ASP.NET Site Performance Secrets -- Table of Contents -- ASP.NET Site Performance Secrets -- Credits -- About the Author -- About the Reviewers -- Preface -- What this book covers -- What you need for this book -- Who this book is for -- Conventions -- Reader feedback -- Customer support -- Errata -- Piracy -- Questions -- 1. High Level Diagnosis -- Assuring good performance -- Continuous monitoring -- Setting performance goals -- Iterative improvements -- Monitoring services -- High-level diagnosis with Waterfall charts -- Creating a Waterfall chart using Firebug -- Installing Firebug -- Creating the Waterfall chart -- Interpreting the Waterfall chart -- Request and response information -- Timeline information -- Page-level information -- Saving information -- Categorizing bottlenecks using Waterfall charts -- Scenario 1: Main .aspx file takes long to arrive -- Scenario 2: Main .aspx file takes long to load over the Internet -- Scenario 3: Images take long to load -- Scenario 4: JavaScript file blocks rendering -- Waterfall generators for other browsers -- Fiddler (browser-independent) -- Internet Explorer via WebPagetest -- Google Chrome -- Apple Safari -- More Waterfall chart generators -- Find out more -- Summary -- 2. Reducing Time to First Byte -- Pinpointing bottlenecks -- Memory -- Windows Server 2003 -- Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7 -- Simulating a memory shortage -- Caching -- CPU -- Thread usage -- Long wait times -- Additional measures -- Deployment -- Building projects in release mode -- Publishing your website -- Disabling debug mode -- Reducing number of assemblies -- Reducing round trips -- Using Server.Transfer instead of Response.Redirect -- Always specifying the default file in URLs -- Permanent redirects -- Minimizing CNAME records -- SSL -- Unwanted requests -- Search engine bots -- Hotlinking -- CAPTCHA.

Scrapers -- Usability testing -- Find out more -- Summary -- 3. Memory -- Managed resources -- Life cycle -- Generations -- Large Object Heap -- Counters -- CLR profiler -- Garbage collector versions -- Acquire late -- Release early -- Using StringBuilder to concatenate strings -- Using StringBuilder -- When not to use StringBuilder -- StringBuilder capacity -- Using Compare for case-insensitive compares -- Using Response.Write buffer -- Pooling objects over 85 KB -- Unmanaged resources -- IDisposable -- Counters -- Sessions -- Reducing session state life time -- Reducing space taken by session state -- Using another session mode -- Stop using session state -- Find out more -- Summary -- 4. CPU -- Identifying bottlenecks -- Tools -- Data access -- Connection pooling -- DataSet versus List -- Returning multiple result sets -- Sending multiple inserts in one go -- Using native data providers -- Exceptions -- Revealing the time taken by exceptions -- Counters -- DataBinder.Eval -- Garbage collector -- Threading -- StringBuilder -- Regex instantiation -- UtcNow -- Foreach -- Virtual properties -- Avoid unnecessary processing -- Trimming HTTP pipeline -- Find out more -- Summary -- 5. Caching -- Browser caching -- OutputCache directive -- Enabling caching in code -- Disabling caching in code -- Proxy caching -- Caching different versions of the same page -- Cookies -- Removing query string from URL -- URLRewrite extension to IIS 7 -- RewritePath method in Global.asax -- Resetting the form action attribute -- Output caching -- What to cache and what not to cache -- Enabling output caching -- Output cache example -- VaryByParam -- VaryByHeader -- VaryByCustom -- VaryByCustom by browser -- Fragment caching -- Post-cache substitution -- Output cache provider -- Creating an output cache provider -- Set -- Get -- Add -- Remove -- Using an output cache provider.

