Preliminary understanding of Performance Testing Tool xperf (1)

Although there are not many tests that focus on performance at ordinary times, this is also insufficient. performance tests are essential for testing any software product, therefore, flexible use of some performance analysis tools is required. Recently, my colleagues recommended a Performance Testing Tool xperf provided by Microsoft. It is said that many OEMs require the whole machine to pass the so-called Velocity project, that is, xperf checks, and the performance can only meet the requirements.

Before using this tool, you must master the following basic knowledge.

1. xperf tool source

Xperf is a tool in Windows Performance Tools Kit. This powerful toolkit mainly targets the underlying Log Capture and Performance Analysis in the startup and shutdown phases of the operating system. you can easily find the main bottleneck in the Process of startup and Shutdown (such as loading a specific driver slow, access to a specific file problems and so on), the latest version is 4.1.1.1, can be downloaded to the http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/perftools.mspx for free.

2. xperf tool Introduction

Xperf is not just a tool set. These tools currently include an xperf tracking and capturing tool, an xperfview virtualization tool (also known as a Performance Analyzer), and an xbootmgr startup tracking and capturing tool. These tools are used to analyze a large number of performance problems, including application initiation times, startup problems, delayed process calls, and interrupted activities (DPC and ISR), system response problems, application resource utilization, and disruption storms.

3. operating principle of xperf

Xperf is generated on the basic structure of Event Tracing for Windows (ETW. ETW allows Windows and applications to generate events effectively. You can enable or disable events at any time without restarting the system or process. ETW collects the requested kernel events and saves them to one or more files named "trace files" or "traces.

These kernel events provide a large amount of detailed information about system operations. The most important and useful kernel events for capturing and analyzing are: context switch, interrupt, DPC, process and thread creation and destruction, disk I/O, hard fault, processor P state conversion, register operations, and many other operations.

The next article will analyze the role of this tool from the perspective of practical application.

12.23.2008 by vivilisa