Preprocess Option (Distributed Replay Administration Tool)
Applies to: 
SQL Server 2016 (13.x),
SQL Server 2017 (14.x), and
SQL Server 2019 (15.x)
Important
SQL Server Distributed Replay is not available with SQL Server 2022 (16.x).
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.
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 isn't 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'll 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 aren't 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 isn't required if no filtering is needed, or if you don't 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 isn't 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's 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've 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.