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Event Tracing API Samples
=========================
This readme describes the three sample implementations of using the Event
Trace API's supplied with the SDK and a brief description of event tracing.
The readme is organized into 3 sections - Overview, Description of Event
Tracing and Using the Event Tracing samples.
For more details please refer the Platform SDK documentation on Event Tracing.
OVERVIEW
========
An event simply represents any activity of interest, especially with respect
to performance. It is typically an activity related to the usage of a resource
such as the processor, disk, etc. Examples of operating system events are disk
I/O and page fault events. Examples of application events are the start and
end of a certain transaction (in the case of the Directory Service it could be
the start and end of a search operation).
A trace is a discrete set of events that provide a view of the activity of
interest over a period of time. For each event,information related to that
event is recorded. Event tracing is therefore an ordered set of events,
generally recorded to a buffer for subsequent processing.
Event tracing works on the WMI model (details of the WMI model can be obtained
from the Platform SDK documentation for WMI). There exists a Provider, a
Controller and a Consumer, which act independently of each other.
The Provider could be the Operating System or the Directory service, which
registers its events (those that can be traced). Each event is associated with
a specific GUID (which is unique). A list of all the events and their GUIDS can
be obtained by running WBEMTest from the RUN menu (for details refer SDK
dcumentation on 'using WBEMTest'). After registering, the Provider carries on
with its usual activity.
When tracing is required, the Controller takes over. The controller creates a
buffer, where the event traces are to be recorded. Tracing is then enabled for
those events that the Controller would like to monitor (this is usually done by
supplying the GUID of that event). The Controller can be made more complex by
giving it the ability to control various parameters with respect to the buffer,
the log file, the type of tracing, etc.
The consumer takes the traces that are logged, and converts them to a human
readable form for further analysis. The Consumer can be as sophisticated as the
developer intends, for instance, an application that triggers another event
based on some value in the event trace log.
Event tracing has a number of uses. It supplements counters, in that it allows
one to derive various metrics not possible using simple raw counters. A
specific example is the response time metric. Event tracing allows more
detailed analysis of system events and hence can be useful for capacity
planning. Event tracing can also be used (potentially by developers) for
initial problem identification and the detection of system bottlenecks.
Note: Since event tracing is more expensive than regular performance counters,
it should not be used on a 7 * 24 basis.
Description of EVENT TRACING samples
====================================
There are three samples of event tracing tools included with the Event Tracing
resource kit - Tracelog, Tracedmp and Tracedp.
TRACELOG
--------
TraceLog is a Collection Control utility. It uses the Collection Control
portion of the Event Tracing API to start and stop (among other functions)
logging sessions. The logging sessions can be provided by the NT Kernel Logger
or any provider, such as the sample trace data provider, tracedp.exe.
When using logging, this utility specifies WMI to create an ETL file containing
information about the trace events in a binary format. The TraceDmp sample can
be used to read the ETL file and output a CSV and Summary text files.
The basic functions of Tracelog with respect to event tracing are -
Starting, stopping, updating and querying a trace session
Setting up a buffer to which the event traces are to be logged by the
provider
Creating a log file to which the buffer is flushed. (Note that it
could also be set to real time mode in which case the buffer would be
delivered directly to the consumer that wants it)
Providing more specific control over system level tracing
Controlling the level of tracing required
Simply put, tracelog first creates a circular buffer and enables tracing. The
provider (like the Operating System or an application, such as the DS) now
starts tracing events. These traces are written to the buffer. When a buffer is
filled, the data is written to a log file or if real time mode is set, then the
consumer (such as tracedmp or another application) takes the data from the
buffer itself.
Usage: tracelog [actions] [options] | [-h | -help | -?]
Input parameters [actions] - actions you issue with the command. These include
starting, stopping, updating, querying, and flushing a logging session, listing
active logging sessions, enabling and disabling event providers.
Input Parameters [options] - optional parameters you issue with the action
you specified.
Actions
-------
-start [logger name]
begins a tracing session named [logger name]. You need to give a logger name
for the events you would like to trace but if it is a system trace, you need
not specify any logger name, since the default logger name would be taken as
'NT kernel logger' (see example 1 & 2).
