Intel® VTune™ Profiler User Guide

User Guide

Contents

Finalization

Finalization is the process by which Intel® VTune™ Profiler converts the collected data to a database, resolving symbol information, and pre-computes data to make further analysis more efficient and responsive. VTune Profiler finalizes data automatically when data collection completes.
VTune
Profiler
 provides three basic finalization modes:
  • Full
     mode is used to perform the finalization on unchanged sampling data on the target system. This mode takes the most time and resources to complete, but produces the most accurate results.
  • Fast
     (default) mode is used to perform the finalization on the target system using algorithmically reduced sampling data. This greatly reduces the finalization time with a negligible impact on accuracy in most cases.
  • Deferred
     mode is used to collect the sampling data and calculate the binary checksums to perform the finalization on another machine. After data collection completes, you can finalize and open the analysis result on the host system. This mode may be useful for profiling applications on targets with limited computational resources, such as IoT devices, and finalizing the result later on the host machine.
  • None
     option is used to skip finalization entirely and to not calculate the binary checksums. You can also finalize this result later, however, you may encounter certain limitations. For example, if the binaries on the target system have changed or have become unavailable since the sampling data collection, binary resolution may produce an inaccurate or missing result for the affected binary.

Modify the Finalization Mode

By default, the
Fast
 finalization mode is used for any analysis configuration. If you need to change it, do the following:
  1. Click the
    Configure Analysis
     button.
  2. From the
    WHERE
     pane, click the
    Browse
     button, choose a target system and specify required details.
  3. From the
    WHAT
     pane, click the
    Browse
     to choose an appropriate target type.
  4. Expand the
    Advanced
     section on the
    WHAT
     pane and scroll down to select the required finalization mode, for example:
    Deferred to use another system
    .
When the analysis result is collected and open, you can always check the used finalization mode in the
Summary
 view >
Collection and Platform Info
 section.

Re-Finalize Results

You may want to re-finalize a result to:
  • update symbol information after changes in the search directories settings
  • resolve the number of [Unknown]-s in the results
Beware that re-finalization can lead to wrong results if you do not have the original binaries for your target on the machine performing the re-finalization; for example, if you recompiled the target. The re-finalization deletes the old database and then picks up the newer versions of the binaries. Since the collector raw data does not contain a binary checksum, the
VTune
Profiler
 does not know when a binary has changed and attempts to resolve the symbols matching the old addresses against the new binary. As a result, the
VTune
Profiler
 may unwind stacks incorrectly and resolve samples to the wrong functions. To avoid this, make sure you configured the search directories to use the correct files.
By default, the
VTune
Profiler
 saves the raw collector data after finalization. You may choose to remove these data to reduce the size of the result file if you do not plan to re-finalize this result in the future. To remove the raw collector data, from the Microsoft Visual Studio* menu go to
Tools > Options > Intel VTune
Profiler
 <
version
> > General
 pane and select the
Remove raw collector data after result finalization
 option. To remove the raw collector data in the standalone interface, click the menu button and select
Options... > General
.
To re-finalize a result in the Microsoft Visual Studio* IDE, select the result in the Solution Explorer, right-click and select
Re-resolve and Open
.
To re-finalize a result in the standalone
VTune
Profiler
 interface:
  1. Click the menu button and select
    Open > Result...
    .
    The
    Select Result
     dialog box opens.
  2. Navigate to the required result
    *.
    vtune
     file you want to re-finalize and click
    OK
    .
    The selected result opens in the default viewpoint.
  3. Click the
    Analysis Configuration
     tab.
  4. Click the
    Re-resolve
     button on the command bar.
Intel® VTune™
Profiler
 repeats result finalization. If you updated the list of search directories in the
Binary/Symbol Search
 or
Source Search
 dialog boxes, the
VTune
Profiler
 uses the latest version of these directories to search for supporting binary/source/symbol files.

Product and Performance Information

1

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.