How to: Install the Stand-Alone Profiler

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Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Visual Studio provides a command line based stand-alone profiler that can be run without installing the Visual Studio IDE. This situation occurs when a computer does not or cannot have a development environment installed. For example, you should not install a development environment on a production Web server.

Note

When you are using the stand-alone profiler to collect performance data for ASP.NET Web site, the VSPerfASPNetCmd line tool is recommended over VSPerfCmd tool.

To install the stand-alone profiler

  1. Locate the stand-alone profile installer (vs_profiler.exe) on the Visual Studio installation media in the directory that includes the \Standalone Profiler path and run it.

  2. Add the paths for vsintr.exe and msdis150.dll to the system path.

    Note

    In the default installation of Visual Studio, vsinstr.exe and msdis150.dll are located in \Program Files\Visual Studio 10\Team Tools\Performance Tools.

  3. At the command prompt, type VSInstr.

    Note

    If the usage information for vsinstr.exe is displayed, everything is set up correctly. If you see an error that states vsinstr.exe or one of its dependencies is not found, make sure that you have your paths set up correctly as described in step 2.

  4. Set up symbol server by setting your _NT_SYMBOL_PATH variable to symsrv*symsrv.dll*c:\localcache*https://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

  5. After you set up your symbol server by using the system environment variables, run the command line profiler tools at a new command prompt. This allows the new environment variables to take effect. In the command prompt window, type the following command:

    start %COMSPEC%

    Note

    For detailed instructions about how to set up the symbol server package, see How to: Reference Windows Symbol Information.

  6. Use the VSPerfReport tool to serialize your symbols into the profiling data (.vsp) file. Use the VSPerfReport /summary:all /packsymbols switches. If you do not have symbols inserted in your data file, make sure that you have the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable set.

See Also

Profiling from the Command-Line
Walkthrough: Command-Line Profiling Using Sampling
Walkthrough: Command-Line Profiling Using Instrumentation
How to: Reference Windows Symbol Information
VSPerfReport