.NET Development Foundation/Configuration

Configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation Configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation Exam objective: Embedding configuration, diagnostic, management, and installation features into a .NET Framework application Topics Configuration management Configuration management is used here in a restricted sense. It refers to the adaptation of an application to a specific execution environment or user. This is usually done thru the use of configuration files that specify the run time parameters of the application. The typical example of such configuration information is the connection string used to locate and connect to the application database. The exam objectives are all related to the actual interaction of the application with its configuration files. The management or the design of the configuration files themselves is a vast subject that is not touched by the exam objectives so we will not cover it in this study guide. .NET framework installer Event log Event log MSDN's definition is "Windows event logs allow your applications and components to record information about important events. You can use these records to audit access to your system, troubleshoot problems, and re-create usage patterns" For a general discussion see MSDN For specifics on the EventLog class and some cautions about its use see MSDN Performance monitoring Debugging and tracing Management information and events Windows Management Instrumentation - MSDN Windows Management Instrumentation Describe integration of WMI in .NET Classes, Interfaces, and tools Embed configuration management Exam objective: Embed configuration management functionality into a .NET Framework application. (Refer System.Configuration namespace) Configuration class and ConfigurationManager class Configuration class - MSDN ConfigurationManager class - MSDN ConfigurationSettings class, ConfigurationElement class, ConfigurationElementCollection class, and ConfigurationElementProperty class ConfigurationSettings class - MSDN ConfigurationElement class - MSDN ConfigurationElementCollection class - MSDN ConfigurationElementProperty class - MSDN Implement IConfigurationSectionHandler interface - MSDN ConfigurationSection class, ConfigurationSectionCollection class, ConfigurationSectionGroup class, and ConfigurationSectionGroupCollection class ConfigurationSection class - MSDN ConfigurationSectionCollection class - MSDN ConfigurationSectionGroup class - MSDN ConfigurationSectionGroupCollection - MSDN Implement ISettingsProviderService interface - MSDN Implement IApplicationSettingsProvider interface - MSDN ConfigurationValidationBase class - MSDN No direct result on MSDN - to be checked Implement IConfigurationSystem interface - MSDN Create custom installer and configure application Exam objective: Create a custom Microsoft Windows Installer for .NET Framework components by using the System.Configuration.Install namespace, and configure the .NET Framework applications by using configuration files, environment variables, and the .NET Framework Configuration tool (Mscorcfg.msc). For a "cookbook" on for the procedures discussed in this section see MSDN and the corresponding How-To section. Installer class - MSDN Configure which runtime version a .NET Framework application should use - MSDN Configure where the runtime should search for an assembly - MSDN Configure the location of an assembly and which version of the assembly to use - MSDN and MSDN Direct the runtime to use the DEVPATH environment variable when searching for assemblies - MSDN AssemblyInstaller class - MSDN ComponentInstaller class - MSDN Configure a .NET Framework application by using the .NET Framework Configuration tool (Mscorcfg.msc) - MSDN ManagedInstaller class - MSDN InstallContext class - MSDN InstallerCollection class - MSDN Implement IManagedInstaller interface - MSDN InstallEventHandler delegate - MSDN Configure concurrent garbage collection - MSDN Register remote objects by using configuration files - MSDN Manage an event log Exam objective: Manage an event log by using the System.Diagnostics namespace EventLog class - MSDN EventSourceCreationData class - MSDN Write to an event log MSDN Read from an event log MSDN Create a new event log You create an EventLog by creating the first event source that writes to that log. The two simplest way to do this are: Use the EventLog.CreateEventSource method Create an EventLog instance, specify a source and then write to the log. The actual creation takes place on execution of the first write. Note that there is no "EventSource" class in the System.Diagnostics namespace even though an object representing the source is created in the registry. C#Code sample C# EventLog creation Example using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; using System.Diagnostics; namespace EventLogLab1 { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { try { EventLog log1 = new EventLog("EvtLab2Log"); log1.Source = "EvtLab2Source"; // Actual creation happens next log1.WriteEntry("Example message", EventLogEntryType.Information, 123, 1); } catch (Exception e) { Console.WriteLine(e.Message); } Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to finish"); Console.ReadLine(); } } } The recommended way, which does not seem to be covered on the Training Kit (so probably not on the exam) is to use the EventLogInstaller class during the installation of the application. For reference purposes see MSDN Manage processes and monitor performance Exam objective: Manage system processes and monitor the performance of a .NET Framework application by using the diagnostics functionality of the .NET Framework 2.0. (Refer System.Diagnostics namespace) Get a list of all running processes. Process class - MSDN For example code for GetCurrentProcess(), GetProcessesByName(), GetProcesses(), and GetProcessById() see MSDN Retrieve information about the current process - MSDN Get a list of all modules loaded by a process The Process.Modules property returns a strongly-typed collection of ProcessModule objects that represent the Process' currently loaded modules. For the Process.Modules property see MSDN For the ProcessModule class see MSDN PerformanceCounter class, PerformanceCounterCategory, and CounterCreationData class PerformanceCounter class - MSDN PerformanceCounterCategory - MSDN CounterCreationData class - MSDN Start a process both by using and by not using command-line arguments Starting a Process Overview Processes are started using one of the overloaded Process.Start() methods. When passing sensitive data such as passwords to Process.Start(), use one of the two overloaded Start() methods that accept a SecureString as an argument type. External links MSDN2 Entry for Starting a Process - Process.Start() MSDN2 Entry for Starting a Process with ProcessStartInfo. This example demonstrates how to launch IE. MSDN2 Entry for Starting a Process with Command Line Arguments MSDN2 Passing a Password as a SecureString to Process.Start() MSDN2 SecureString class StackTrace class - MSDN