Analyze Docker (Linux) containers with VTune Profiler on Windows Host

[krishnan]

Setup: Windows Host (Win 10 /  Ver: 1909), VTune Profiler 2020 Update 1

Goal: Analyze Linux containers (Debian base images) running on the Hyper-V hypervisor.

Steps:

1. Followed this recipe to enable PEBS, LBS on the DockrDesktopVM following this recioe --> https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/documentation/vtune-cookbook/top/configuration-recipes/configuring-a-hyper-v-virtual-machine-for-hardware-based-hotspots-analysis.html

2. Setup Hotspot analysis following this recipe -> https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/documentation/vtune-cookbook/top/configuration-recipes/profiling-in-docker-container.html and have several issues.

I've encounted the following issues:

1. The Hardware Event Based Sampling is disabled 

2. I managed to collect the trace and do not see the 

Container/Process/Function/Thread/Call Stack  group available.

Questions:

1. Is the scenario I'm attempting supported?

2. Would it work if I ran this via the WSL on Windows or if I switched Docker to run this as a Windows container?

Thanks.

[ChithraJ_Intel]

Hi Krishnan,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

For your 1st query, we are also trying to profile Linux container on a windows host from our end. We will give you the updates soon on this. Regarding your 2nd query, profiling windows container on a windows host is not currently supported.

[krishnan]

Thanks for the update. If you have any rough timelines to share that will be great. Also wrt to #2 I presume there should be no issues with using VTune profiler with WSL2 on Windows as it is a native Linux kernel. If this is something that is explicitly not supported do let me know.

[RaeesaM_Intel]

Hi Krishnan,

We tried to profile linux container on windows and these are the observations:

1) we didn't observe the issue that you mentioned in point one, that is hardware event based sampling is disabled.

It will be helpful for us to solve the issue if you provide us with some information regarding :

• which application you were running on docker. Is it the same matrix application as in the link you provided or any other custom application?

• Did you try customizing the copy of the selected analysis option in HOW pane and specifying stack size for running hardware event based sampling with collect stacks option enabled?

2) regarding the second point, we also observed a similar issue of not finding Container/Process/Function/Thread/Call Stack group in the results.

we are checking with the concerned team regarding this and will get back to you soon.

And about the WSL2 query, Vtune does not  have official support for WSL2 but Vtune does run without issues on multiple unofficial platforms. So it is possible that vtune might work with WSL2.

You could give it a try and get back in case of issues.

Regards,

Raeesa

[RaeesaM_Intel]

Hi Krishnan,

Could you please let us know if your issue still persists and please do share the above mentioned additional information .

If it is resolved, please do let us know if we can close this thread.

Thanks

[RaeesaM_Intel]

Hi Krishnan,

We haven't heard back anything from you. So, we are closing this case assuming that your issue is resolved . Please feel free to raise a new thread if you have any further issues.

Thank you

Raeesa