Are you open to upgrading to .Net Core 3.0 (.Net Core 2.2 is going out of support in a few days: 12/23/2019)
If you're open to that you can take advantage of the new tool dotnet-trace which supports running in a linux container and can be used with the tools in Visual Studio.
Here are the steps I used to add it to my project:
- Change your base image to use the sdk image (needed to install the tool).
- Add installing the tool to the image:
RUN dotnet tool install --global dotnet-trace
ENV PATH $PATH:/root/.dotnet/tools
Alternatively if you don’t want to add it in your image you can run the following commands in a running container (as long as it as based on the SDK image):
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-trace
export PATH="$PATH:/root/.dotnet/tools"
Start the project without debugging (Ctrl+F5)
Use the Containers Tool Window to open a terminal window
Run the command:
dotnet-trace collect --process-id $(pidof dotnet) --providers Microsoft-DotNETCore-SampleProfiler
When you are done collecting press enter or Ctrl+C to end the collection
This will crate a file called “trace.nettrace”
By default that /app folder that file would be created in is volume mapped to your project folder. You can open the file from there in VS.
Answer from Nathan Carlson - MSFT on Stack OverflowGitHub
github.com › dotnet › diagnostics › issues › 810
Support `dotnet trace` running in a sidecar container · Issue #810 · dotnet/diagnostics
February 7, 2020 - Run a containerized ASP.NET Core app within a container. docker run -it -p 8000:80 --name aspnetapp mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/samples:aspnetapp Build a image which contains the dotnet trace tool FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/sdk...
Author dotnet
Jeppe Andersen Blog
nocture.dk › posts › .net core diagnostics tools and containers
.NET Core Diagnostics Tools and Containers | Jeppe Andersen Blog
June 17, 2020 - # Start the application, with a bind mount on /tmp/data on the host to /data inside the container docker run --name diagnosticsapp -p 8000:80 -v "/tmp/data:/data" -d diagnosticsapp # Collect a trace and write it to the volume docker exec -it diagnosticsapp /tools/dotnet-trace collect -o /data/trace.nettrace -p 1
Microsoft
devblogs.microsoft.com › dev blogs › .net blog › collecting .net core linux container cpu traces from a sidecar container
Collecting .NET Core Linux Container CPU Traces from a Sidecar Container - .NET Blog
March 7, 2019 - user@host ~/project/webapi $ docker run -it --pid=container:application --net=container:application -v shared-tmp:/tmp --cap-add ALL --privileged --name sidecar sidecar · Inside the sidecar container, collect CPU traces for the dotnet process (or your .NET Core application process if it is published as self-contained), which usually has PID of 1, but may vary depending on what else you are running in the application container before running the application.
Medium
medium.com › @davidsilwal › diagnosing-net-aaf5b6821486
Diagnosing .NET Applications in Docker with dotnet-dump, dotnet-counters, dotnet-gcdump, and dotnet-trace | by David Silwal | Medium
February 19, 2025 - The .NET ecosystem offers a robust set of diagnostic tools designed to assist in troubleshliooting applications, even when they are deployed within Docker containers. Tools such as dotnet-dump, dotnet-counters, dotnet-gcdump, and dotnet-trace enable you to gather critical runtime insights seamlessly, without disrupting the application’s operation.
Medium
ademar-goncalves.medium.com › net-core-diagnostics-in-docker-8be08d3eb4d7
.NET Core Diagnostics in Docker. In .NET Core 3.0, Microsoft introduced… | by Ademar Gonçalves | Medium
October 11, 2021 - For example, if you’re running .NET Core on x64 Ubuntu, you can acquire the dotnet-trace from https://aka.ms/dotnet-trace/linux-x64. It’s possible to create a Dockerfile with a multi-stage build that installs the tools in a build stage and then copies the binaries into the final image.
my tech ramblings
mytechramblings.com › posts › profiling-a-net-app-with-dotnet-cli-diagnostic-tools
Profiling a .NET6 app running in a linux container with dotnet-trace, dotnet-dump, dotnet-counters, dotnet-gcdump and Visual Studio :: my tech ramblings — A blog for writing about my techie ramblings
March 1, 2022 - ./dotnet-trace collect --process-id 1 --duration 00:00:30 · The collect command collects a diagnostic trace from a running process. The -p|--process-id parameter specifies the process id to collect the trace, in this case we’re inside a docker container so the PID is always 1.
GitHub
github.com › mjrousos › ContainerProfiling
GitHub - mjrousos/ContainerProfiling: Instructions for profiling .NET Core apps in Docker/K8s containers using dotnet trace or PerfCollect
Instructions for profiling .NET Core apps in Docker/K8s containers using dotnet trace or PerfCollect - mjrousos/ContainerProfiling
Author mjrousos
Im5tu
im5tu.io › article › 2020 › 06 › diagnostics-in-.net-core-3-an-alternative-approach-to-using-dotnet-counters-with-docker
Diagnostics in .Net Core 3: An alternative approach to using dotnet-counters with Docker | June | 2020 | Articles | CodeWithStu's Blog
June 25, 2020 - Now you should be able to run dotnet-counters, dotnet-dump & dotnet-trace as normal. If you need to copy any files from the container then you need to run the following from the host machine: docker cp <ID>:<path-to-file-in-container> <copy-to-path-on-host> #Example: docker cp fac2377f3e87:/tools/output/trace.nettrace ./output/trace.nettrace
Microsoft Learn
learn.microsoft.com › en-us › dotnet › core › diagnostics › diagnostics-in-containers
Collect diagnostics in Linux containers - .NET | Microsoft Learn
Learn how .NET diagnostics tools for gathering performance traces and collecting dumps can be used in Linux containers.
