Performance Management for .NET Applications

Once development and testing are complete, management of .NET applications falls into the hands of network operations and application managers. In spite of all the best preparations, performance problems may still occur. Fine-tuning, troubleshooting, and predicting these performance problems are the responsibility of operations. This job is further complicated by the new set of applications .NET adds to the already complex mix. Compuware Vantage aids in tuning, troubleshooting and managing growth by providing a comprehensive solution covering the entire .NET infrastructure.

Profile, analyze and troubleshoot .NET applications

ApplicationVantage: As the final step before deploying a .NET application with Web services, the best policy is a network certification process centered on ApplicationVantage. Running the Web service in a test network environment makes it possible to analyze performance of the service as a whole. Detailed response time analysis allows network administrators to identify whether improvements in the network (bandwidth or device upgrades) will help performance or if further .NET tuning is required by the development group. The unique ability to identify the elements causing delays in HTTP, SOAP and XML payloads allows better control of end-user response expectations, helping to establish realistic service—level standards.

When deploying Web services, the concern is not a single Web service, but a group or series that collectively comprise a business task. ApplicationVantage's WAN Deployment Expert module combines groups of transactions into user profiles and provides the bandwidth requirements and cumulative response times for entire business processes, as well as for individual transactions. This allows .NET application profiling at increasingly granular levels.

ApplicationVantage is also the .NET administrator's first line of defense for isolating performance breakdowns in production. With the ability to capture and merge transactions from two points to identify performance delays on the client, network or server, ApplicationVantage plays a critical role for troubleshooting .NET performance issues when reported by end users.

.NET performance monitoring

ClientVantage: Because application components may be widely distributed in true .NET applications, monitoring and capturing performance data from the end user's perspective is more important than ever. ClientVantage is a comprehensive service level management tool that monitors, captures, reports and pinpoints the cause of service level exceptions at the client end of .NET applications. Application transaction response times are monitored from the workstation and compared to service level thresholds. Diagnostic information is captured 24x7 and reported on when the thresholds are exceeded. Additional .NET transaction reports are created to manage service levels and allow administrators to be notified when exceptions are detected.

NetworkVantage: With its unique perspective, Network Vantage identifies HTTP and SOAP traffic—key protocols for Web services. When implemented on an intranet or on dedicated links, NetworkVantage will show how Web services are traversing the segments between users and servers, and will show bottlenecks, response-time statistics and total byte counts. NetworkVantage can also determine if Web services are following intended paths or being routed elsewhere, possibly causing problems on other segments. 

ServerVantage: ServerVantage is the perfect solution for obtaining the server perspective of .NET. Web services are unaware of their operating environment, so the server solution must span different platforms. Server agents that run on Microsoft, UNIX and Novell servers provide key metrics on all aspects of server performance ranging from CPU and memory usage to web page hits and database connections. With specific counters developed to monitor .NET servers, ServerVantage goes beyond traditional Microsoft server management to provide comprehensive monitoring of the entire .NET environment.

.NET capacity planning

Predictor: Predictor provides detailed analysis of .NET applications' impact on both the WAN and complex LAN environments. .NET Web services run in several ways. Some take random paths through the Internet; others run on dedicated, expensive WAN links. Additionally, many corporations will run .NET on intranets, where Web services are provided internally from remote servers. In any case, bandwidth requirements and link capacities must be carefully analyzed before the applications are deployed. Predictor allows .NET adopters to model their .NET application infrastructure, then estimate how specific links will hold up to increasing and varying amounts of Web service traffic. This understanding allows you to plan decisions proactively about link and bandwidth upgrades throughout the entire enterprise, before failures result in lost revenue.