CPU utilization can indicate whether an application is affected by an operating system update. Test Base for Microsoft 365 provides software developers with insight into CPU performance regressions that occur when their application is running on a pre-release version of an upcoming Windows operating system (OS) update. These CPU regressions enable developers to detect and resolve application issues (and potential failures) before the OS update is deployed broadly, thus preventing a bad end user experience.
I'll now explain this feature in more detail and provide an inside look at how it works. You can also watch this short demo to see the feature in action:
How CPU regression analysis works
As a Test Base user, you can upload your application binaries (in a single .zip file), along with associated test scripts, and select the Windows OS version against which you'd like to test your application in the Test Base portal on Azure. The Test Base service then runs the test scripts and performs the CPU regression analysis. The service checks if the CPU utilization for the application on the pre-release version of the update for the target OS is in line with the CPU utilization for the released version of the OS. Because the processes running on the two versions of the OS may or may not be an exact match due to differing OS versions. CPU utilization is not a 100% like-for-like comparison; however, the analysis performed by Test Base can show you whether CPU utilization for your application is impacted by an upcoming OS update and specifically which processes have regressed from previous test runs.
In the below snapshot, there are two OS releases against which the CPU utilizations are compared for the same application. The CPU utilization tab shows the upper and lower bounds of utilization for both releases at 90th and 10th percentiles respectively. The graphs show the time series of CPU utilization along with the average utilization. Customers can now use the functionality to determine if their application CPU utilization is impacted by OS updates and specifically which processes have regressed from their previous execution.
Relevant process identification
Let’s discuss how we identify regressed processes in the application. Analyzing performance regression requires tracking different kinds of performance counters for every process running on a virtual machine during the test run. Such an analysis captures a lot of variables for a lot of processes for a given application. Not all processes are associated with a run or application. To work around this challenge, a mutual information ranking algorithm using probability and information theory is applied to figure out which processes are most relevant for a given application. An application can be considered one type of discrete random variable while a process is considered another kind of discrete random variable. The association of the two random variables is measured using conditional probabilities for relevance. Processes are then displayed in the order of their relevance for each application. You can also favorite a subset of processes that can be monitored, by default, along with relevant processes for CPU regression analysis. Once a regression is detected, you can download the Windows Performance Analyzer toolkit and analyze reasons for CPU performance regressions. The Windows Performance Analyzer takes event trace log (ETL) as inputs and these .etl files are available in the log files downloadable for test runs on the portal. If you would like to know more about debugging CPU performance, see the Windows Performance Analyzer documentation.
We hope that CPU regression analysis is a valuable part of your Test Base experience. In the coming months, the service will automatically alert you when a CPU regression occurs for an application. Until then, please let us know what you think about this feature by leaving a comment below!
Updated Feb 03, 2021
Version 3.0Anand_Eyunni
Microsoft
Joined January 25, 2021
Windows IT Pro Blog
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