INFO: Microsoft Guide to Production Debugging for .NET Framework Applications

This article contains information about the Microsoft guide Production Debugging for .NET Framework Applications. This guide provides guidance for developers to debug Microsoft .NET Framework-based Web applications. This guide also discusses the processes that you can use to debug applications in a production environment.

Production Debugging for .Net Framework Applications contains the following four chapters and an appendix:

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Production Debugging for .NET Framework Applications
  This chapter introduces the differences between debugging in a production environment and debugging in a development environment. It also introduces several debugging tools. The chapter explains the ASP.NET process models that Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.x and 6.0 use, and then compares these process models. This chapter also explains how ASP.NET uses health monitoring to maximize the reliability and robustness of applications.
• Chapter 2: Debugging Memory Problems
  This chapter discusses how to approach debugging memory consumption problems that you may experience when you use ASP.NET applications. This chapter discusses how the .NET Framework manages memory. It also describes how the garbage collector reclaims unused memory. This chapter includes a walkthrough that discusses how to debug a typical memory consumption problem scenario.
• Chapter 3: Debugging Contention Problems
  This chapter discusses how to approach debugging when ASP.NET does not respond to browser requests. ASP.NET may not respond because of a long-running request, or because threads are deadlocked or are contending for a resource. This chapter also discusses .NET Framework threading, the common language runtime thread pool, and how ASP.NET uses this thread pool. This chapter includes a walkthrough that discusses how to debug in a scenario that has some controls that wait on a shared event.
• Chapter 4: Debugging Unexpected Process Termination
  This chapter discusses how to approach debugging when the ASP.NET process (Aspnet_wp.exe) quits unexpectedly, and the error and the cause of the problem are not known. This chapter also provides some background information about how ASP.NET uses COM Interop, and about how the ASPCompat page directive works. This chapter includes a walkthrough that uses a COM Interop example to demonstrate what behavior occurs when a process quits unexpectedly. In the sample application, ASP.NET calls a COM component that deliberately causes Aspnet_wp.exe to quit.
• Appendix
  The appendix contains the following topics:
  • Thread state values
    This topic contains a list of possible thread states and their descriptions.
  • Application code
    This topic lists the Microsoft Visual C# .NET code for the three ASP.NET applications that this guide includes.
  • Debugging with CorDbg
    This topic discusses how to use the CorDbg tool as an alternative to the WinDbg tool for debugging managed code. This topic is an addendum to chapter 3.
  • Exploring further
    This topic contains a list of articles that provide more information about the topics that this guide discusses.

For more information, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site: