Remote Debugging Server Side of a Web Application with Visual Studio 2008

Question

So, I've read that it is not a good idea to install VS2008 on my test server machine as it changes the run time environment too much. I've never attempted remote debugging with Visual Studio before, so what is the "best" way to get line by line remote debugging of server side web app code. I'd like to be able to set a breakpoint, attach, and start stepping line by line to verify code flow and, you know, debug and stuff :).

I'm sure most of the answers will pertain to ASP.NET code, and I'm interested in that, but my current code base is actually Classic ASP and ISAPI Extensions, so I care about that a little more.

Also, my test server is running in VMWare, I've noticed in the latest VMWare install it mentioning something about debugging support, but I'm unfamiliar with what that means...anyone using it, what does it do for you?

Answer 1

Visual Studio comes with a remote debugger that you can run as an exe on your server. It works best if you can run it as the same domain user as your copy of visual studio. You can then do an attach to process from the debugger on your machine to the IIS process on the server and debug as if it was running on your machine. You get more options for .Net debugging, but there's support for older platforms too.

Answer 2

First, this is MUCH easier if both the server and your workstation are on the same domain (the server needs access to connect to your machine). In your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger\x86 (or x64, or ia64) directory are the files you need to copy to your server. There are different versions between Visual Studio versions, so make sure they match on the client and server side. On the server, fire up msvsmon. It will say something like "Msvsmon started a new server named xxx@yyyy". This is the name you'll use in Visual Studio to connect to this server. You can go into Tools > Options to set the server name and to set the authentication mode (hopefully Windows Authentication) - BTW No Authentication doesn't work for managed code.

On the client side, open up Visual Studio and load the solution you're going to debug. Then go to Debug > Attach to Process. In the "Qualifier" field enter the name of the server as you saw it appear earlier. Click on the Select button and select the type of code you want to debug, then hit OK. Hopefully you'll see a list of the processes on the server that you can attach to (you should also see on the server that the debugging monitor just said you connected). Find the process to attach to (start up the app if necessary). If it's an ASP.NET website, you'd select w3wp.exe, then hit Attach. Set your breakpoints and hopefully you're now remotely debugging the code.

AFAIK - the VMWare option lets you start up code inside of a VM but debug it from your workstation.

Answer 3

I have followed all the steps to setup Remote debugging mentioned in this post. Glad to say that I am able to successfully get into the debug mode however am unable to break on the breakpoint set within my code. I am trying to Debug a Classic ASP Commerce server 2002 site. Within the Attach to process dialogue box I don't see an option for "script" when I select my remote webserver as the "Qualifier". I do see it when I am trying to attach to the W3Wp process on my local machine.

Any help would be highly appreciated.