HomeNovell Uses dynaTrace To Build High-Performance Software Faster
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 14:52 | 
Written by Administrator | 
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Enterprise software leader Novell is using dynaTrace software’s continuous application performance management solution to diagnose and resolve software performance issues faster then ever before. Using dynaTrace’s Test Center Edition, Novell’s QA organization is now able to rapidly isolate bottlenecks and arm developers with the PurePath root cause diagnostic information they need to fix problems quickly.
“We’ve always run a lean shop, but this economic environment has increased the pressure on our teams,” said Novell QA Manager Mike Demastrie. “By isolating problems faster with dynaTrace we’re able to increase our test throughput by 2-3x without having to increase our staff. Before we might have had to run five or six test round-trips before we could isolate the issue, tying up not only the hardware, but tester’s and developer’s time. Now with dynaTrace’s diagnostic capabilities, we can usually isolate root-cause the first time around, package up the PurePath and send that directly to the developer so they know exactly where to find the issue.”
These efficiency gains provided by dynaTrace are leveraged by both QA and development. “With dynaTrace, testers can run fewer, more productive tests during debugging; running fewer tests during debugging means they have more time to run more productive tests during performance/regression testing and capacity planning phases,” said Novell QA Engineer Lucy Monahan. “And all those tests return better results to development, enabling them to focus more on what they enjoy – creating new features and functionality – rather than chasing bugs.”
With dynaTrace’s PurePath technology preserving individual transactions for later review, problems can be analyzed whenever the team member has time, rather than when they are discovered. “Since I can send them the PurePath of the specific transaction, they can view it immediately or later when they have time – I don’t have to interrupt them to show them what I’ve found,” said Monahan. “This way they can stay focused on writing great code, and know that the root-cause of the performance issue is waiting for them when they need it.”
dynaTrace’s ability to run under load with virtually no overhead also frees up resources for more productive uses by automating away labor-intensive tasks. “Because dynaTrace is on for the duration of a test, it eliminates the need to rerun certain tests to capture additional log and tracing information that developers put into the code,” said Monahan. “This helps to shorten test cycles and frees up resources, both in terms of testers and hardware, improving productivity.”
After issues have been diagnosed and resolved by development, Novell’s QA engineers use dynaTrace’s charting and diffing features to verify that the changes actually do what they are supposed to do. This feedback is valuable to developers for verification and strengthens their confidence in bug fixes. It also helps to ensure that bugs are killed as early as possible in the lifecycle, further reducing costs.
“From a tester’s perspective, dynaTrace is really empowering technology,” said Monahan. “It’s been a real career-enhancer for me, since now I can provide developers with results that get them immediately to the root-cause of an issue. “
Case in point was a memory leak that caused JVMs to crash with an OutOfMemory condition. It turned out that the leak was in a component and came about as a result of switching to a RESTful service infrastructure. The QA Engineer was able to capture the necessary memory information and passed it on to the developers who were able to fix the problem right away – with only one round trip needed to complete the fix. In this way, dynaTrace helps simplify memory analysis, particularly in finding memory leaks in modules outside of their own code.
“What’s nice is that I can even send a PurePath to an application engineer in the field who doesn’t use dynaTrace, and with the free viewer they can analyze the debug data themselves,” said Monahan. “You have the root cause right there in the PurePath.”
“We always knew the software we shipped was high-quality,” concluded Demastrie, “but now we can prove it, line-by-line.”
About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers the best engineered, most interoperable Linux platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management software that helps customers around the world reduce cost, complexity and risk. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell harmoniously integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit http://www.novell.com
About dynaTrace software, Inc.
dynaTrace is the leader in continuous application performance management for business-critical Java /.NET applications. Industry leaders such as UBS, LinkedIn, EnerNOC, Fidelity and Thomson Reuters use dynaTrace’s patent-pending PurePath Technology® to trace individual transactions, even in production, and gain true visibility into and across their complex Web services-based applications. dynaTrace enables all lifecycle stakeholders to collaborate – development, QA, and production – to find problems faster and quickly coordinate resolution, dramatically speeding the isolation and resolution of performance problems by 10x – or more.
