User Guide

Intel® VTune™ Profiler User Guide

ID 766319
Date 3/31/2023
Public

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Document Table of Contents

Import Results and Traces into VTune Profiler GUI

If you collect performance data either remotely with the Intel® VTune™ Profiler command line interface or with standalone collectors (such as SEP collector, Intel SoC Watch collector, or Linux* Perf* collector), import this data (result or trace) to the VTune Profiler project to analyze it in the graphical interface.

To get ready for the import:

  1. Create a VTune Profiler project for the data to be imported.

  2. In the Configure Analysis window, click the Search Sources/Binaries button at the bottom to specify search directories for the data to be imported. When you open the Source/Assembly view for the collected data, the VTune Profiler automatically applies binary/source search paths for proper symbol resolution.

    NOTE:

    Make sure the search directories are accessible to the VTune Profiler. For example, if you are to import the data collected remotely, you need to copy the sources and binaries to the host system where the VTune Profiler is installed or make them available via a shared drive.

  3. Select the Import option using any of the following options:

    • From Microsoft Visual Studio* IDE: Open a project where you want to locate the imported result and go to Tools > Intel® VTune™ Profilerversion > Import Result... .

    • From standalone VTune Profiler interface: Open a project where you want to locate the imported result, click the menu button and select Import Result..., or click the Import Result button on the toolbar.

    The Import window opens.

  4. Choose between two options:

Import Results

You can perform multiple collections on a remote system (with or without result finalization) with a full-fledged VTune Profiler command line interface, copy the result directories to the host, and import the result(s) into a VTune Profiler project.

To import result directories into a VTune Profiler project:

  1. In the Import window, select the Import a result into the current project option.

  2. Click the browse button to navigate to the required directory.

  3. If required, click the Search Sources/Binaries button on the right to view/modify the search directories.

  4. Click the Import button on the right.

    VTune Profiler copies the result directory to the current project folder and result name appears in the Project Navigator as a node of the current project.

NOTE:

If you do not need to copy a result, select the Import via a link instead of a result copy option. VTune Profiler will import the result via this link.

Import Raw Trace Data

You can also import performance trace files collected using:

  • SEP Collector
  • SoC Watch Collector
  • Perf Collector
View the collected data in the VTune Profiler GUI.

You can import these data formats:

  • *.tb6/*.tb7 (sampling raw data files collected with the low-level SEP collector)

  • *.perf (Linux* Perf data files)

  • *.csv (external data collection files in the predefined format)

  • *.pwr (processed Intel SoC Watch files with energy analysis data)

  • *.json (FPGA performance data collected with the Profiler Runtime Wrapper)

    NOTE:

    For FPGA data collected with the Profiler Runtime Wrapper, you must import a folder with the profile.json file. Use the Import multiple trace files from a directory option in the Import window. See the section below on importing trace files into a VTune Profiler project.

Prerequisites for importing a *.perf file with event-based sampling data:

Run the Perf collection with the predefined command line options:

  • For application analysis:

    perf record -o <trace_file_name>.perf --call-graph dwarf -e cpu-cycles,instructions <application_to_launch>

  • For process analysis:

    perf record -o <trace_file_name>.perf --call-graph dwarf -e cpu-cycles,instructions <application_to_launch> -p <PID> sleep 15

where the -e option is used to specify a list of events to collect as -e <list of events>; --call-graph option (optional) configures samples to be collected together with the thread call stack at the moment a sample is taken. See Linux Perf documentation on possible call stack collection options (for example, dwarf) and its availability in different OS kernel versions.

NOTE:

The Linux kernel exposes Perf API to the Perf tool starting from version 2.6.31. Any attempts to run the Perf tool on kernels prior to this version lead to undefined results or even crashes. See Linux Perf documentation for more details.

To import trace files into a VTune Profiler project:

  1. In the Import window, select the Import raw trace data option.

  2. Click the browse button to navigate to the required file.

    To import multiple files, select the Import multiple trace files from a directory option.

    NOTE:

    For FPGA data collected with the Profiler Runtime Wrapper, you need to use this option to import a folder with the profile.json file. See the FPGA Optimization Guide for Intel® oneAPI Toolkits for details on generating the profiling data.

  3. If required, click the Search Sources/Binaries button on the right to view/modify the search directories.

  4. Click the Import button on the right.

    VTune Profiler copies the trace file (or a directory with multiple traces) to the project directory, creates an *.vtune result directory, finalizes the trace(s) in the directory, and imports it to the current project. When you open the result in the VTune Profiler, it uses all applicable viewpoints to represent the data.

NOTE:
  • To reduce the size of the imported data, consider removing the copy of the trace file in the project directory using the Remove raw collector data after resolving the result option available from Options... > Intel VTune Profilerversion > General tab in the standalone interface menu or from Tools > Options... > Intel VTune Profilerversion > General tab in Microsoft Visual Studio* IDE. This option makes the result smaller but prevents future re-finalization.

  • You can run a custom data collection (with a third-party collector or your own collection utility) in parallel with the VTune Profiler analysis run, convert the collected data to a *.csv file and import the this file to the VTune Profiler project using the Import from CSV GUI option or -import CLI option. You may also choose to use the Custom collector option of the VTune Profiler to run your custom collection directly from the VTune Profiler.