Performing a Distributed Replay with Multiple Clients using SQL Server 2012 Distributed Replay

In the first post in this blog series on using SQL Server 2012 Distributed Replay, Installing and Configuring SQL Server 2012 Distributed Replay, we looked at how to configure a Distributed Replay environment using multiple clients and a dedicated replay controller.  In this post we’ll actually make use of the previously configured servers to perform a distributed replay using a random workload that has been generated against the AdventureWorks2008R2 database installed on our Replay SQL Server.

Collecting the Replay Trace Data

For the purposes of generating a random workload against AdventureWorks2008R2, I created a workload generator that can be found on my blog post The AdventureWorks2008R2 Books Online Random Workload Generator.  I used this with 2 different PowerShell Windows from SQL2012-DRU1 and SQL2012-DRU2 to run a random workload across multiple sessions against the SQL2012-DB1 server.  To capture the trace data required for performing the replay, SQL Server Profiler was used along with the TSQL_Replay template to create the capture.

image

For production systems, the best way to go about capturing a Replay Trace is to script the trace definition to a file, and then create the trace as a server side trace that is writing to a trace file on local disks for the server.  This has a significantly lower impact that tracing directly from Profiler, which uses the rowset provider for Trace.  With the replay trace running, and the workload generating events I waited for the trace to collect around 80000 rows of data and then shutdown the trace so that I could access the trace file to copy it from the SQL2012-DB1 server to the SQL2012-DRU server where the Distributed Replay Controller is installed.

Preprocessing the Trace File(s)

At the point that I went to perform the preprocessing of the trace file for replay, I realized a difference in my environment using multiple servers to build this blog series versus my original setup using a single server for learning how to use Distributed Replay.  In order to preprocess the trace file for replay, you have to have the Management Tools Basic installed on the server that will be used for preprocessing the trace data.  If you have been following this blog series to learn how to use Distributed Replay, you will need to run Setup on the SQL2012-DRU server to add this feature before it can be used for pre-processing the trace file.  This is necessary to administer Distributed Replay.

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Once the Management Tools Basic have been installed the server will have to be restarted and then it is possible to make use of the DReplay.Exe executable to administer the Distributed Replay components on the controller server. The DReplay executable has multiple options that can be discovered by using a –? from the command line as follows:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn>dreplay -?
Info DReplay    Usage:
DReplay.exe {preprocess|replay|status|cancel} [options] [-?]}

Verbs:
preprocess Apply filters and prepare trace data for intermediate file on controller.
replay     Transfer the dispatch files to the clients, launch and synchronize replay.
status     Query and display the current status of the controller.
cancel     Cancel the current operation on the controller.
-?         Display the command syntax summary.

Options:
dreplay preprocess [-m controller] -i input_trace_file -d controller_working_dir [-c config_file] [-f status_interval]
dreplay replay [-m controller] -d controller_working_dir [-o] [-s target_server] -w clients [-c config_file] [-f status_interval]
dreplay status [-m controller] [-f status_interval]
dreplay cancel [-m controller] [-q]
Run dreplay <verb> -? for detailed help on each verb.

To perform the preprocessing, you will need to do a couple of different steps.  The first thing you need to do is edit any options that you want to set for the pre-processing by editing the DReplay.Exe.Preproces.config file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn path on the server.  There are two configuration files for DReplay.Exe as highlighted below.  At this time make sure that you are only editing the Preprocess.config file.

image

The DReplay.Exe.Preproces.config file contains a schema defined XML document that controls the configuration of the preprocessing.  In general the options set for preprocessing should not need to be changed but if you want to include system sessions as a part of the replay, you can change the options in the XML, which is listed below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Options>
    <PreprocessModifiers>
        <IncSystemSession>No</IncSystemSession>
        <MaxIdleTime>-1</MaxIdleTime>
    </PreprocessModifiers>
</Options>

To preprocess the trace data, open a new command prompt window and change directories to the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn path.  The trace file has been copied onto the SQL2012-DRU server as C:\DReplay\SQL2012_ReplayTrace.trc.  To preprocess this file first start the “SQL Server Distributed Replay Controller” service by using NET START:

NET START "SQL Server Distributed Replay Controller"

Then execute the following command from within the Binn path to actually preprocess the trace file and output:

dreplay preprocess -i "C:\DReplay\SQL2012_ReplayTrace.trc" -d "C:\DReplay"

This will process the trace file and output the working files for performing the Distributed Replay to the C:\DReplay path.  Below is a screenshot of the full window for preprocessing the trace file.

image

Note: The dreplay executable can be called from any path within the server because the Binn path is a part of the Path Environmental variables.  However, the executable has to be called from within the Binn folder to access the necessary .config files and .xsd schema files for the configuration.  If you want to be able to run this executable from another location on the server, you will need to copy the .config and .xsd files out of the Binn folder to the folder that you want to be able to run dreplay within for it to work.

