HOW TO: Use the Performance Administration Tool to Analyze Performance of .NET Framework-based Windows Application

This article describes how to use the Performance Administration Tool to analyze the performance of .NET Framework-based Windows applications.

Performance monitoring for .NET Framework applications differs from conventional Windows applications in several ways. The most fundamental difference is that applications are executed by the common language runtime (CLR). The common language runtime accepts requests for resources from applications, determines whether the application is permitted to have access, and prioritizes requests when resource conflicts occur.

This approach gives the common language runtime unique insight into application performance. Much of this information is exposed to the administrator through a set of ten .NET common language runtime performance objects. These objects can be monitored using the Performance snap-in. You can also monitor .NET Framework-based applications by using the standard performance counters, including the Process performance object. The Process performance object reveals detailed information about a single application’s processor, memory, and I/O usage.

The ASP.NET Web applications and Web services run in the Aspnet_wp.exe process and have their own dedicated set of performance counters.

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Use the Key Performance Monitor Counters

Although these counters are a small subset of the information available about .NET Framework applications, they make up the most important information available about managed applications. The easiest way to view this information is to use the the Performance snap-in.

To start and use the Performance snap-in, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then click Performance.
3. In the left pane of the Performance window, select System Monitor.
4. On the right pane toolbar, click Add to add the counters that are described in the following table:
   Collapse this tableExpand this table

   Performance Object	Counter	Instance (if needed)	Description
   Process	% Processor Time	Application Process Name	The percentage of the processor’s time that is consumed by the .NET application.
   Process	Working Set	Application Process Name	The amount of memory being actively used by the application.
   .NET CLR LocksAndThreads	Current Queue Length	_Global_	The common language runtime arbitrates requests from .NET-based applications for system resources. Occasionally, multiple applications try to access the same resource—for example, a file on a disk. When this occurs, the common language runtime forces one of the applications to wait. The Current Queue Length counter shows the number of requests currently waiting. An increase in this number indicates a resource conflict and a possible source of performance problems.
   .NET CLR Networking	Bytes Sent, Bytes Received		When tuning the network utilization of an application, these two counters let you know the total traffic sent by all .NET-based applications. Note that these counters do not let you monitor a specific .NET-based application. However, they do not measure network traffic that is generated by applications that do not use the common language runtime.
   .NET CLR Data	SqlClient: Current # Pooled and Nonpooled Connections		A measure of the number of database connections generated by all .NET Framework applications. Although there is no way to monitor the connections that are opened by a specific application, this counter is useful for detecting applications that use database connections inefficiently. Inefficient use of connections can cause performance problems at the database server.

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