So, I've read that it is not a good idea to install VS2008 on my test server machine as it changes the run time environment too much. I've never attempted remote debugging with Visual Studio before, so what is the "best" way to get line by line remote debugging of server side web app code. I'd like to be able to set a breakpoint, attach, and start stepping line by line to verify code flow and, you know, debug and stuff :).
I'm sure most of the answers will pertain to ASP.NET code, and I'm interested in that, but my current code base is actually Classic ASP and ISAPI Extensions, so I care about that a little more.
Also, my test server is running in VMWare, I've noticed in the latest VMWare install it mentioning something about debugging support, but I'm unfamiliar with what that means...anyone using it, what does it do for you?
First, this is MUCH easier if both the server and your workstation are on the same domain (the server needs access to connect to your machine). In your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\Remote Debugger\x86 (or x64, or ia64) directory are the files you need to copy to your server. There are different versions between Visual Studio versions, so make sure they match on the client and server side. On the server, fire up msvsmon. It will say something like "Msvsmon started a new server named xxx#yyyy". This is the name you'll use in Visual Studio to connect to this server. You can go into Tools > Options to set the server name and to set the authentication mode (hopefully Windows Authentication) - BTW No Authentication doesn't work for managed code.
On the client side, open up Visual Studio and load the solution you're going to debug. Then go to Debug > Attach to Process. In the "Qualifier" field enter the name of the server as you saw it appear earlier. Click on the Select button and select the type of code you want to debug, then hit OK. Hopefully you'll see a list of the processes on the server that you can attach to (you should also see on the server that the debugging monitor just said you connected). Find the process to attach to (start up the app if necessary). If it's an ASP.NET website, you'd select w3wp.exe, then hit Attach. Set your breakpoints and hopefully you're now remotely debugging the code.
AFAIK - the VMWare option lets you start up code inside of a VM but debug it from your workstation.
Visual Studio comes with a remote debugger that you can run as an exe on your server. It works best if you can run it as the same domain user as your copy of visual studio. You can then do an attach to process from the debugger on your machine to the IIS process on the server and debug as if it was running on your machine. You get more options for .Net debugging, but there's support for older platforms too.
Related
I am having a problem with my application. The application works perfect on my development machine. It fails, without any errors on the live server. The page loads, but the code doesn't execute apparently.
I have been stuck on this for a while because I can't figure out how to get any information on the problem. There are no errors, so my custom errors settings in web.config are not helping.
I looked around online and I heard there was some remote debugging tool. The article was from .Net 1.0. I tried to follow it, but its not going to work because I am using a shared server. I do not have permissions to start the remote debugger on the server side.
I tried creating some output text files with variable contents, but the files are not being created either. They are created on my development machine, but never show up on the server, again with no error.
I have no idea how I'm supposed to figure out what is going on, because I'm not able to step through the code once it's on the live server.
Is there anyway to step through, or debug the code once I've published it? If I spent the extra money on a VPS, would that allow me to debug on the server side? I'm assuming I could just install Visual Studio on the VPS and step through the program. I've never used a VPS before.
Unless you do something very special in your code, it is unlikely that it behaves differently on your server compared to your workstation.
It is more likely that the configuration on the server is not correct.
You are saying your
code doesn't execute
How do you know that? You should first confirm that your code is actually executing.
you are also saying:
it is now directing me to a page that says "Directory Not Found"
a web server it never looking for directories, it is looking for resources, check your iis http logs what substatus codes are you getting?, enable Failed Request Tracing and review the logs.
Using Process Monitor can also help determine what the web server is doing.
Start with a very simple page and see whether that executes fine.
What I'm saying is, first debug/fix the execution environment before trying to debug your code.
You would never install Visual Studio on a server, the default installation of a Windows Server doesn't even allow you to install it. Instead you can use remote debugging components on the server and use your local Visual Studio to debug remotely.
We have a Windows Server 2008 R2 box setup as a Terminal Server with Visual Studio 2012 installed on it for remote developers to be able to do development on our ASP.net systems.
We would like to be able to do debugging on out projects the same way we do when developing on our local machines using visual studios internal development server.
I am trying to start local debugging on an ASP.Net project (F5) in VS2012 - the project compiles - IE comes up with my localhost url and then it just spins with "connecting..." and the page never comes up.
Pulling up the same workspace on a local machine and debugging comes up just fine.
I've exhausted my google-fu on looking for solutions here and humbly ask you all for any insight.
Visual Studio works a little differently when you are debugging on a server. You don't really want to use VStudio to play/debug on a web server. You need to use the menu option "Debug", "Attach to process". There will be several processes running, so it might take a few tries to find the right process.
Be careful though. Because your break-points will actually freeze IIS for the entire server. It could be a pretty big inconvenience for everyone who is using IIS at the time.
If you are trying to debug the project from your IIS server, you need to verify if the account has Administrator rights, also if the project has been deployed with its source files, you can attach the process (maybe it is w3wp.exe) in Visual Studio and debug it.
