Remote profiling ASP.net Applications? - asp.net

Using Visual Studio, I can profile an ASP.net Application using the Performance Wizard (specifically Instrumentation is what I want).
I need to diagnose why a production server is slow, but I don't want to install Visual Studio on it. Also, It's not enough to use something like ASP.net MVC Mini Profiler because I don't control all the code and thus can't get the granularity that I need.
Can I use the Visual Studio Remote Profiler somehow? Windbg? Anything that's not as intrusive as Visual Studio and can be cleanly uninstalled after.

Jetbrains dotTrace can do remote profiling of asp.net applications, it has a free trial, it is commercial though.

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Migrate VS2010 to VS2013 - what would be the major changes we would be facing?

I have one web application in C# which is developed using Visual Studio 2010 and I want to convert or Migrate that web application in Visual Studio 2013 (C#).
Note:- Below listed things I used in my current Web Application using VS2010 (C#)
Asp.Net Server Controls.
ClassLibrary (.dll).
Web services.
Above Listed things I used in my current Web application which is in VS2010.
Now, My Question Is- What would be the major changes I would be facing if I am using all above listed Microsoft Technologies using C# and Migrate it to VS2013.
The biggest change for us was that Visual Studio Setup Project was depreciated in VS 2012, so we had to build new installers.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2013/08/15/what-s-new-in-visual-studio-2013-and-installshield-limited-edition.aspx
Also, which version of .NET is you application? Keep in mind framework targeting for Visual Studios (basically if your application is .NET 3.5 SP 1 or newer you should be fine):
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dn250998.aspx
The Web Services should also be okay, if you intend to keep creating web services instead of switching to WCF, you may want to look at this:
Create a asmx web service in C# using visual studio 2013
The thing we first noticed is VS2013 uses IIS Express 8.0, at the time our production web server was IIS 6 - we encountered, on numerous occasions a web.config setting working fine locally but forgot to add the IIS 6 equivalent.
For our web apps we kept targeting the same .Net framework and I can't recall any issues. For your reference our stack was Asp.Net MVC 4, EF 5 WebApi plus numerous NuGet packages. So we didn't have any asp.net server controls.
You may also want to ensure all your VS2010 plugins have a 2013 equivalent.
You shouldn't have any problem at all with the types of proyects you are using.
You could even open the solution with VS2013 and then open it back with VS2010 SP1 without any problem (as long as you don't switch the .NET framework to 4.5).
Starting from VS2012, Microsoft made changes to allow developers open a solution with older versions of VS (VS2010 SP1 being the oldest version that supports this). There ARE some proyect types that won't be compatible, but from the things you listed, you won't have any problems.
When you open the Solution with newest VS, it WILL make some changes, but you still will be able to open it with VS2010 SP1 (again, with some exceptions).
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh266747.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2012/08/22/visual-studio-project-compatability-and-visualstudioversion.aspx
Anyway, my suggestion is, install VS2013 in a test machine and try it out. You can even create an Azure VM with VS2013 PreInstalled in minutes to try it out.
There is already available VS2015 preview, why not wait until it is released? (or use the preview)
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/visual-studio-2015-downloads-vs.aspx
as other said, it should not brake much

What is the difference between Microsoft WebMatrix and Visual Studio?

I understand that using the WebMatrix is easier as the tool seems more focused towards ASP.NET. However, I was curious to know through if it is possible to also create the same ASP.NET files using just Visual Studio. Would using the WebMatrix be a good start for understanding how to create web applications. Visual Basic can create applications that will run on your computer also right?
WebMatrix is a do it all package with Express IIS, Visual Studio is an IDE developed towards the .Net framework. Basically Webmatrix is specialized towards Web Development and Visual Studio is a powerhouse package that has a Web development aspect. That is the basics of it. Hopefully someone has a much more in depth answer but to tell you the truth, this is easily re-searchable via Google.
Webmatrix = web application focus;
Visual Studio = you decide the application focus;
If you want to do only Web and feel that Visual Studio is too much for the kind of project you want to do, which is true in a lot of cases, then I would suggest just using Web Matrix. As your project grows, however, you will soon find yourself in Visual Studio simply because it has more power and reach to build more complex systems.
I generally spin up a Web Matrix app if I want a quick catch all solution (kind of like MAMP or XAMMP) to test a small application, or play around with sql.
As far as I understand the major difference is Webmatrix supports PHP and node.js.
You can read more here :
http://www.microsoft.com/web/platform/tools.aspx

