Slow ASP.NET app load times - Can I track/trace/time the whole load cycle?

Question

Hey all.

The ASP.NET web app project I'm currently working on is getting slower over time to re-load (In IIS or the .NET dev server). Currently it takes:

• 1:28 minutes to load via an F5 debug
• 41 seconds to refresh in browser, after a build (not rebuild)

The machine's reasonably fast - A Core 2 Quad 2.40ghz, 8 gig o' RAM, running the dev machine under HyperV with 2 gig o' RAM allocated to the dev VM.

Is there a way to trace / report on the the entire cycle of that initial load? If I could see how long it takes the basic IIS worker process to start, load DLLs, run the actual .NET code, that'd be great.

I know I can use a profiler on the code - which hasn't turned up any ultra-slow DB connection establishment times, but I'd like to have some insight on the performance of the stuff before the actual page is processed. I can see the CPU monitor hit 100% for a bit in the middle of the process, RAM usage jump a little - but am looking for better insight to hopefully trim things a little.

Though I didn't take any measurements at the start of the project (4 months ago), I'm entirely certain the reload was a relative breeze.

Any help much appreciated, Programmer-who-can-only-drink-so-much-coffee-while-a-build-occurs.

Update:

JetBrain's dotTrace was excellent (for this instance), thanks. It had the perfect interface to start a web project, and quickly highlighted that most of the time was being taken in Application_Start() (in Global.asax).

The other options wouldn't have picked this up, as:

• The Trace option only starts from PreInit, missing the Application_Start() call.

• The StopWatch calls would have required me to know where to look, or revert to the good old days of printf-style debugging...

• nprof wants to target a .exe, which would miss the target area when trying to attach to fresh w3wp.exe instances...

Answer 1

A profiler like JetBrains dotTrace should tell you where your bottleneck is... if you don't see anything out of the ordinary (ie. long process times on a method) then it's not your application. It must be the environment. It could be if you are using Active Directory and the call to Active Directory is hanging... Is there a web service call? Are you using Team Systems?Are there postbuild processes?

To me it sounds like something is timing out. That's why you are waiting so long.

Answer 2

Hi,

Write the time in the log file and check.


namespace TracePageLoad
{
    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
        string sLogDir = "Your path to write the log";
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            TextWriter objTW = new StreamWriter(sLogDir, true);
            objTW.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString());
            //Your code 
            objTW.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString());
            objTW.Close();
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

Have you tried the simple technique of turning the page trace on to see if it tells you anything? The first line in your aspx page will look like this:

<%@ Page Language="C#" Trace="true" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="SilverlightApplication1.Web._Default"  %>

when the page renders in the browser, a whole bunch of info will also be appended to the bottom of it.

Answer 4

Profiling and tracing are both good recommendations.

If you're going with the DateTime.Now.ToString() suggestion, I'd recommend using the System.Diagnostics.StopWatch class instead. It's very simple to use, and I find it to be more accurate.

using System.Diagnostics;
//...
Stopwatch watch = new Stopwatch();
watch.Start();
// Do your loading work here
watch.Stop();
// You can use watch.ElapsedMilliseconds to get the elapsed time

Answer 5

Why not use ASP.NET Trace functionality. Use trace.axd for analyzing the requests.

This might be of use:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972204.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wwh16c6c.aspx

Answer 6

In the past, I have used the ANTS performance profiler from redgate. It is really good and it has worked for me very well. I know that not everyone wants to spend money in these type of tools but this one might be worth it. Check it out, they have a free 14 day trial version that you can use in this website and find out exactly what the problem is.

http://www.red-gate.com/products/ants_performance_profiler/index.htm

Good luck!