Preprocess Option (Distributed Replay Administration Tool)

The Microsoft SQL Server Distributed Replay administration tool, DReplay.exe, is a command-line tool that you can use to communicate with the distributed replay controller. This topic describes the preprocess command-line option and corresponding syntax.

The preprocess option initiates the preprocess stage. During this stage, the controller prepares the input trace data for replay against the target server.

 For more information about the syntax conventions that are used with the administration tool syntax, see Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions (Transact-SQL).

Syntax

dreplay preprocess [-m controller] -i input_trace_file
    -d controller_working_dir [-c config_file] [-f status_interval]

Parameters

• -m controller
  Specifies the computer name of the controller. You can use "localhost" or "." to refer to the local computer.

  If the -m parameter is not specified, the local computer is used.

• -i input_trace_file
  Specifies the full path of the input trace file on the controller, such as D:\Mytrace.trc. The -i parameter is required.

  If there are rollover files in the same directory, they will be loaded and used automatically. The files must follow the file rollover naming convention, for example: Mytrace.trc, Mytrace_1.trc, Mytrace_2.trc, Mytrace_3.trc, … Mytrace_n.trc.

  Note

  If you are using the administration tool on a different computer than the controller, you will need to copy the input trace files to the controller so that a local path can be used for this parameter.

• -d controller_working_dir
  Specifies the directory on the controller where the intermediate file will be stored. The -d parameter is required.

  The following requirements apply:

  • The directory must reside on the controller.

  • You must specify the full path, starting with a drive letter (for example, c:\WorkingDir).

  • The path must not end with a backslash "\".

  • UNC paths are not supported.

• -c config_file
  Is the full path of the preprocess configuration file; used to specify the location of the preprocess configuration file when stored in a different location. This parameter can be a UNC path, or can reside locally on the computer where you run the administration tool.

  The -c parameter is not required if no filtering is needed, or if you do not want to modify the maximum idle time.

  Without the -c parameter, the default preprocess configuration file, DReplay.exe.preprocess.config, is used.

• -f status_interval
  Specifies the frequency (in seconds) at which to display status messages.

  If -f is not specified, the default interval is 30 seconds.

Examples

In this example, the preprocess stage is initiated with all of the default settings. The value localhost indicates that the controller service is running on the same computer as the administration tool. The input_trace_file parameter specifies the location of the input trace data, c:\mytrace.trc. Because there is no trace file filtering involved, the -c parameter does have to be specified.

dreplay preprocess –m localhost -i c:\mytrace.trc -d c:\WorkingDir

In this example, the preprocess stage is initiated and a modified preprocess configuration file is specified. Unlike the previous example, the -c parameter is used to point to the modified configuration file, if you have stored it in a different location. For example:

dreplay preprocess –m localhost -i c:\mytrace.trc -d c:\WorkingDir -c c:\DReplay.exe.preprocess.config

In the modified preprocess configuration file, a filter condition is added that filters out system sessions during distributed replay. The filter is added by modifying the <PreprocessModifiers> element in the preprocess configuration file, DReplay.exe.preprocess.config.

The following shows an example of the modified configuration file:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<Options>
    <PreprocessModifiers>
        <IncSystemSession>No</IncSystemSession>
        <MaxIdleTime>-1</MaxIdleTime>
    </PreprocessModifiers>
</Options>

Permissions

You must run the administration tool as an interactive user, as either a local user or a domain user account. To use a local user account, the administration tool and controller must be running on the same computer.

For more information, see Distributed Replay Security.

See Also

Tasks

Prepare the Input Trace Data

Concepts

SQL Server Distributed Replay

Configure Distributed Replay