be using. 6

7 Integration Suite Enterprise Event Management Intercept Studio enables event routing from.net application servers across the enterprise to operations management systems such as Microsoft Operating Manager, Tivoli, BMC and HP OpenView. To do this, Intercept s exception and performance agents collect data from a monitored application and send it to Intercept s structured event viewer (SE-Viewer). SE-Viewer then sends a link to the event through either Windows Event Log or WMI notifications. These standardized notifications allow integration with third party network management systems. Intercept SE-Viewer Server is responsible for initial event delivery, event storage, and event visualization, whereas the third party operation management system only holds a link to the event stored by Intercept. AVIcode offers an off-the-shelf implementation for MOM called Intercept Studio Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager. 7

8 Integration with Defect Tracking Intercept Studio allows you to seamlessly incorporate automated.net application defect detection into software configuration and change management systems such as Merant Dimensions, Merant Professional and Merant Tracker. By integrating Intercept Studio with issue tracking systems, AVIcode provides a comprehensive best practices solution for issue management related to.net application defects. AVIcode offers the following off-the-shelf implementations for Merant: Intercept Studio Integration Pack for Merant Tracker, Intercept Studio Integration Pack for Merant Professional and Intercept Studio Integration Pack for Merant Dimensions 8

9 The Benefits of Using Intercept Studio AVIcode Intercept Studio application monitoring software detects unhandled exceptions and performance issues in.net applications and web services built for the.net framework. Intercept attaches to any.net application on the fly, with no code modifications, simplifying the process of identifying issues affecting application servers. Cost Intercept reduces the total cost of ownership for.net applications developed by removing the complexities and costs associated with pinpointing and isolating the root cause of errors and performance issues. Dramatically simplifies maintenance and troubleshooting. Collects the complete root cause, including call stack and resource specific data. Detects and isolates performance bottlenecks and failures instantly in real-time. Ability to immediately reproduce application defects. Time Intercept delivers the exact information personnel require to decrease the time spent resolving defects and performance issues in your production environment. Facilitates collaboration between Development and Operations personnel. Increases productivity. Reduces issue resolution time by 60%. Instantly notifies personnel about defects and performance degradations. Quality Intercept ensures.net application quality, stability and reliability. Benefits for the CIO Eliminates pre-production faults. Delivers an Enterprise view of application behavior. Offers visibility into application performance. Automatic reporting of the root cause of defects. The only way to be sure your Web application is delivering maximum return on your investment is to know that all users are completing their transactions every time. This requires monitoring Web Applications 24 X 7 and knowing that the application is performing as expected all day every day. Intercept proactively alerts you immediately of any problem or issue that inhibits users from completing a transaction, so your development team can accelerate the resolution of defects and performance issues in their.net applications. 9

10 Intercept Studio: facilitates collaboration between Development and Operations personnel reduces cost and increases user satisfaction with shorter issue resolution cycles delivers highly maintainable applications Benefits for IT Management By delivering the most valuable and specific information available, Intercept plays a vital role in resolving application defects and performance issues quicker and more accurately than ever before. The result is confidence, knowing that you are deploying the highest quality software and that a simplified management and maintenance process is in place that enables Operations and Development personnel to work together. Intercept Studio: will not impact performance in your production environment reduces your application down time - automatic reporting of detailed defect information to application developers ensures that you get your applications fixed quickly seamlessly integrates with your existing operations management systems Benefits for Quality Assurance Intercept Studio automatically sends the complete details of errors to the responsible parties, allowing for radically shortened resolution cycles and higher quality software delivered in a shorter timeframe. As a result, you can release software from your department with every confidence that you are delivering the highest quality product. Intercept Studio: reduces time spent explaining problems to application developers shortens your entire test cycle lets you deliver a higher quality product Benefits for Network Operations Intercept Studio delivers immediate notification of web application or service exception and performance issues through integration with standardized operations management systems. Intercept Studio informs you immediately if the problem is in your.net application, and whether it is a critical exception or a performance bottleneck. Once Intercept detects a problem, it notifies the responsible party, with all of the information that they will need to fix the root cause of the problem. Once they have fixed the problem, Intercept Studio allows QA to thoroughly test the revised code : before releasing it into your production environment. 10

11 reduces the turn-around time for getting your problems fixed seamlessly integrates with your existing operations management systems allows you to know immediately whether performance bottlenecks are due to application issues Benefits for Application Development Intercept provides detailed root cause information, including all function parameters, local and global object variables and the program call stack. Additionally, it lets you connect via Visual Studio.NET, to the exact line of offending code, and consolidates problems with the same root cause. Intercept Studio will: deliver ful visibility into the monitored application s behavior, stability and performance provide control over your applications in the production environment send notifications, in real-time, of any application defects or performance degradations give you more time to work on new projects, since less time is spent tracking down bugs guarantee that any performance issues raised are really related to your code, and not something else in the network Summing Up: How AVIcode Intercept Studio will Benefit Your Organization As more web service-based solutions are deployed, increasing emphasis is placed on the performance and management of these production systems. Organizations must keep pace with these technological advancements to guarantee deployment of fault-free applications. Pre-production testing is simply inadequate to identify the problems inherent in real-world production environments. The only way to assure application availability and performance in production is to ensure visibility into the production applications in real-time. AVIcode Intercept Studio protects software investments by simplifying application maintenance and troubleshooting. Intercept attaches to any.net application on the fly, whether it is in the development lab or already deployed, without additional overhead on the application server. In addition, it requires no code modifications to detect, capture and collect information, thereby radically simplifying the task of identifying specific issues affecting application servers. The result is dramatically reduced defect resolution times and costs for.net applications. 11

12 reduces Total Cost of Ownership for.net applications by effectively managing.net applications without having to rely on time consuming and costly workarounds extends Service Level Agreements beyond network and server monitoring by combining.net application monitoring with network and server monitoring improves control and reliability of information gathering and analysis from.net applications by monitoring ASP.NET and web services without any intervention from an application developer, and presenting complete, standardized and reliable information about applications problems establishes enterprise level standards for application monitoring by gathering events in real-time, in a standard WMI or Windows event log format maximizes total up time for your application users by having your.net applications back up and running correctly on your production servers in a shorter timeframe Visit the avicode.com website for all the latest, detailed information on features, benefits, system requirements and supported platforms. 12

13 AVIcode s Credentials AVIcode is a software products company with patented technology and innovative products to detect and report application faults in interconnected systems. AVIcode has developed a product line called Intercept Studio for.net, the most complete suite of application monitoring tools for the Microsoft.NET platform on the market today. AVIcode designs products to protect your software investment by simplifying maintenance and troubleshooting, dramatically reducing defect resolution time. Intercept Studio detects crashes, unhandled exceptions and performance degradations of production applications running on Microsoft s.net platform. These runtime event details and root cause information are collected immediately and presented to the personnel responsible for the health and management of production applications. Operating since 1998 and incorporated in 2001, AVIcode is a privately held Connecticut corporation headquartered in Hartford, CT. AVIcode is setting the standard in.net application monitoring. Intercept Studio currently in use at Fortune 100 companies, and is rapidly being accepted as the best way to reduce cost and increase customer satisfaction in the ever-expanding.net enterprise solution market. For more information, please visit [email protected] 13