Debugging Windows Azure Application with IntelliTrace

  Microsoft introduced IntelliTrace in the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition, and was previously called Historical Debugger, since it provides a way to debug historical data, because it provides a way to save information needed to provide a Debugging capabilities even if we aren’t using live code, or capable to reproduce a specific behavior.

   This capability is very important when we use it locally on our machines, but when we look at the Cloud where we don’t know what’s really happening this is much more important, and so this is how we can use IntelliTrace to Debug Windows Azure Roles.

1. Publish our Cloud Service and define that it should have IntelliTrace enabled.

2. After that, we should specify exactly what we want to be logged by IntelliTrace so we can analyze it afterwards.

     3. Now select the elements you need.

• “IntelliTrace events only” and “IntelliTrace events and call Information” this defines exactly what you need in terms of information, if only the events are enough or if you need to have the call stack and variable values and so on.

4. Select which modules to Log

5. Select which processes to log

6. Select the Events we would like to be logged and used by IntelliTrace

7. Select the maximum amount of disk space that can be used by IntelliTrace

8. Now that all settings is in place just publish it

  Now just wait for it to be published

  Now that it’s already published and running let’s analyze the IntelliTrace Logs

1. Open the Server Explorer and check that you have the recently installed environment with IntelliTrace

2. Now select an instance and right-click on it and select the View IntelliTrace Logs option

3. Now just wait for the Logs to be downloaded

4. When the logs are downloaded you’ll get a summary of your IntelliTrace logs like this

• This IntelliTrace summary has information about:
  • Threads that are being used
  • Exception Data list
  • System Information
  • Modules Loaded

5. Now just select the Start Debugging button to start using IntelliTrace

6. Don’t for forget to show IntelliTrace windows for Events and Calls

Hope this helps you to know better what’s happening with your Windows Azure Cloud Services.