GitHub
github.com › dotnet › dotnet-docker › issues › 1672
Add `dotnet trace` tooling in base image? · Issue #1672 · dotnet/dotnet-docker
February 6, 2020 - Can we add vance's dotnet trace tooling to the mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/core/aspnet:3.1? Trying to do this manually in a Dockerfile results in: Step 31/36 : RUN dotnet tool install --global dotnet-trace ---> Running in 78e25001ddc4 It was not possible to find any installed .NET Core SDKs Did you mean to run .NET Core SDK commands?
Author dotnet
Thecloudblog
thecloudblog.net › the cloud blog › posts › tracing and profiling a .net core application on azure kubernetes service with a sidecar container
Tracing and Profiling a .NET Core Application on Azure Kubernetes Service with a Sidecar Container | The Cloud Blog
February 3, 2021 - Populate the file with the following code, which instructs Docker to bundle the necessary tools inside an image. FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:5.0 as tools RUN dotnet tool install --tool-path /tools dotnet-trace RUN dotnet tool install --tool-path /tools dotnet-dump RUN dotnet tool install --tool-path /tools dotnet-counters FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:5.0 AS runtime COPY --from=tools /tools /tools ENV PATH="/tools:${PATH}" WORKDIR /tools
Onurgumus
onurgumus.github.io › 2020 › 12 › 05 › How-to-diagnose-dotnet-in-containers.html
How to diagnose a .net process running inside Kubernetes/docker | Onur Gumus’s blog
December 5, 2020 - If you do use WSL with docker desktop, the /.kube/config file is shared within windows and WSL. ... Download .net core SDK: Now we will need diagnostic tools and for the installation of these tools we need .net SDK installed since typically production containers won’t ship with these tools (unless you a sidecar). Get the relevant SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core.
mu88
mu88.github.io › 2019 › 12 › 07 › Docker-dotTrace.html
Profiling a .NET Core 3.0 Console App running in Docker for Windows with dotTrace · mu88
December 7, 2019 - Profiling a .NET Core 3.0 Console App running in Docker for Windows with dotTrace
JetBrains
jetbrains.com › help › profiler › Profile_Application_in_Docker_Container.html
Profile Application in Docker Container | dotTrace Documentation
March 21, 2024 - To profile a .NET application running inside a Docker container, use the dotTrace command-line profiler.
Docker Hub
hub.docker.com › r › datadog › dd-trace-dotnet-docker-build
datadog/dd-trace-dotnet-docker-build - Docker Image
dd-trace-dotnet-docker-build · Requires Docker Desktop 4.37.1 or later
DevOpsSchool.com
devopsschool.com › blog › dotnet-trace-a-complete-dotnet-trace-tutorials-guide
dotnet-trace: A Complete dotnet-trace Tutorials Guide
November 25, 2025 - Windows, Linux, macOS, Docker, K8s. CPU, GC, threads, allocations, exceptions, etc., from the runtime level. ... Other trace analysis tools that support .nettrace or converted formats. You can demonstrate effect of code changes, GC settings, async vs sync, etc., visually. # List .NET processes dotnet-trace ps # Collect basic trace dotnet-trace collect --process-id <pid> # Collect CPU trace for 2 min dotnet-trace collect --process-id <pid> --profile cpu-sampling --duration 00:02:00 --output cpu.nettrace # Collect GC-verbose trace dotnet-trace collect --process-id <pid> --profile gc-verbose --du
Green Thinking
chrisgilbert1.wordpress.com › 2017 › 02 › 09 › docker-and-net-core-linux-performance-tracing
Docker and .NET Core Linux Performance Tracing – Green Thinking
June 24, 2020 - Eventually I came up with a Dockerfile that looks like this: FROM microsoft/dotnet WORKDIR /app RUN apt-get -qq update RUN apt-get -qq install -y lttng-tools liblttng-ust-dev linux-tools unzip zip coreutils binutils RUN mv /usr/bin/perf /tmp RUN ln -s /usr/bin/perf_3.16 /usr/bin/perf RUN curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dotnet/corefx-tools/master/src/performance/perfcollect/perfcollect --output perfcollect && chmod 755 perfcollect # Set tracing environment variables.
GitHub
gist.github.com › MikeGoldsmith › 7c90017a41ab96b1406aec9054e383e3
dd-trace-dotnet sample dockerfile · GitHub
dd-trace-dotnet sample dockerfile · Raw · Dockerfile · This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Docker
hub.docker.com › layers › datadog › dd-trace-dotnet-docker-build › net8 › images › sha256-6a10e864ba1ac079b50f543d5e733e09754426ff3d37d58947aed0d18a7563bb
Image Layer Details - datadog/dd-trace-dotnet-docker-build:net8
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