Note System and application (like the DS) traces can be started simultaneously,
but you would have to specify a different logger name for the application trace
(see example 3).
-stop [logger name]
stops a tracing session named [logger name]. You have to specify the instance
name of the events for which you would like tracing to discontinue. For
stopping system tracing, you need not specify any logger name (see example 4).
-update [logger name]
updates the [logger name] session. This is useful when you want to change the
file name of the log file (maybe directing it to a different disk) or change
some buffer parameters, or change to real time mode, etc.
The following can be updated for the kernel logger (system trace) -
"-rt" mode switch. To switch to and from real time mode.
"-f <logfile name>" to switch logfile.
"-ft <n>" to change flush timer.
"-max <n>" to change maximum buffers.
"-nodisk" "-noprocess" "-nothread" "-nonet" "-fio" "-pf" "-hf" "-img" "-cm"
flags.
Note: These flags apply only to the NT kernel logger. All updates should be
provided in a single update statement. If we wanted to switch to real time
processing and increase the max number of buffers, we would issue the command
Tracelog -update -rt -max 40 (all in one statement)
-flush [logger name]
flushes the buffers used for [logger name] into a file. All the buffer used in
the sessions are emptied.
-enable [logger name]
enables event provider(s) for the [logger name] tracing session. Event
providers are specified with GUIDs given in a file. Thus, this action is used
with -guid option.
-disable [logger name]
disables event provider(s) for the [logger name] tracing session. Event
providers are specified with GUIDs given in a file. Thus, this action is used
with -guid option.
"-guid <file>" <file> contains a list of GUIDS for event tracing (each GUID
corresponds to one event provider). One cannot just provide a GUID, even if
it is just one GUID; it has to be included in a file. The exception to this
is if you wish to enable Windows system tracing where no GUID file is
necessary (see example 1).
-enumguid
enumerate Registered Trace Guids.
-x
stops all traces (system and otherwise). This is a complete halt to event
tracing.
-l
is a query to list all the ongoing traces.
-q
is a query to list the system trace only.
Buffer parameters
-----------------
-b <n bytes>
specifies the buffer size. You would generally set the size to be multiples of
the page size (for x86 page size=4Kb). A small size increases the flush
frequency. The kernel, depending on the memory capacity, chooses the default.
-min <n>
number of buffers to pre-allocate. If the logging is frequent, then you want to
set a higher number. Default is 2.
-max <n>
maximum buffers in pool. This limits the amount of memory consumed for each
tracing session. Default is 25.
-ft <n sec>
after a buffer gets filled up, it gets flushed to the log file or to the
consumer (in case of real time tracing). This option allows you to specify the
time after which to force a flush, especially useful for real time tracing.
-age <n min>
if a buffer has been allocated but isn't being used (for the last n minutes),
it is freed. This is generally useful for light tracing, so that memory is
freed. Remember this has nothing to do with the maximum buffers that have been
allocated. That value remains the same. Default is 15 minutes.
Log file options
----------------
-f <name>
specifies the log file to which the buffer will be flushed. The consumer will
use this file for its analysis. The default name and location is
c:\logfile.etl.
Use a different file name for each instance of tracing required
(see example 5).
-seq <n Mbytes>
indicates that the logging will be sequential and the file size is n Mbytes. By
default, logging is sequential.
-cir <n Mbytes>
indicates that logging will be circular. After the file size is reached,
logging starts from the beginning of the file again. The header information is
not lost however.
-rt
enables real time tracing (see example 6).
Provide more specific control over system level (kernel) tracing
----------------------------------------------------------------
In order to understand these controls, it is important to understand a little
about system level tracing. The following events can be traced at the system
level -
Process start/end
Disk I/O
Network Tcp/ip, Udp/ip
Thread start/end
Image Load
Registry calls
File I/O
Page Fault
Of these the first 4 are enabled by default. The last 4 aren't enabled, as this
would generate a lot of extra load (resource utilization), which we would like
to avoid.