StackFrame class - MSDN Debug and Trace Exam objective: Debug and trace a .NET Framework application by using the System.Diagnostics namespace. Debug class and Debugger class Debug class - MSDN The four static writing methods of the Debug class - Write, WriteLine, WriteIf and WriteLineIf - let you write debug messages to inspect your program's flow and catch errors. Calls to these methods are ignored in the release version of your program (see 'The ConditionalAttribute attribute' below for details). In Visual Studio, the default target for Debug's write methods is the Output window. You can use Debug's Listeners property to access the associated TraceListenerCollection. The following code shows how to use the Remove and Add methods of the collection to control where debug messages are sent to. If you add more than one listener of the same type, the associated target receives the text multiple times. C# Code sample Debug class example using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.IO; using System.Reflection; class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Debug.WriteLine("This is (by default) printed in the Output window."); //remove default listener Debug.Listeners.RemoveAt(0); //add a listener that can write to the Console window Debug.Listeners.Add(new ConsoleTraceListener()); Debug.WriteLine("This is printed in the console window."); //add a default listener again Debug.Listeners.Add(new DefaultTraceListener()); Debug.WriteLine("This is printed in both the Output and the Console window."); //remove all listeners Debug.Listeners.Clear(); //add a listener that writes to a file Debug.Listeners.Add(new TextWriterTraceListener(File.Create("C:\\test.txt"))); Debug.WriteLine("This is only printed to the newly created file."); //here we need to flush the output buffer Debug.Flush(); //keep console window open in debug mode Console.ReadLine(); } } Debugger class - MSDN Trace class - MSDN CorrelationManager class - MSDN TraceListener class - MSDN TraceSource class - MSDN TraceSwitch class - MSDN XmlWriterTraceListener class - MSDN DelimitedListTraceListener class - MSDN EventlogTraceListener class - MSDN Debugger attributes - MSDN DebuggerBrowsableAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerDisplayAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerHiddenAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerNonUserCodeAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerStepperBoundaryAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerStepThroughAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerTypeProxyAttribute class - MSDN DebuggerVisualizerAttribute class - MSDN Embed management information Exam objective: Embed management information and events into a .NET Framework application. (Refer System.Management namespace - MSDN) Retrieve a collection of Management objects by using the ManagementObjectSearcher class and its derived classes The classes in the System.Management namespace let you use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to manage computer systems. The most notable class in this namespace is ManagementObjectSearcher, that you can use to retrieve management objects based on a WMI query. Information that can be retrieved this way ranges from computer case type (notebook, desktop...) over processor and hard disks details to information about running services and processes. Consult the WMI Reference on MSDN for an overview of all WMI classes and their properties. In the example below a rough and dirty method is defined that prints all properties for all management information objects of a given WMI class. It is then used to print information about the current computer system. C# Sample Code WMI basic example class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { //Print all management info in the WMI class Win32_ComputerSystem PrintManagementInfo("Win32_ComputerSystem"); //wait for user input to keep console window up in debug mode Console.ReadLine(); } static void PrintManagementInfo(string WMIClassName) { ManagementObjectSearcher mos; //Get all managementobjects of the specified class mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM " + WMIClassName); foreach (ManagementObject MOCollection in mos.Get()) { foreach (PropertyData p in MOCollection.Properties) { //Some properties are arrays, //in which case the code below only prints //the type of the array. //Add a check with IsArray() and a loop //to display the individual array values. Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", p.Name, p.Value); } } } } ManagementObjectSearcher class - MSDN Enumerate all disk drivers, network adapters, and processes on a computer The following code uses one overload of the ManagementObjectSearcher constructor to list all physical and logical disk drives, network adapters and running processes on a system. C# Sample Code ManagementObjectSearcher example class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { // Console.WriteLine("Physical disks: "); PrintManagementInfoProperty("Win32_DiskDrive", "Name"); Console.WriteLine("*****************************"); // Console.WriteLine("Logical disks: "); PrintManagementInfoProperty("Win32_LogicalDisk", "Name"); Console.WriteLine("*****************************"); // Console.WriteLine("Network adapters: "); PrintManagementInfoProperty("Win32_NetworkAdapter", "Name"); Console.WriteLine("*****************************"); // Console.WriteLine("Processes: "); PrintManagementInfoProperty("Win32_Process", "Name"); Console.WriteLine("*****************************"); // //wait for user input to keep console window up in debug mode Console.ReadLine(); } static void PrintManagementInfoProperty(string WMIClassName, string WMIPropertyName) { ManagementObjectSearcher mos; //Get the specified property for all objects of the specified class mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT " + WMIPropertyName + " FROM " + WMIClassName); foreach (ManagementObject mo in mos.Get()) { PropertyData p = mo.Properties[WMIPropertyName]; Console.WriteLine("{0}", p.Value); } } } Retrieve information about all network connections Example to be provided Retrieve information about all services that are paused The following code uses a ManagementObjectSearcher object to retrieve all running services and then displays their names. C# Sample Code Enumarating services example class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine("Running services: "); //form the query, providing a WMI class name and a condition SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery("Win32_Service", "State='Running'"); //find matching management objects ManagementObjectSearcher mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher(query); // foreach (ManagementObject mo in mos.Get()) { Console.WriteLine(mo.Properties["Name"].Value); } // //wait for user input to keep console window up in debug mode Console.ReadLine(); } } ManagementQuery class - MSDN EventQuery class - MSDN ObjectQuery class - MSDN Subscribe to management events by using the ManagementEventWatcher class - MSDN Previous / Next