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Zend Server 5 Code Tracing

Root Cause Analysis is a Time-Sink for Developers

Fixing a problem is easy when you know what causes it. However, finding the root cause of problems is often challenging during testing, and incredibly difficult when the application is running in production. Trying to reproduce the exact same environment, application state and load in the development lab is both time-consuming and error-prone, and it takes developers away from their most important task – writing code. Zend Server 5 takes root cause analysis to a whole new level by featuring code tracing.

A Flight Recorder for Your PHP Application

What is code tracing?

Think of a black box flight recorder. When something goes wrong with an airplane, you would probably not want to “reproduce” the problem. This is why the flight recorder captures the full data that flight analysts may need in order to understand why the problem occurred.

Zend Server Code Tracing is like a flight recorder for PHP.

Rather than spending time on trying to set up the environment and reproducing all the steps that led up to the failure, Zend Server captures the full execution of your application in real-time – in production or in the test lab – so you can quickly find root cause.

Zend Server Code Tracing Cuts Root Cause Analysis Time


Zend Server code tracing is activated automatically, when a problem is detected, or manually by the user, e.g. during an optimization project.
Data recorded by Zend Server code tracing includes:

  • Function calls tree
  • Arguments
  • Return values
  • Duration
  • Memory usage
  • Line of code
  • File name

The trace displayed in the Zend Server web console enables you to view - much like a DVD – the execution history of your application and follow the footsteps of a single problematic request to quickly pinpoint root cause.



Read the white paper: "Troubleshooting PHP Issues With Code Tracing" »
Watch the Code Tracing with Zend Server 5 Webinar »
Watch a video demonstration of Code Tracing in action »
Zend Server 5 Code Tracing
Zend Server 5 code trace tree

Zend Server 5 Code Tracing
Zend Server 5 tracing statistics

Resources
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Discover how Zend Server 6 bridges the Devops chasm more»

CASE STUDY

Learn how Offers.com used the Zend solutions to build and manage a highly successful e-commerce website more»

DOCUMENTATION

Online Documentation more»

Customer Quote

   When it comes to ROI, we consider our investment in Zend technology to be a benefit on several fronts. It is easy to manage the PHP stack, and the strength of the error detection and reporting helps us reduce the time spent troubleshooting while increasing application availability and responsiveness. With session clustering alone, Zend more than paid for itself the moment we flipped the switch.   

Eric LongSr. Manager, E-Business, Levolor

   Zend Server paid for itself by virtue of the issues we found and fixed in the first week alone a benefit that is magnified exponentially as our e-commerce application grows.   

Josh ButtsDirector of Web Development, Offers.com

   We used the Code Tracing feature to optimize the DataCache parameters. It would have been very hard to track this down without the ability to trace the code directly in the production environment. We got a huge performance boost.   

Morgan NilssonSystem Developer, Ateles Consulting AB