-noprocess
disables process start/end tracing
-nonet
disables network tracing
-nothread
disables thread start/end tracing
-nodisk
disables disk I/O tracing
-fio
enables file I/O tracing
-pf
enables tracing of soft page faults
-hf
enables tracing of hard page faults. Hard page faults are those that involve a
physical read (i.e. read from the disk).
-img
enables image load tracing
-cm
enables registry calls tracing
-um
enables private process tracing. In this case, the buffer is established in the
private process space instead of the kernel space (which is the default
behavior).
Control the level of tracing required
-------------------------------------
In order to use the following options, a provider would need to have this
functionality enabled in code. One would therefore have to check with the
provider (like the Operating System or the Directory service), before using
these options.
-level <n>
a provider could have number of levels of tracing. A higher number would
indicate a deeper level of tracing.
-flags <n>
by supplying a flag, more specific tracing can be achieved. The flag passed
depends on what functionality the provider has implemented.
Output (display) Parameters - those that appear on the screen when the command
executes
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Logger Name Name of the logging instance. For the kernel it is |
| 'NT Kernel Logger', else it defaults to what you |
| have provided (see example 2) |
| |
|Logger Id Id of the logger |
|Logger Thread Id Thread ID of the logger |
|Buffer Size The size of the buffer allocated |
|Maximum Buffers The maximum buffers in pool |
|Minimum Buffers The number of buffers to pre-allocate |
|Number of Buffers The number of buffers being currently used |
|Free Buffers The number of buffers in the free list |
|Buffers Written The number of buffers that have already been written |
|Events Lost The events lost (generally in case there is sudden |
| activity and there aren't enough buffers |
| pre-allocated, events could getlost) |
|Log Buffers Lost As the name suggests |
|Real Time Buffers Lost As the name suggests |
|Log File Mode Whether sequential or circular |
|Enabled tracing The various events in the kernel for which tracing |
| has been enabled (like process, disk, network, etc) |
|Log Filename Name and path of the log file |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Examples
--------
1. tracelog -start
Starts system event tracing with the log file being the default
c:\logfile.etl
2. tracelog -enable ds -guid control.guid
Enables event providers specified in file "control.guid" for the tracing
session "ds".
3. tracelog -start (starts system tracing)
tracelog -start ds -guid control.guid -f c:\dslogfile.etl (starts DS
tracing)
4. tracelog -stop
tracelog -stop ds
5. tracelog -start -f kernel_log.etl
tracelog -start ds -guid control.guid -f ds_log.etl
6. tracelog -update
If current logger is a real-time logger, this will switch current logger to
non real-time, sequential logger.
7. tracelog -l
Lists all active logging sessions.
TRACEDMP
--------
TraceDmp is a Data Consumer sample. It uses the Event Tracing API to read the
.etl log files (or consume events from the log file) created by TraceLog or by
consuming the real-time events enabled in a data provider. TraceDmp decodes
event data using the format obtained from WMI and outputs the data in a CSV
file that conveniently loads into a database or spreadsheet program. A summary
file is also created to show the sum of all events by each event type during
the session time. You can use TraceDmp flags to specify only a summary file and
omit the CSV file output.
Tracedmp gives us two ways to view the data obtained from event tracing.
Summary.txt file - As the name suggests, this gives us a summary of the events
traced.
CSV (comma-separated format) file - This file sorts events in chronological
order (increasing order of the time-stamp) thus giving us a more detailed view
for each event.
For tracedmp to work, you need to use a log file. A log file is written by the
Event Tracer in a specific format - a header and some variable data. This
format is interpreted by tracedmp. Whilst the header is fixed, the variable data
has to be interpreted separately for each event (eg., process start/end tracing
and disk I/O tracing have their own variable structure). This variable portion
is determined by tracedmp through a lookup in the WMI namespace.
System event descritptors are already present in the WMI namespace by default.
For other custom events, providers should provide the WMI MOF file with the
event layout descriptions. Before running tracedmp, you should register those
event layouts by running mofcomp.exe on that mof file. For instance, the
custom events generated by tracedp.exe are registered as follows:
mofcomp -N:root\wmi tracedp.mof
The format is based on the WMI format, which uses the MOF structure. Details
on event descriptors can be obtained by examining the mof file or by running
WBEMTest.
