Using Instrumentation And Troubleshooting To Develop High-Quality Software

Ricky BuchProgram ManagerMicrosoft Corporation

Kevin Michael WoleyProgram ManagerMicrosoft Corporation

PC50

Solving software problems in Windows Instrumentation and Troubleshooting platform

Windows Instrumentation Event and Counter platform Windows 7 improvements Design principles

Windows Troubleshooting Key Features Architecture Deployment

Agenda

When software is inconsistent with expectations

Why are software problems bad? Lower customer satisfaction Reduced profit

Software problems can be caused by Design Issues Configuration conflicts

Software Problems

Address in standard, structured way Minimize development cost Programmatic analysis Enable problem detection and resolution

Windows provides two platforms that address above criteria Instrumentation Platform Troubleshooting Platform

Solving Software Problems

Windows Instrumentation: Performance Counters And Events

Kevin Michael WoleyProgram ManagerMicrosoft Corporation

The purpose of instrumentation Diagnose and debug problems Manage and maintain software

Instrumentation is used by Developers

Ex: Measuring performance of an application System administrators and IT Professionals

Ex: Determining system workload characteristics

Instrumentation Overview

Instrumentation exposes internal OS and application state in a discoverable, easily consumable, standardized way

Key Features High-performance, low overhead, highly scalable Native and Managed APIs Dynamic enablement of data collection Data delivered in real-time or persisted in files

Windows Instrumentation

Performance Counters EventsExample Usages

• Expose processing rates• Measure performance

• General notifications• Errors and warnings• Trace actions for debugging

Data Types Strictly Numerical No restrictionData Consumption

• Polled in real-time• Written to a log file

• Delivered in real-time• Written to a log file• Buffered in memory

Applications can make use of both Performance Counters and Events

Instrumentation Consumption

Kevin Michael Woley

demo

Event Audience Developer Developer; IT Professional

System Administrator

Technology WPP ETW Event LogEvent Control Manual Manual Always OnMax Event Rate High (10^4 / sec) High (10^4 / sec) Medium (10^2 - 10^4 / sec)

Features • Easy Implementation• Requires symbol-like files to decode

• Declaratively defined in manifests• Programmatic Consumption• Discoverability• Localizable Strings• Flexible Data Model• Higher dev cost than WPP

Same Features of ETW plus:• Remote Collection• Data Query Support• Inbox Tool Support• Centralized event logs• Reduced logging rate

Windows Event Overview

Common API Set and Development Model

Windows 7 Instrumentation Improvements

New Version 2.0 Kernel Mode APIs Declaratively defined in XML Leverages Version 2.0 infrastructure from Vista

Fundamental Quality Investments Enhanced performance, scalability, and robustness Several new system counters exposing

Windows internals Improved design-time validation

Scriptable Consumption using PowerShell Consume live counters (get-counter) Read and write counter log files

(import-counter/export-counter)

Performance Counter Improvements In Windows 7

Fundamental Quality Investments Enhanced performance, scalability, and robustness Several new Windows events and event providers

Event Development Improved design-time validation Automatically generate code from XML

Event Consumption Scriptable consumption using PowerShell (get-event)

Discover and read ETW or Eventlog events locally or remotely Portable event log file decoding Improved data formatting Windows Performance Toolkit Improvements

ETW/Event Log Improvements In Windows 7

Instrumentation Implementation And Design

Design for the appropriate audience Provide meaningful event messages and

counter descriptions Provide actionable events and counters

for System Administrators and IT Professionals Use recommended interfaces

Performance Counters Version 2.0 Managed – System.Diagnostics.PerformanceData User Mode – PerfSet*(), PerfIncrement*(), etc. Kernel Mode – PcwRegister(), PcwCreateInstance(), etc.

Manifest-based ETW and Event Log APIs Managed – System.Diagnostics.Eventing User Mode – EventWrite(), etc. Kernel Mode – EtwWrite(), etc.

