This is a quick list of resources for the under fire scenarios for Windows Azure Caching (Windows Azure is here , SQL Azure here , Service Bus here , and ACS here ). Under fire scenarios in my speak is when something needs to be done quickly. Example, fix error, write working code, get up to speed with...

This is a list of how-To’s distilled from MSDN documentation of Windows Azure AppFabric Caching How to: Create an Azure AppFabric Cache How to: Prepare a Visual Studio Project to Use Azure AppFabric Caching How to: Configure a Cache Client Programmatically (Azure AppFabric) How to: Configure a Cache...

The notes taken while reading MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-442): Designing and Optimizing Data Access by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Self-Paced Training Kits) . From the book: “The join relates tables based on a key column, such as primary key or a foreign key.” JOIN Types Performance...

The notes taken while reading MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-442): Designing and Optimizing Data Access by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (Self-Paced Training Kits) . When application access the SQL Server instance make sure those three configurations are in sync: Network protocols...

      In this post I’d like to share my approach to managing performance throughout SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). Before recently joining the Solution Engineering team I worked as a field consultant with MCS [Microsoft Consulting Services]. Quick Resource Box Improving ...

      In the post I have quickly captured the steps required to access a database using LINQ to SQL. I am reading a book LINQ in Action – good read, easy and practical. Love it a lot. Quick Resource Box LINQ in Action Microsoft .NET Pet Shop 4.0 General ORM Limitations In the book...

      I have improved readability dramatically by re-implementing my Entities using auto-implemented properties and object initializers . The change is inspired after reading a book LINQ in Action . Quick Resource Box Step 2: Design Your Entities & Business Components Remove Old...

This post documents steps we have taken to simulate file upload with Web Test when the form is submitted via JavaScript [vs. simple postback]. Credits go directly to Shai Raiten , MVP, brilliant young man, and the mind behind the workaround. Quick Resource Box How to upload a file in a Web test Shai...

      Tracing or Instrumentation is invaluable, most effective, and efficient when dealing with performance problems in ASP.NET Applications. The problem is that it requires coding that too often cut or even never planned to be made. Quick Resource Box Sysinternals ProcMon New &...

This post inspired by fantastic news I heard over at John Robbins blog of Wintellect. John collaborated with Mark Russinovich . Mark made it possible for Process Monitor [ProcMon] to collect events reported by an application and John wrapped a nice API that can be used either from native or managed code...

      This post is inspired by a post Load Testing 101 by Andreas Grabner. The dynatrace blog and the dynaTrace AJAX Edition free tool are both invaluable resources for anyone who cares about performance – and you should! Quick Resource Box dynaTrace AJAX Edition patterns & practices...

      Although Fiddler PowerToy - Part 2: HTTP Performance is quite dated article about Fiddler , I constantly find very useful and practical gems in it. Flagging performance problems by coloring outstanding requests is one of them. Quick Resource Box Fiddler PowerToy - Part 2: HTTP...

Few months ago MCS Israel hosted patterns & practices summit . I have presented too. I was presenting on performance in web applications - Dissecting web app performance from browser through ASP.NET to IIS . Here is the abstract: Quick Resource Box patterns & practices summit – Israel...

      Making fewer calls to IIS web server improves your ASP.NET application’s performance, or more precisely, it improves UI responsiveness or, even more precisely, it improves UX, the User Experience. Better User Experience leads to better adoption.  Quick Resource Box Free...

In this post I will share with you how to automate code review when searching MSIL for common performance and security anti-patterns. Scenario You are an application performance/security consultant who’s been asked to review a large application for common security and performance anti-patterns. You are...

Any consultant can streamline ASP.NET Application performance troubleshooting process when he has a good toolset handy. By “good” I mean the tools are well known and it is free. These two attributes usually help passing security department smoothly and never meet procurement department too. These departments...

Following is a list of performance counters I am usually taking to spot low hanging fruits when measuring ASP.NET performance: Resource utilization \.Processor\%Processor Time \.NET CLR Memory(*)\Allocated Bytes/sec \.NET CLR Memory(*)\% Time in GC \.NET CLR Exceptions(*)\# of Exceps Thrown / sec...

A customer complained that his web application gets slow each morning at specific times. The rest of the day the application was providing satisfactory performance in terms of response time. The assumption was that at that times all employees sign in creating unexpectedly high traffic which caused the...

A customer complained that his ASP.NET web application gets slow periodically. It happens at random times, the system just gets slow then after few minutes it gets back on track with normal response times. One of the reasons for such behavior is an AppPool default recycling policy set in IIS. Default...

    Below is a slide deck for the talk I gave today on Architect UG. The presentation focused on 16 case studies of performance that is less than optimal. The session is focused on baking performance engineering into the development lifecycle. Each case study has a link to the detailed...

      This post is a quick overview of free performance tools available from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and IBM. It also contains a pointers to related articles that go deeper regarding the best practices and how the tools can help in identifying compliance to the best practices. Quick...

      Distributed architecture can mercilessly backfire at you.  In my case flexible architecture, elegant design patterns, and smart code led to abuse of the flexibility, resulting in very poor performance . Free Microsoft Network Monitor (Netmon) helped to identify the root...

      This walkthrough is completely based on Johan's post WinDBG+SOS: Getting at the values in a DataTable . I have created this one to help me do the job in straightforward way next time I hit similar problem. Joan also offers few scripts for process automation - recommended.  ...

      I thought it'd be useful to package the resources referenced in my previous post - Why My ASP.NET Application's Performance Is Less Than Optimal? I packaged it in form of PDF file. Hope it'll be useful for you when dealing with performance bottlenecks in your ASP.NET web application...

      From my recent engagements I collected few performance anti-patterns that make ASP.NET web application to perform the way that is less than optimal. Many related to architecture and design. Below is the list of the anti-patterns and related materials on how to identify, analyze...