>> Monitor. Resolve. Prevent. >> www.dynatrace.com
All rights reserved. dynaTrace software is a registered trademark of dynaTrace software, Inc. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
“We’ve always run a lean shop, but this economic environment has increased the pressure on our teams,” said Novell QA Manager Mike Demastrie. “By isolating problems faster with dynaTrace we’re able to increase our test throughput by 2-3x without having to increase our staff. Before we might have had to run five or six test round-trips before we could isolate the issue, tying up not only the hardware, but tester’s and developer’s time. Now with dynaTrace’s diagnostic capabilities, we can usually isolate root-cause the first time around, package up the PurePath and send that directly to the developer so they know exactly where to find the issue.”
These efficiency gains provided by dynaTrace are leveraged by both QA and development. “With dynaTrace, testers can run fewer, more productive tests during debugging; running fewer tests during debugging means they have more time to run more productive tests during performance/regression testing and capacity planning phases,” said Novell QA Engineer Lucy Monahan. “And all those tests return better results to development, enabling them to focus more on what they enjoy – creating new features and functionality – rather than chasing bugs.”
With dynaTrace’s PurePath technology preserving individual transactions for later review, problems can be analyzed whenever the team member has time, rather than when they are discovered. “Since I can send them the PurePath of the specific transaction, they can view it immediately or later when they have time – I don’t have to interrupt them to show them what I’ve found,” said Monahan. “This way they can stay focused on writing great code, and know that the root-cause of the performance issue is waiting for them when they need it.”
dynaTrace’s ability to run under load with virtually no overhead also frees up resources for more productive uses by automating away labor-intensive tasks. “Because dynaTrace is on for the duration of a test, it eliminates the need to rerun certain tests to capture additional log and tracing information that developers put into the code,” said Monahan. “This helps to shorten test cycles and frees up resources, both in terms of testers and hardware, improving productivity.”
After issues have been diagnosed and resolved by development, Novell’s QA engineers use dynaTrace’s charting and diffing features to verify that the changes actually do what they are supposed to do. This feedback is valuable to developers for verification and strengthens their confidence in bug fixes. It also helps to ensure that bugs are killed as early as possible in the lifecycle, further reducing costs.
“From a tester’s perspective, dynaTrace is really empowering technology,” said Monahan. “It’s been a real career-enhancer for me, since now I can provide developers with results that get them immediately to the root-cause of an issue. “
Case in point was a memory leak that caused JVMs to crash with an OutOfMemory condition. It turned out that the leak was in a component and came about as a result of switching to a RESTful service infrastructure. The QA Engineer was able to capture the necessary memory information and passed it on to the developers who were able to fix the problem right away – with only one round trip needed to complete the fix. In this way, dynaTrace helps simplify memory analysis, particularly in finding memory leaks in modules outside of their own code.
“What’s nice is that I can even send a PurePath to an application engineer in the field who doesn’t use dynaTrace, and with the free viewer they can analyze the debug data themselves,” said Monahan. “You have the root cause right there in the PurePath.”
“We always knew the software we shipped was high-quality,” concluded Demastrie, “but now we can prove it, line-by-line.”
About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) delivers the best engineered, most interoperable Linux platform and a portfolio of integrated IT management software that helps customers around the world reduce cost, complexity and risk. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell harmoniously integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit http://www.novell.com
About dynaTrace software, Inc.
dynaTrace is the leader in continuous application performance management for business-critical Java /.NET applications. Industry leaders such as UBS, LinkedIn, EnerNOC, Fidelity and Thomson Reuters use dynaTrace’s patent-pending PurePath Technology® to trace individual transactions, even in production, and gain true visibility into and across their complex Web services-based applications. dynaTrace enables all lifecycle stakeholders to collaborate – development, QA, and production – to find problems faster and quickly coordinate resolution, dramatically speeding the isolation and resolution of performance problems by 10x – or more.
>> Monitor. Resolve. Prevent. >> www.dynatrace.com
All rights reserved. dynaTrace software is a registered trademark of dynaTrace software, Inc. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
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