VTSS++ / VTune Beta Update 1 (build 514135) / Win-10 16299.0

[Robert_M__Münch]

Hi, I can't get the VTSS++ driver installed. I'm running Windows inside a Parallels VM on OSX with Intel Core i7 (4770HQ, 4870HQ, 4980HQ) ("Haswell") processor. Is HW sample supposed to be supported on a VM at all?

C:\WINDOWS\system32>amplxe-sepreg.exe -i -v
Stopping service sepdrv4_1...OK
Warning, socperf2_0 driver is already installed and will be re-used... skipping
Stopping service sepdrv4_1...Copying file C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWTools\VTune Amplifier 2018\bin64\sepdrv\win7\sepdrv4_1.sys to C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\sepdrv4_1.sys...OK
Installing service sepdrv4_1...OK
Warning: service sepdrv4_1 already exists
Starting service sepdrv4_1...OK
Writing startup key to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sepdrv4_1...OK
Stopping service sepdal...OK
Copying file C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWTools\VTune Amplifier 2018\bin64\sepdrv\win7\sepdal.sys to C:\WINDOWS\System32\Drivers\sepdal.sys...OK
Installing service sepdal...OK
Warning: service sepdal already exists
Starting service sepdal...OK
Writing startup key to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sepdal...OK
VTSS++ driver found
Deleting system32/drivers/vtss.sys file...OK
Forming source path for vtss.sys...OK
Forming destination path for vtss.sys...OK
Copying file C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelSWTools\VTune Amplifier 2018\bin32\.\..\bin64\sepdrv\vtss.sys to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\vtss.sys...OK
Installing and starting VTSS++ driver...FAILED

[Ekaterina_L_Intel]

Hello Robert,

From the forum thread title seems you are running Windows 10 #16299 build which is Insider Preview Build of Windows 10 RS3 (Fall Creators Update). It's not yet supported by VTune Amplifier stack sampling driver (VTSS). You may try running HW event-based sampling analysis w/o stacks, but we cannot garantee it will work as the Beta release of VTune was not tested on that Windows build. Official support for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will be released in future versions of VTune Amplifier, stay tuned.

Regards, Katya

[Robert_M__Münch]

Hi Katya, that's correct.

How can I run HW event-based sampling w/o stacks? BTW: What does it mean w/o stacks?

Viele Grüsse. Robert

[Ekaterina_L_Intel]

Hello Robert,

We will be also interested to hear on use cases you're profiling with VTune Amplifier in such environment: unrleased Windows OS in VM on OSX.

Regards, Katya

[Stanislav_B_Intel1]

Hello Robert,

The issue is not with the virtualization, but with the version of Windows: build 16299 is not supported by VTSS++ driver yet - please allow us some time to port the driver to that latest build of Windows.

Meanwhile, would you please share more information (without disclosing anything confidential, of course) on your usage model for VTune inside a VM, what kind of problems you are solving and what you would like to see in VTune? That will tremendously help us to craft our tool specifically for working in virtualized environments.

Thank you,

Stas

[Robert_M__Münch]

@katya: We develop an application which has a quite matured code-base and a not so mainstream technology stack. Hence, we are always checking if it's working on the upcoming Windows versions and check if we need to adapt to something. Since we prefer to keep things simple, we just run those Windows versions (which mostly works).

@Stas: Since some of us use OSX as host, but our app is windows, we use VMs. So, nothing special about it. Our app is a highly-specialized data-analytics application for B2B price-analysis (see https://www.nlpp.ch) based on mathematics. Hence, every clock cycle counts :-) We use VTunes to identify hot-spots, optimize inner-loops etc.

What is this "stack sampling" needed for? It seems I can only run "Hotspot Analysis" but not the advanced ones. Further I'm a bit confused about the "administrator" requirements. Do I have to run VTune as admin? Or only to install things?

BTW: Great support here.

Viele Grüsse. Robert M. Münch

[BMart1]

Any update? 16299 is no longer beta and my PC auto updated to it, breaking VTune.

Bruno

[PAVEL_G_Intel]

Hi all,

1. VTune Amplifier 2018 Beta Update 1 doesn't support Windows 10 RS 3. The support will be released in future releases of VTune Amplifier.
As we can see in release notes latest supported version for now is Windows 10 RS 2 (VTune Amplifier 2017 Update 4). Stay tuned.

2. SEP driver which allow PMU-based analysis requires permissions to be installed. The loaded driver allow collect Advances Hotspots, Microarchitecture analysis and others. More about hardware event-based sampling collections, about sep driver.

3. VTSS driver allow to see call stacks. Some information about the call-stack view. VTSS is not requirement for more analysis but information about stacks if useful if hot functions calls from a lot of places.

[Robert_M__Münch]

Coming back to this topic, as we are now on #17025 I want to ask if there will be any VTune driver insider preview in the future? I think it makes a lot of sense to have such performance tools on the latest Windows versions too.

Or is it a general rule that one should stay at max with the latest non-insider release?

[Cardoso__Nuno]

Hello,

I am experiencing the same problem, cannot install the VTSS driver. The virtualization feature is disabled in the bios and hyper-v is disabled on windows features.

I am running VTune Amplifier XE 2017 (update 4, build 518798), on Windows 10 Pro (version 1709, build 16299.192).

Is there anything i can do to install the VTSS driver correctly?
This feature is of major importance for us.

Thanks,
Nuno Cardoso

[BMart1]

Advanced Hotspots analysis (without stacks, otherwise it doesn't even run) under Windows 10 Fall Creators also breaks etw CPU sampling until reboot.

[Robert_M__Münch]

Bruno Martinez wrote:

Advanced Hotspots analysis (without stacks, otherwise it doesn't even run) under Windows 10 Fall Creators also breaks etw CPU sampling until reboot.

Sorry, don't fully understand what you mean. What is "etw"? And what do you exactly mean by "break"?

[BMart1]

Hi Robert,

Let me try to explain. etw is a Microsoft tracing technology. I use it through https://github.com/google/UIforETW​. With VTune 2018.1 and Windows 10 16299.0, Advanced Hotspot analysis refuses to start if you want to capture stacks. If you disable stacks it does run, but after that UIforETW doesn't work well. UIforETW fails to record any CPU sample until I reboot my PC.

Bruno

[Robert_M__Münch]

Burno, thanks a lot. I wasn't aware of ETW and thought it was a typo :-/

I'll take a look if it is usable in our case. Again, thanks for the explanation and links.