J-Wise Coder

1. Traditional .NET profilers that track process memory usage, time spent per line of code and frequency of method calls.
2. Lightweight profilers or other tracking mechanisms that allow you to logically understand what your code is doing and understand performance at a high level.
3. Application performance management (APM) tools designed to monitor production servers.

1. Standard .NET Profilers

• High memory usage: Profilers are extremely powerful when it comes to tracking down memory leaks and optimizing memory usage.
• The CPU usage is out of control: If your server CPU is extremely high and you have no idea why a profiler may be your last resort to figure out why.
• Proactive performance tuning: Optimizing CPU usage for some apps is a never-ending job.

• Visual Studio Performance Profiler
• Red Gate ANTS
• dotTrace

2. Lightweight .NET Profiler/Transaction Tracing tools

• Glimpse: Installed into your app and requires many config changes and NuGet packages. The open-source project now led by Microsoft. Glimpse does not use the .NET CLR profiler. Utilizes an extension and packages framework to add support for various app dependencies and technologies. Requires some code changes, for example, for tracking database queries you have to wrap your database connections in a special wrapper class. Only works with web apps.
• MiniProfiler: Installed into your app as a lightweight tracing tool. It does not use the .NET CLR profiler. Database calls can be tracked by changing your code to wrap your SQL connections. You can also change your code to report additional steps within your code to include in the pseudo profile traces. Only works with web apps. Requires a lot of code changes.
• Stackify Prefix: Installs on a developer’s workstation outside of your app. Based on the .NET CLR profiler and uses the same technology that powers Stackify’s APM product for monitoring server apps. Requires no code or config changes to work! Automatically tracks the performance of 30+ common .NET frameworks and libraries. Can be used to view exceptions, logs, and much more. Can be extended to profile any method in your code. Also works with non-web apps. This is our tool, so naturally, we’re a little biased toward it.

3. Profiling Production .NET Applications (APM)

Summary

Java Elapsed Time Calculation: Not a Single Thing

Calculating Elapsed Time in Java in All Shapes and Sizes

The Quick, Easy, and Often Incorrect Way: System.currentTimeMillis()

long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
// some time passes
long end = System.currentTimeMillis();
long elapsedTime = end - start;

The Also Quick, Also Easy and More Likely to Be Correct Way: System.nanoTime()

 long start = System.nanoTime();
 // some time passes
 long end = System.nanoTime();
 long elapsedTime = end - start; 

The StopWatch Class

 StopWatch watch = new StopWatch();
 watch.start();
 // call to the methods you want to benchmark
 watch.stop();
 long result = watch.getTime(); 

Post-Java 8 Alternatives

 Instant start = Instant.now();
 // time passes      
 Instant end = Instant.now();
 Duration timeElapsed = Duration.between(start, end); 

Learn About Time. It’s About Time!