Tracedmp can also be used for real time event tracing in which case the tool
will read from the buffer itself instead of from the file. The format and
process is similar to that described earlier for log files.
Usage: tracedmp [options] <etl file> | [-? | -h | -help]
The options are explained below:
-o <file>
specify the name of the csv and summary file to which you would like the
results to appear. The default files are dumpfile.csv and summary.txt and are
placed in the tracedmp directory (see example 1).
-rt [logger name]
use this option if real time tracing is being performed. Ensure that tracelog
is also in real time mode and set the logger file name to that provided in the
tracelog command (see example 2).
-summary
select this option if only the summary file is required. In this case, the csv
file is not created.
Output files
-------------
Summary.txt - This contains a count of all the events that occurred while
tracing was being performed. The GUID's for each event are also displayed. It
is important to understand the difference between Event type - start/end and
Event type - DCstart/DCend (DC=Data Collection). The former are those event
that started and ended after tracing had begun, i.e. they had their lifetime
within the tracing period. There are however processes (or threads) that had
begun even before tracing had been turned on, and continue even after tracing
is completed. For such events, their beginning is the time tracing was turned
on and their end is the time tracing was turned off. Hence we have DCstart and
DCend.
Dumpfile.csv - This file can be opened in MSExcel. It contains a list of the
events as they occurred in chronological order. The various fields are:
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Event name Name of the event being traced |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|TID Thread Identifer |
|Clock-time The timestamp of the event occurrence |
|Kernel (ms) Time taken by that event in the kernel space |
|User (ms) Time taken by the event in the user space |
|User data ... The variable portion of the header. This is |
| based on the MOF structure, provided in the |
| MOFdata.guid file. This could be more than |
| one column of data. To be able to interpret |
| it, one would have tolook at the above file, |
| or run WEBMTest as explained above. |
|IID Instance ID |
|PIID Parent Instance ID (to which the IID relates) |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
NOTE: IID and PIID are the last two columns (rightmost columns) of the output
file and should not be mistaken for User Data as this field could span multiple
columns.
Examples
Tracedmp c:\logfile.etl
Tracedmp -o myoutput c:\logfile.etl
In this case, the output files will be myoutput.csv and myoutput.txt
Tracedmp -rt ds
This assumes that the ds is being traced in real time mode using the tracelog
command.
TRACEDP
=======
TraceDp is a Data Provider sample. It demonstrates how you can provide event
trace data to the logger or a Data Consumer from user mode code. For a kernel
mode driver there are kernel mode equivalent APIs.
Usage: TraceDp [options] [number of events] [-? | -h | -help]
-UseEventTraceHeader This is the default
-UseEventInstanceHeader
-UseMofPtrFlag
[number of events] default is 5000
-UseEventTraceHeader
Instructs Tracdp to use the EVent trace header for logging
-UseEventInstanceHeader
Instructs Tracedp to generate instance id's for subseuqent use by the tracelog
sample.
-UseMofptrFlag
Instructs Tracedp to use the MOF ptr flag to reference the logged data. When
this option is used, tracedp generates custom events containing various
types of data as specified in tracedp.mof.
USING THE EVENT TRACING SAMPLES
===============================
The following examples show how to use TraceLog's default settings, logging
registry activity, and using TraceLog to control the TraceDP Data Provider
sample.
Using the Sample's Defaults
===========================
1) Start the NT Kernel Logger by using only the -start command. By default the
events are placed in the c:\LogFile.etl file.
C:\TraceLog>tracelog -start
2) To stop the session use -stop.
C:\TraceLog>tracelog -stop
After you have started and stop a logging session you should find a file
named c:\LogFile.etl. This files store logging events between the time
you use tracelog -start and tracelog -stop.
By default TraceLog will log information regarding processes, threads, disk,
and network I/O.
Using the NT Kernel Logger to Trace Registry Usage
==================================================
There are various details about kernel processing which is not logged by
default. You can also trace file I/O, page faults, image load information,
registry operations, and process private information. The following is an
example of retrieve trace information when creating a registry key and
adding a registry value.
