Works on My Machine Syndrome discusses the "Works on My Machine" syndrome where code works on a developer's machine but not in other environments like QA or production. IntelliTrace is introduced as a Visual Studio feature that records execution events and call flows to enable historical debugging. The document outlines how IntelliTrace can be used with its standalone collector to analyze non-reproducible issues in production without requiring a debugger. It provides information on collecting IntelliTrace logs, using the logs in Visual Studio, and some limitations.

1. Works on My Machine Syndrome
Kamran Bilgrami
Principal Developer
AVAST Software (formerly AVG Technologies)

2. Agenda
 Challenges
 IntelliTrace
 What, Why, How
 IntelliTrace – Non dev. environments
 Nothing is Perfect
 Limitations/Constraints

3. What is “Works on My Machine” Syndrome
Works at one’s dev box
but doesn’t work on
• Another dev box
• QA
• Staging
• Production (The Worst!!!)

4. Why is it Challenging?
 Environment differences
 Many free/commercial tools out there
 Microsoft PerfView/Debug Diag/Windbg
 Redgate Ants
 JetBrains dotTrace
 Available approaches are Expensive
 Not just the $ cost
 Environment Constraints
 Learning curve
 Devs are most comfortable with Visual Studio

5. What is IntelliTrace
 Visual studio feature that enables Historical Debugging
 Records interesting Events and Call flow
 This recorded data/flow could be played forward/back later on-demand.
 Speed-up your day to day debugging.
 Adds value in non-repro use-cases
 Provides developers familiar Visual Studio debugging experience.

6. What data is Collected
 Events
 ADO.NET ( ExecuteReader, ExecuteScalar …)
 ASP.NET ( Redirects, Request Processing …)
 Exceptions
 File Access and lot more
 Call Information - For each function call, IntelliTrace records this data:
 Function name
 Function parameters values at its entry and return value at exit
 Function arguments – all primitive data types
 Function arguments – First level primitive data types of objects
 Any local variables information is not collected

7. Using IntelliTrace from Visual Studio

8. IntelliTrace for Non-repro Scenarios
Collect
IntelliTrace Logs Analyze Logs
Production
Environment
IntelliTrace
Standalone
Collector
Visual Studio
2013 Ultimate
2015 Enterprise
2017 Enterprise

9. IntelliTrace Standalone Collector
 Free download http://bit.ly/1Yvie8U
 Comes as a cab file. Once expanded, it can be XCopy to production system.
 Requires .NET 3.5
 Can collect logs against managed applications build using .NET 2.0+
 Final output is a iTrace file that could be analyzed in VS
 Works in Conjunction with “Collection Plans”
 XML file, defines what data to collect
 IntellitraceCPConfig - Free tool to edit Collection Plan
https://intellitracecpconfig.codeplex.com/

10. IntelliTrace Logs Collection
Standalone
Collector
Collection
Plan
Application iTrace

11. How to use Standalone Collector
 Different mechanism depending upon target Application Type
 Officially support work with following types
a) Desktop Applications (Console, WinForm, WPF)
b) Web Applications
 Instructions: http://bit.ly/1qV0utj
 Windows Services not officially supported but there is a way
 Instructions: http://bit.ly/1WtUAv8
 Not Available for Phone/Universal Apps

12. Using IntelliTrace Standalone Collector
 Web Application
 Windows Service
 Desktop Application

13. IntelliTrace Data Collector
 Manual ways of configuring IntelliTrace Standalone Collector are error prone.
 IntelliTrace Data Collector makes the process of collecting IntelliTrace logs for different application
types easy.
 XCopy to target environment
 Download from Github
 http://bit.ly/2mg1beI
 Package contains
 IntelliTrace Standalone Collector
 IntelliTrace CP Config

14. Using IntelliTrace Data Collector

15. Using iTrace File

16. IntelliTrace Limitations
 IntelliTrace Standalone Collector restarts target process
 No support for Attach to a running process (yet)
 Can degrade target application performance
 Could be optimized through customized collection plans
 Uses Target Application/Service/App Pool Name
 Multiple Web Apps running in same AppPool is a problem