how is "module of insterest" supported in vtune aplifier XE?

[darren_tumlin]

My linux box was recently upgraded from 32bit Red Hat Linux 4.0 to 64 bit red Nat Linux 5.0.
Prior to the upgrade, I was able to use vtune performance analyzer 9.1 which does not seem to
work any more after the upgrade. Well, it still runs, it is just that the results it collects do not
seem to be right. So, I am evaluating vtune Amplifier XE right now. The one feature I used heavily
is the "module of interest" in the old vtune. For example,

vtl activity -c callgraph -app my_app.sh -moi my_moi run

I would run my_app.sh first. As the result of my_app.sh, my_moi process is started on demand in
the backgroud. When my_app.sh finishes, my_mio process also terminates. I am not interested
in my_app.sh's performance. What I am really interested in is my_moi's performance. The
old vtune works quite well in this regards.

I am wondering, is "module of interest" still supported in the vtune amplifier? Or, not any more?
If yes, how do I do it? If no, does the amplifier offer something functionally equivalent?

This brings up a further question, in general, the user interface exposed by the amplifier is different
from the user interface exposed by the old vtune. Is there a public document somewhere that
shows, feature by feature, how things that are done in the old way can be done in the new way?
That would be extremely helpful for folks considering/evaluation the migration from the old vtune
to the amplifier. Thanks.

[Rob5]

Darren,

The Intel VTune Performance Analyzer 9.1 Update 8 for Linux* Release Notes indicate that the following operating system / kernel are supported for RHEL 5 on IA-32 and Intel 64 bit.

Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 5 Update 4 2.6.18-164.el5
Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 5 Update 5 2.6.18-194.el5

VTune Performance Analyzer 9.1 required that -moi be specified when performing the callgraph analysis. In Intel VTune Amplifier XE 2011 for Linux* you perform hotspot analysis (moi is nolonger used). Child processes are followed with the -follow-child switch (Include the child processes into collection results.) which is enabled by default.

Currently there is not a side by side comparison on how to perform an activity between Intel VTune Performance Analyzer and VTune Amplifier XE, although, this is a good idea. It just has not been done.

Thanks
Rob
Intel Support

[darren_tumlin]

Hi Rob, thanks for your reply. I will give vtune 9.1 another try on my linux box.

In the mean time, I would like to clarify what I wrote previously. When I use

vtl activity -c callgraph -app my_app.sh -moi my_moi run

I don't mean that my_app.sh spawns my_moi process. What happens was my_app.sh makes connection
to a third process which then spawns my_moi process. It is similar to how Oracle software works. So,
my_app.sh would be a shell script that launches sqlplus. When sqlplus starts. it contacts the listener
process. The listener process then starts oracle server process. After that, sqlplus talks to the oracle
server process directly for the rest of sql business. I want to emphasize that sqlplus process does not
spawn oracle server process at all.

In vtune 9.1, with -app & -moi options together, one is able to start one process and have vtune profile
another process and the two processes do not necessarily have parent-child relationship. I understand
that the amplifier currently keeps track of child processes. But, my question was, does the amplifier
currently support the usage scenario describe above?

[Mark_D_Intel]

If you have control of the listener process, you might be able to run Amplifier XE on that, and then the collector would track the spawned my_moi process. (What would make this nice is the ability to attach to a running process, but unfortunately, that's not supported on linux)

In more detail:
amplxe-cl -collect hotspots -start-paused

Then run:
amplxe-cl -command resume
my_app.sh
ampxle-cl -command pause

Then shut down the listener (or use 'amplxe-cl -command stop')

[todd-bezenek]

Mark,

Being able to attach to a running process is one of the most useful mechanisms. Once the binaries are instrumented, it should be possible to attach to the process at any time.

Is there a technical gotcha I am missing here?

One thing tools like VTune are very useful for is analyzing some pathological locking case which might not happen until a system is up for several days. One can start the system in paused mode as mentioned above and then "unpause" at the appropriate time, but this seems clunky.

Any comments?

Thanks!

-Todd

[Rob5]

Update to this thread relating to attach to process on Linux - Intel VTune Amplifier XE 2011 Update3 for Linux addsAttach/detach to process for the Hotspots, Concurrency, and Locks and Waits analysistypes.

For additioal information about Update 3, refer to the Readme athttp://software.intel.com/sites/products/documentation/hpc/amplifierxe/en-us/lin/start/release_notes_amplifier_xe_linux.pdf