Porting Mono to .Net

I have a project that needs to be done using ASP.NET. Currently, I'm using a Linux box and don't have an access to Windows so I was wondering about doing the development in Mono.Net for the meanwhile. The final project needs to be completed on the Microsoft.NET.
How easy would it be to port a Mono.NET application to a Microsoft.NET? Or should I just wait till I get the windows machine? I don't mind an occasional challenge but not if it's going to be a big pain.
It should work fine just make sure you use the Microsoft .NET APIs only or keep track of any Mono or other opensource DLLs and include them when you run on Windows.
MonoDevelop could also help as it creates Visual Studio compatible project files which can help your migration if you want to later migrate to Visual Studio also.

If I build a web application in ASP.NET, am I married to Visual Studio?

Doesn't Visual Studio generate all kinds of things when you build asp.net websites? I haven't used it in a while but back in webforms with a the dal and a bll, VS generated xml files and other things (don't remember what). And, while I technically could use notepad to fix it, VS seemed to be the only way to make sure things worked right.
How about today with MVC or something else asp.net? Am I tied to Visual Studio forever if I want to build websites? I liked in PHP that I can open up a file and it be simple to change things and it just works.
I am not knocking Visual Studio. It is a great product, but for those in my group that do not use it, it is a learning curve. Not asking for why asp.net is better than php or vice versa, just about visual studio.
EDIT: Is Visual Studio the BEST way to build asp.net projects?
You can use MonoDevelop, Webmatrix, Visual Studio Express but i suggest SharpDevelop, its open source.
sharpDevelop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. It is open-source, and you can download both sourcecode and executables from this site. In addition, you can find the latest information and changes on #develop, as well as get in touch with the team in the forum.
More Information
SharpDevelop Website
MonoDevelop
Webmatrix
Visual Studio Express
No, you can build with MSBuild from command line, just simple msbuild.exe app.sln
You can also use MonoDevelop, which will run on Windows/Mac/Linux.
You could use Microsoft WebMatrix, which is free and aims to simplify the web development process. Another alternative is MonoDevelop, which is an open source IDE for multiple platforms.

Visual Web Developer Express and .NET, et al

I'm coming from the open source world, and interested in giving ASP.NET a spin. But I'm having a little trouble separating the tools from the platform itself in regards to the licensing. I've downloaded Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, but not sure how different this is from one of the full-featured Visual Studio licenses -- and whether or not my Express license will prevent me from using all the features of ASP.NET.
Is a Visual Studio license just an IDE, or does it include pieces of .NET not available to the Express license? What about the other tools like IIS and SQL Server?
Thanks.
All of .net is available in the .net SDK, so in theory you will not need Visual Studio at all.
Now, there are some things that Express will not do. For example, the Database Designer is not very comprehensive and adding different remote databases is not or only very hardly possible. Still, in code you can connect to everything.
There is also no Remote Debugger, no support for creating Setup Files (well, that does not apply to ASP.net anyway), no real Publish Web Site Feature (although that can be added manually as it's just a Frontend for a SDK tool), no integrated Unit testing (and Microsoft loves to threaten people who add it), etc.
For a full comparison, see here:
Visual Studio 2008 Editions
But as said: Functionality of .net is all in the SDK, Visual Studio is just making it a bit easier to work with.
Visual Studio is just an IDE, you can do all your .NET development with the SDK and notepad if you choose. In fact there is something to be said for learning it that way so you understand better how the pieces fit together!
Microsoft have a version comparison matrix available so you can see exactly what is included each version.
IIS is a Windows component and considered part of the OS, there is nothing else to buy.
SQL Server comes in many flavours, SQL EXpress is free to use and whilst limited compared to the versions you pay for, it is more than enough to get started with ASP.Net
Visual Studio is the IDE and does not include the platform.
IIS and SQL Server are separate products. IIS is available as part of the windows install and the version is different depending on what version of Windows you are using.
SQL Server also has an express product which is not as full featured as the Full versions of SQL Server, yet it is still rather valuable and useful especially for learning purposes.
You can learn a lot from the free tutorials found on asp.net.
Visual Studio is just the IDE. You could theoretically create every file in Notepad and compile manually with just the .net framework.
IIS is an operating system feature, and SQL Server has different flavors with different capabilites.
SharpDevelop is a Open Source IDE for C# and VB.net

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