By Andreas Grabner | Article Rating: |
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May 5, 2011 10:30 AM EDT | Reads: |
16,596 |

When we get engaged with prospects that are interested in our performance management solution we walk them through a Proof of Concept. We let them install dynaTrace on their own prior to the actual POC. During the POC we ask them to exercise typical use cases on their application that show performance problems. We walk them through the different analysis options and add the findings to a final POC Presentation. In this blog I want to share some screenshots and findings of a typical Proof of Concept recently done in a heterogeneous .NET/Java Environment.
Out-of-the-Box Result Presentation
The screenshots are taken from the final POC Presentation that my colleague Francis pulled together after analyzing a one hour recorded dynaTrace Session with an Out-Of-The-Box dynaTrace Configuration.
1. Get a general performance overview of the application – where are my hotspots?
Read more on identifying Hotspots
2. What is going on between my application servers?
Read more on Tracing Distributed Applications
3. Sequence Diagram for individual transactions

The Sequence Diagram can also be used to see how tiers interact, where our bottlenecks are and where exceptions are thrown
More on analyzing architectural problems
4. Analyzing Database Activity

Analyze Database Activity per Transaction. Identify problems where SQL Statements are called multiple times with the same parameters
Analyzing slow SQL Query on WebLogic:
Read more database related blog entries.
5. Identifying slow Remoting calls

Identify slow remoting calls including full call context and the ability to trace into the server-side implementation of this call
Read more remoting related blog entriesInspecting asynchronous MessagesdynaTrace can follow asynchronous messages through your SOA infrastructure
6. Analyzing hidden exceptions

dynaTrace captures exceptions including full call stack. Drilling to the actual PurePath (Trace) gives more input on the actual call context
More exceptions caught on WebLogic:
7. Runtime Suspension (Garbage Collection) Impact Analysis
Read a blog post on the cost of exceptions
8. Details on Web Service Calls from .NET to Java

Details on Web Service Invocations such as input parameters, transferred bytes or the impact of the GC on the execution time
9. Lookup Source Code from your own or foreign code
Conclusion
As you can see – it is easy to get an overview of the performance hotspots. The typical problems that we always find are things like too many database statements, hidden exceptions or long-running remoting calls. Read my blog about the Top 10 Server-Side Performance Problems that we often find with our dynaTrace Installations.
Related reading:
- Top 10 Client-Side Performance Problems in Web 2.0 Inspired by the Top 10 Performance Problems post which focuses...
- Troubleshooting response time problems – why you cannot trust your system metrics // Production Monitoring is about ensuring the stability and health...
- Application Performance Monitoring in production – A Step-by-Step Guide – Part 1 // Setting up Application Performance Monitoring is a big task,...
- Top 10 Performance Problems taken from Zappos, Monster, Thomson and Co For a recent edition of the Swiss Computerworld Magazine we...
- Top 3 Performance Problems in Custom Microsoft CRM Applications After spending a lot of time focusing on Client-Side Web...
Published May 5, 2011 Reads 16,596
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More Stories By Andreas Grabner
Andreas Grabner has been helping companies improve their application performance for 15+ years. He is a regular contributor within Web Performance and DevOps communities and a prolific speaker at user groups and conferences around the world. Reach him at @grabnerandi
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