The Activity Document

Checkbox	Usage
Synchronize Files	Mark this checkbox if you want to copy updated files from the localhost to the remote machine (where the target application will run). For more information about how synchronization works, see Synchronization.
Recurse Directories To Synchronize	Mark this checkbox if you want all subdirectories to be synchronized. This applies to all of the directories that are to be synchronized as specified in the fields above. This includes the working directory and any additional directories specified in Directories to Synchronize.

Select which event you want to trigger the start of a data capture.

Select which event you want to trigger the end of a data capture.

Select Trace Application to collect trace data from a single target application.

Select Trace Process Tree to collect trace data from a target application and all native child processes of the target application.

When performing a system trace, the Analysis Tool does not stop capturing data when you kill the launched application. You must stop the capture of data manually by clicking on the Stop button under Capture Control.

One of the benefits of performing a Trace Process Tree is that it allows you to capture data from programs that used a launcher application. This means that the capture could contain pertinent information about child processes that continue after the target application terminates. That is why the Analysis tool does not automatically stop a system trace when a launched application terminates, and why you must manually stop the collection of data.

Select Profile CUDA Application to collect counters, statistics, and derived metrics for each CUDA kernel launch.

Select Profile CUDA Process Tree to collect counters, statistics, and derived values for any given CUDA kernel launch, as well as all native child processes.

The Control UI for Profile CUDA Process Tree equals the one from Trace Process Tree; that is, there is an additional checkbox that allows the user to kill the launcher on stop session. If this is disabled, the launched application will run without changes if the session is stopped. If it's enabled the launcher is killed on stop. (Note that this does not necessarily close all children as well.)

During a running session, the user can switch modes (if no capture is active). This is only valid if staying within the same scope. In other words, you can switch from Profile Application to Trace Application (and back), and you can also switch from Profile Process Tree to Trace Process Tree (and back). However, you cannot switch from an Application scope to a Process Tree scope.

With the Profile CUDA Process Tree option, the analysis session and data collection are not stopped when the launched application exits. The session and data collection must be stopped manually.

Events in the System group use the Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) kernel provider. There are two requirements for capturing these events: 

• Nsight Monitor is running with elevated privileges (right-click Nsight Monitor and choose Run As Administrator).
• No monitoring programs (e.g., Task Manager or Process Explorer) are already using the ETW kernel provider.

A tracing framework provided by Microsoft, ETW helps you examine system-level activity by capturing kernel and application-defined events.

A tracing framework provided by NVIDIA, NVE helps you examine application activity by capturing events from the graphics driver.

Green indicates that the Analysis Tool has an active connection to the Nsight Monitor. Yellow indicates that the activity is trying to connect. Red indicates that there is no active connection. You must have an active connection to start a capture session. If the indicator is red, make sure the Nsight Monitor is running on the system specified in the settings at the top of the Activity document under Connection and Application Settings. Click on the Connect button to initiate a connection.

Green indicates that the target application is running. Red indicates that the target application is not running. Click Launch to manually start the target application specified in the Connection and Application Settings section at the top of the Activity document.

Click Kill to manually terminate the target application. If you are performing a System Trace, the Analysis Tool collects events from the target application and all native child processes of the target application. For that reason, the Analysis Tool does not stop capturing data when you kill the launched application. You must stop the capture manually by clicking on the Stop button under Capture Control.

Green indicates that the Analysis Tool is currently capturing data from the application, and red indicates that capture is currently disabled. If you set Start Collection in the Triggers and Actions section to "On Process Launch," capture will automatically begin when you launch the application. If you choose "Manually," capture will not begin until you click Start in the Capture Control. If you find that enabling capture for the entire lifetime of your application creates excessively large reports that load slowly, use the manual capture control to limit capture to the parts of your application which you most want to analyze.

Setting	Description
Start	Click Start to manually begin a capture session.
Stop	Click Stop to stop the data capture. NVIDIA Nsight generates reports that show the data collected.
Cancel	Click Cancel to stop the data capture. NVIDIA Nsight does not create any reports.
Open Report On Stop	Mark the checkbox to have NVIDIA Nsight automatically open the analysis report. There is a drop-down menu that allows you to select which analysis report page to show initially. (For example, if you are profiling a CUDA application, you may want to start on the CUDA Launches page.)