1) Start the NT Kernel Logger to get Registry traces. The -cm switch stands for
Configuration Manager, another name for Registry. Also the -noprocess,
-nothread, -nodisk, and -nonet switches are used to remove the clutter so you
can focus on the registry events.
C:\TraceLog>tracelog -start -noprocess -nothread -nodisk -nonet -cm
2) After starting the logging session, use the registry editor to create a key
at a location of your choice and create a string value.
3) Next, stop the logging session for the NT Kernel Logger
C:\TraceLog>tracelog -stop
4) Use the TraceDmp utility to dump the information to a CSV file and Summary.
Go to the tracedmp directory and run tracedmp with no arguments. By default
it will read the C:\LogFile.Etl and produce the DumpFile.csv and Summary.txt
files. Below is an example of the Summary.txt.
Files Processed:
C:\Logfile.Etl
Total Buffers Processed 8
Total Events Processed 999
Total Events Lost 0
Elapsed Time 33 sec
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|EventCount EventName EventType Guid |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 29 Process DCStart 3d6fa8d0-fe05-11d0-9dda-00c04fd7ba7c|
| 29 Process DCEnd 3d6fa8d0-fe05-11d0-9dda-00c04fd7ba7c|
| 305 Thread DCStart 3d6fa8d1-fe05-11d0-9dda-00c04fd7ba7c|
| 304 Thread DCEnd 3d6fa8d1-fe05-11d0-9dda-00c04fd7ba7c|
| 2 Registry Create ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 176 Registry Open ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 86 Registry Query ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 1 Registry SetValue ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 23 Registry QueryValue ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 40 Registry EnumerateKey ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 1 Registry EnumerateValueKey ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 2 Registry Flush ae53722e-c863-11d2-8659-00c04fa321a1|
| 1 Header General 68fdd900-4a3e-11d1-84f4-0000f80464e3|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Using TraceLog to Control the TraceDp Sample
=============================================
TraceLog can be used with the TraceDp (Sample Data Provider) example to create
an etl file. But first add the control guid to the Control.Guid file in the
TraceLog directory. This is used as input for TraceLog.
1) Open Control.Guid with Notepad.exe and add the following line.
d58c126f-b309-11d1-969e-0000f875a5bc tracedp
The name at the end of the GUID is arbitrary. The name will appear in the
output CSV and summary text files.
2) Start the TraceDp sample data provide. The following is an example usage
C:\tracedp>tracedp -UseMofPtrFlag
You should see the following output:
Trace registered successfully
Testing Logger with 5000 events
3) Start the logging session and provide the Control.Guid file as input. You'll
need to start a new command prompt.
C:\TraceLog>tracelog -start tracedp -guid control.guid
Note that the name after -start is a session name and is arbitrary. At this
point you should see the following text output with "."s printed to show
progress:
Logging enabled to 0x0000000000000002
..........................
4) After you are satisfied with the amount of data, stop the logging session.
C:\TraceLog>tracelog -stop tracedp -guid control.guid
5) Register the events generated by tracedp onto WMI by running mofcomp. The
WMI MOF file is given as tracedp.mof in the tracdp directory.
6) Now use TraceDmp to dump the data that was logged.
C:\TraceDmp>tracedmp
The following is an example the of Summary.txt file that is output.
Files Processed:
test.etl
Total Buffers Processed 10
Total Events Processed 1001
Total Events Lost 0
Start Time 0x01C08729527557B9
End Time 0x01C0872A1B1C4BFA
Elapsed Time 336 sec
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Count Event Name Event Type Guid |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1 EventTrace Header {68fdd900-4a3e-11d1-84f4-0000f80464e3}|
| 250 TraceDP Strings {ce5b1020-8ea9-11d0-a4ec-00a0c9062910}|
| 250 TraceDP Integers {ce5b1020-8ea9-11d0-a4ec-00a0c9062910}|
| 250 TraceDP Floats {ce5b1020-8ea9-11d0-a4ec-00a0c9062910}|
| 250 TraceDP Arrays {ce5b1020-8ea9-11d0-a4ec-00a0c9062910}|
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+