Another way is to open the solution using Visual Studio and change in the web project's property the server: Use Visual Studio Development Server.
Let me know more info about your scenario to provide you more paths.
What I would do is attach to the IIS process on the server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/3s68z0b3.aspx you can even do this off your machine.
make sure debug is enabled in web.config for that app and you've mounted the remote project. Add a break point, debug by attaching to the IIS app pool process & it'll trigger the break point.
I was able to Attach Process to the SPUCWorkerProcess.exe even though it's a farm solution and not a sandbox solution
Have a website going live soon. Have installed VS2008 on my prod server (temporarily) and wish to debug code when I access the actual prod web link. In other words, I want to attached to the w3wp.exe service from w/in VS2008, then open a browser using the prod link of www.xyz.com - thus giving myself the ability to debug an actual prod call - instead of going through the \\localhost:0000.
I am on a Windows 2008R2 server and know VERY little about firewall settings for trying to access this remotely from my home PC...All past attempts have failed.ThanxJerry
If you have the studio installed on the production server just copy all the source code there, point IIS to the folder with your source code and it will be exactly like on your local machine.
If you get errors or other problems, please elaborate - "All past attempts have failed" is not really meaningful.
Suppose I have a class library cl1 and a unit test for it that is called clt1. I can use Visual Studio's Attach to Process feature to attach to NUnit runner. This lets me debug cl1, for example set break points. It's a very helpful feature for debugging.
I'm in a need of this technique in Visual Studio and IE/FF. Suppose I have a web application that utilizes cl1. This application is running via ASP.NET Web Development Server or IIS. I want to debug (set break points) in cl1. How can I do this?
Please notice that it's not possible through Visual Studio itself. Because something in markup is calling cl1 classes and I can't set a break point in ASP.NET markup. I'm running Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.
UPDATE:
cl1 is running as server side
As your code is running server-side, you need to attach the debugger to the server (IIS, or dev server, whichever you are running).
What I normally do is set my breakpoint, browse to the site (in order to ensure that the site is running and has been "warmed up") then Debug -> Attach and find the process running the web server to attach to. I then browse to where my code will be run and go through the steps to execute it.
If IIS is running on a different server, you can do remote debugging.
I guess the class library you are referring to contains c#/vb.net code (server side) so as the code is executed by the server you will need to attach to the webserver itself. If the web site is hosted at another machine you can use VS remote debugger to attach to IIS.
Your library will be running inside the ASP.Net app pool. On IIS7 you should attach to w3wp.exe. Older versions of IIS may use aspnet_wp.exe instead.
I have installed Visual Studio .NET 2005. But when I am trying to execute an asp.net application then I am getting the following error:
Unable to open the Web 'http://localhost/adiii'. Could not find a Web server at 'localhost' on port 80. Please check to make sure that the Web server name is valid and your proxy settings are set correctly. If you are sure that everything is correct, the Web server may be temporarily out of service.
Click here to view screenshot of the error I am getting
Can anyone please tell me the solution of this problem. As we know there is embedded Web deployment server inside VS2005 then why its giving me this error??
It looks like when you created the project, you selected HTTP for the location instead of the default, File System. HTTP means you have an existing web server (not Visual Studio) that you want to run and test your project on (and where Visual Studio will attempt to find your source code).
Create a project and select File System to create a project on your harddrive that will be run using Visual Studio's internal web server (you can then publish/deploy the project to a real web server when you want)
Are you explicitly have defined that the internal web server should run the application on port 80?
The default behavior is that it runs on a random port.
If your settings are ok, then it might be a port conflict with another web server on your machine (Apache, IIS).
Sometimes even a Skype can okuppy port 80 and cause similar problems.
Update:
Now i see - you're using Web Site project, and we assumed you're working with Web App project instead.
In this case, the procedure is slightly different:
You select the project in Solution Explorer and open Property Pane. Here you should be able to identify two properties for the project: Port number and Use dynamic ports. I assume your first property is set to 80, and second one to false. Change the second one to true and you should be able to fix the problem.
There's a very good chance that you created the project in VS2003 and upgraded it to VS2005. VS2003 uses HTTP (a local installation of IIS for example), whereas VS2005 projects use the built-in server -- most likely, the upgraded project is still trying to use the local IIS which doesn't exist.
Do this: Right click on your project, choose "properties", and navigate to the "Web" tab on the window which pops up. You'll get a screen which allows you to choose which server you want to develop on, then make sure the buttons next to "Use Visual Studio Development Server" and "Auto-assign port" are checked.
Here's a visual reference if you need one:
http://img24.imageshack.us/my.php?image=confignw0.png
You should be be good to go now.
Visual Studio does have an embedded web server, but it never operates on port 80. Your URL clearly points to port 80.
The most likely problem is your program itself working inappropriately, but without code I can't help much more.