| title | Replay Options | |
|---|---|---|
| titleSuffix | SQL Server Profiler | |
| description | Explore the settings that SQL Server Profiler uses when replaying a captured trace. Learn how to use the Replay Configuration dialog box to adjust the settings. | |
| author | rwestMSFT | |
| ms.author | randolphwest | |
| ms.date | 06/05/2025 | |
| ms.service | sql | |
| ms.subservice | profiler | |
| ms.topic | concept-article | |
| ms.collection |
|
[!INCLUDE SQL Server Azure SQL Managed Instance]
Before replaying a captured trace with [!INCLUDE ssSqlProfiler], specify replay options in the Replay Configuration dialog box. To launch this dialog box, open the replay trace file or table in [!INCLUDE ssSqlProfiler], and on the Replay menu, select Start. For information about what permissions are required to replay a trace, see Permissions required to run SQL Server Profiler.
This article describes the options specified with the Replay Configuration dialog box.
You should use the Distributed Replay Utility for replaying an intensive OLTP application (with many active concurrent connections or high throughput). The Distributed Replay Utility can replay trace data from multiple computers, better simulating a mission-critical workload. For more information, see SQL Server Distributed Replay overview.
The server is the name of the instance of [!INCLUDE ssNoVersion] against which you want to replay the trace. The server must adhere to the replay requirements described in Replay Requirements."
The output file where the result of replaying the trace is written for later viewing. By default, [!INCLUDE ssSqlProfiler] displays only the results of replaying the trace on the screen.
The database table where the result of replaying the trace is written for later viewing.
Specify the number of replay threads to use concurrently. A higher number consumes more resources during replay, but replay is faster. Event ordering isn't fully maintained when multiple threads are used.
Allows you to use debugging methods such as stepping through each trace. If this option isn't selected, replay doesn't guarantee that events are replayed in an order that is consistent with the order in which events were originally captured.
Optimizes performance and disables debugging. Events are replayed in the order they were recorded for a particular session ID (SPID), but ordering of session ID isn't guaranteed.
Display the results of the replay. This is the default option. If the trace you're replaying is very large, you might want to disable this to save disk space.
For best replay performance, you should choose to replay events using multiple threads, and don't display the replay results.
Replay all session IDs. This is the default option.
Replays the session ID you choose from the list.
Replays the trace for the specified Start time and End time.
Sets the amount of time a process is allowed to run before the health monitor terminates it.
Sets how often the health monitor polls candidates for termination.
Sets how often the blocked processes monitor searches for blocked or blocking processes.
The health monitor is an application thread that monitors the simulated processes involved in replaying a trace, and ends those processes that are blocked within the replay. In the Advanced Replay Options tab of the Replay Configuration dialog box, you can specify how long the health monitor should wait in seconds before ending a blocked process (Health monitor wait interval). If you set this interval to 0, the health monitor never ends simulated blocking processes in the replaying trace.