Instrumentation Design Considerations

Design your application’s events and counters with a goal in mind

Windows Instrumentation Design Workflow

Design

1 DesignCreate

InstrumentationManifest

(ECMangen)

XML Manifest

2 InstrumentationDefinition

CTRPP / MCpreprocessors

.rc

.c

.h

3 GenerateCode

Instrumentprovider APIs

New provider

code

4 Instrument

BuildNew

Provider

5 Build

5 StepsWin7: Event Logging Code

Generation & Improved Manifest Validation

Instrumentation Implementation

Kevin Michael Woley

demo

Windows Troubleshooting

Ricky BuchProgram ManagerMicrosoft Corporation

Automating Troubleshooting Spend less time fixing problems Deflect calls or reduce minutes-per-incident

Different types of software problems Design issues Configuration conflicts

Troubleshooting configuration Verify if desired user state can be supported Set configuration to support desired state

Windows 7 Troubleshooting Approach

Troubleshooting is the process of detecting and resolving a problem

Windows 7 troubleshoots configuration problems using Troubleshooting Packs

A Troubleshooting Pack is a program that Launched by the user or an application Detects and resolves configuration issues Verifies that configuration

has been set properly

Windows 7 Troubleshooting Implementation

Troubleshooting Packs detect and resolve configuration problems

Troubleshooting Pack – UI

Ricky Buch

demo

Easy to Discover Inbox or online help documentation Windows Troubleshooting Interface

Simple to Execute Each pack uses a standard wizard user interface Single-click problem resolution

Secure Signed by a certificate to ensure pack integrity

End-User Troubleshooting Features

Easy to Deploy Deploy as .cab files onto a file share or website

Flexible Execution Run interactively or in unattended mode Run on local or remote machines

Secure Signed by a certificate to ensure pack integrity Group Policy can control which packs

can execute

System-Administrator Troubleshooting Features

Troubleshooting Pack – PowerShell

Ricky Buch

demo

Easy to Develop Packs use Windows PowerShell

Detection, resolution and verification code Capturing user input and relaying progress

Can be deployed with application Simple to Debug

Errors and exceptions from PowerShell scripts captured in a debug report

Secure Signed by a certificate to ensure pack integrity

Developer Troubleshooting Features

Troubleshooting Pack consists of metadata and script files Troubleshooting Platform executes the

Troubleshooting Pack Leverages the PowerShell runtime to execute scripts Interacts with the GUI or command-line Generates reports for analysis

Architecture Overview

Trouble-shooting

Packs

Troubleshooting Platform

PowerShell

GUI

Reports

CMD

Diagram Of A Troubleshooting Pack

Identification Metadata

Resolution Scripts

Verification Scripts

Localized Resources

Trouble-shooting

Pack

• Name and description• List of configuration issues• Security signature

• Checks current configuration with expected configuration

• Sets the current configuration to what is expected

•Verifies that current configuration is now what is expected

• Contains localized display strings in MUI format

Detection Scripts

Diagram Of Component Interaction

Troubleshooting Platform

PowerShell Runtime

Reports

GUI CMD

Identification Metadata

Detection Scripts

Resolution Scripts

Verification Scripts

Localized Resources

• Detect a problem• Get input from user• Provide progress• Write to the report

Identify configuration issues Develop troubleshooting PowerShell scripts Troubleshooting toolkit

Graphical authoring environment Links to Graphical PowerShell editor Signs each pack with a certificate Packages the Troubleshooting

Pack for deployment

Authoring Troubleshooting Packs

Troubleshooting Pack Authoring

Ricky Buch

demo

Windows will Ship critical packs inbox Target additional packs using Windows Online

Troubleshooting Service You should

Ship troubleshooting packs with your client software

Post troubleshooting packs online Link to packs from your help documentation

Deploying Troubleshooting Packs

Troubleshooting Packs offer multiple deployment options.

Conclusion

Windows Instrumentation and Troubleshooting Platforms provide Centralized, standard, structured platforms to

improve manageability Consistent ways to debug and diagnose

software problems Detection and resolution of

configuration problems

Solving Software Problems

Review and revise your existing debugging techniques

Add or upgrade existing debug messages with the appropriate Windows Event or Performance Counter technologies

Review “An Overview of Windows Troubleshooting” whitepaper

Develop and deploy an appropriate troubleshooting pack with your application

Call To Action

Additional software quality sessions on video Driving for software quality through

customer feedback Developing compatible applications

for Windows Hands On Analysis with Windows

Performance Toolkit Best practices for signing and verifying code

on Windows 7 Meet us at the Windows

Fundamentals booth!

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© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market

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