Kernel caching and IIS 7 output caching -- Configuring IIS caching -- Limitations of kernel caching -- Checking the contents of the kernel cache -- Data caching -- Basic use -- Expiry -- Priority -- File dependencies -- Database dependencies -- Restrictions on queries -- Starting the Service Broker -- Starting the listening service -- Creating the dependency -- Item removed callback -- Things to keep in mind -- Optimal use of server cache -- Find out more -- Summary -- 6. Thread Usage -- Asynchronous web service access -- Synchronous version -- Asynchronous version -- Asynchronous data access layer -- Usage -- Implementation -- Performance testing -- Asynchronous generic handlers -- Synchronous version -- Asynchronous version -- Implementation -- Performance testing -- Asynchronous file writes -- Synchronous version -- Asynchronous version -- A word of caution -- Asynchronous web requests -- Configuration changes -- IIS 6, IIS 7 Classic Mode -- I/O-related configuration -- ASP.NET 2.0 -- IIS 7 integrated mode -- Maximum queue size -- Setting timeouts aggressively -- Find out more -- Summary -- 7. Reducing Long Wait Times -- Measuring wait times -- Creating custom counters -- Creating counters with Visual Studio -- Creating counters programmatically -- Updating counters in your code -- Viewing custom counters in perfmon -- Waiting concurrently -- Retrieving multiple result sets from the database -- Reducing overhead by using off-box session modes -- Reducing trips to the database -- Setting EnableSessionState -- Reducing serialization and transfer overhead -- Cutting your dependence on sessions -- Thread locking -- Minimizing the duration of locks -- Using granular locks -- Using System.Threading.Interlocked -- Using ReaderWriterLock -- Acquiring a reader lock -- Acquiring a writer lock -- Alternating readers and writers -- Optimizing disk writes.

Avoiding head seeks -- Using FileStream.SetLength to avoid fragmentation -- Using 64 K buffers -- Disabling 8.3 filenames -- Find out more -- Summary -- 8. Speeding up Database Access -- Pinpointing bottlenecks -- Missing indexes and expensive queries -- Missing indexes -- Expensive queries -- Unused indexes -- Locking -- Execution plan reuse -- Performance counters -- dm_exec_query_optimizer_info -- sys.dm_exec_cached_plans -- Fragmentation -- Memory -- Disk usage -- CPU -- Fixing bottlenecks -- Missing indexes -- Clustered index -- Non-clustered index -- Included columns -- Selecting columns to give an index -- When to use an index -- When not to use an index -- Column updated often -- Low specificity -- When to use a clustered index -- Maintaining indexes -- Expensive queries -- Cache aggregation queries -- Keeping records short -- Considering denormalization -- Being careful with triggers -- Using table variables for small temporary result sets -- Using full-text search instead of LIKE -- Replacing cursors with set-based code -- Minimizing traffic from SQL server to web server -- Object naming -- Using SET NOCOUNT ON -- Using FILESTREAM for values over 1 MB -- Avoiding functions on columns in WHERE clauses -- Using UNION ALL instead of UNION -- Using EXISTS instead of COUNT to find existence of records -- Combining SELECT and UPDATE -- Locking -- Gathering detailed locking information -- Reducing blocking -- Reducing deadlocks -- Execution plan reuse -- Ad hoc queries -- Simple parameterization -- sp_executesql -- Stored procedures -- Preventing reuse -- Fragmentation -- Index rebuild -- Index reorganize -- Heap table defragmentation -- Memory -- Disk usage -- Optimizing query processing -- Moving the logfile to a dedicated physical disk -- Reducing fragmentation of the NTFS filesystem -- Considering moving the tempdb database to its own disk.

Splitting the database data over two or more disks -- Moving heavily-used database objects to another disk -- Using the optimal RAID configuration -- CPU -- Find out more -- Summary -- 9. Reducing Time to Last Byte -- Pinpointing bottlenecks -- Compression -- ViewState -- What is ViewState? -- Why reduce ViewState? -- Measuring your ViewState -- Quickly finding where ViewState is an issue -- Measuring compressed ViewState -- Having ViewState size on status bar -- Optimizing forms -- White space -- Fixing bottlenecks -- ViewState -- Seeing ViewState generated by each control -- Disabling Viewstate -- Identifying controls that do not need ViewState -- Reloading from database cache -- Storing a shorter version of the property value -- Storing ViewState on the server -- Compressing Viewstate -- Implementing compression -- Implementing decompression -- Using ViewState compression on a page -- Reducing white space -- Creating the filter -- Creating the HTTP Module -- Adding the HTTP Module to web.config -- Additional measures -- Event validation -- Inline JavaScript and CSS -- Avoiding inline styling -- Reducing space taken by ASP.NET IDs -- Opting out of IDs -- Keeping IDs short -- Using ASP.NET comments instead of HTML comments -- Using Literal control instead of Label control -- Avoiding repetition -- Using shorter URLs -- Find out more -- Summary -- 10. Compression -- Agreeing on compression -- Configuring compression in IIS 7 -- Installing the dynamic content compression module -- Enabling compression -- Setting compression by site, folder, or file -- Compression level -- Disabling compression based on CPU usage -- Setting the request frequency threshold for static compression -- Caching compressed dynamic files -- Storing compressed files in the output cache -- What if a client doesn't accept compressed content? -- Configuring compression in IIS 6.

Switching on compression in the IIS Manager.