Performing the Replay

The first step in performing the replay is to start the “SQL Server Distributed Replay Client” service on each of the replay clients using NET START.

NET START "SQL Server Distributed Replay Client"

You will want to verify that each of the clients was able to successfully connect to the controller in the logs as shown in the previous post in this series.  Once this has been done, your environment is almost ready for replay.  For the purposes of this blog series, a SELECT only workload has been generated for replay against AdventureWorks2008R2.  However, in most environments you won’t have a SELECT only workload, so you will have to plan for and prepare your replay environment using a BACKUP/RESTORE of the production database from a point within the captured workload so that the database can be replayed against without having problems associated with Primary Key constraint violations during the replay.

If you want to change any of the parameters associated with the replay operation, you can edit the DReplay.Exe.Replay.config file in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn path.  The default contents of the configuration file are shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Options>
    <ReplayOptions>
        <Server></Server>
        <SequencingMode>stress</SequencingMode>
        <ConnectTimeScale>100</ConnectTimeScale>
        <ThinkTimeScale>100</ThinkTimeScale>
        <HealthmonInterval>60</HealthmonInterval>
        <QueryTimeout>3600</QueryTimeout>
        <ThreadsPerClient>255</ThreadsPerClient>
        <EnableConnectionPooling>No</EnableConnectionPooling>
        <StressScaleGranularity>SPID</StressScaleGranularity>
    </ReplayOptions>
    <OutputOptions>
        <ResultTrace>
            <RecordRowCount>Yes</RecordRowCount>
            <RecordResultSet>No</RecordResultSet>
        </ResultTrace>
    </OutputOptions>
</Options>

Before performing the actual replay, make sure that the account being used to run the SQL Server Distributed Replay Client service has been granted appropriate access to the target SQL Server and database to be able to perform the replay operations.  Once this has been done replay can be performed using the command line options for DReplay.Exe by providing the appropriate switches, or you can alternately provide the –c command line switch to specify the configuration file that should be used for performing the replay.  If you change any of the default values listed above in the DReplay.Exe.Replay.config file, you will need to specify the –c command line switch for those to take effect.  To perform a replay with the defaults, the following command line execution can be run:

dreplay replay -s "SQL2012-DB1" -d "C:\DReplay" -w "SQL2012-DRU1, SQL2012-DRU2"

Once this is executed, the Distributed Replay Controller will take read in the preprocessed replay file, and then synchronize the replay across all of the clients specified with the –w command line parameter.  While the replay operation occurs, the command window for the controller will output periodic updates about the current status of the replay process.

image

The frequency of the status updates can be controlled using the –f command line switch to specify the number of seconds between each of the updates.  Each of the status updates will provide information about each of the clients including the total number of events that have been replayed, the success rate of the replay operations per client, as well as an estimate for the total amount of time remaining to complete the replay operation.  When the replay completes the total elapsed time and pass rate for the events is output.

image

In the next and final post in this series, we’ll look at some of the common problems with using Distributed Replay and how to resolve them, including manually configuring the Controller and add additional Client Service accounts to the environment after Setup has been completed.

19 thoughts on “Performing a Distributed Replay with Multiple Clients using SQL Server 2012 Distributed Replay

  1. Hi Jonathan,

    I’m about to try this to see if possible, however thought i would see if you have any ideas. i am currently stress testing a bespoke application using Dreplay. I have captured a trace file from an end to end system that had 5 users running random UI activity. However when i fire this off from 5 VM’s each one of those 5 users activities are going to fire at the same time across 5 dreplay clients ( same queries execute synchonously across 5 VM’s) Is it in anyway possible to fire up 5 cmd line windows each to control one of the vm’s replay activities and offset the start time with teh config file by 5 seconds on each one? this will mean there is some offset between each dreplay client to avoid inducing locking on certain resources caused by executing the same session queries 5 times in parralel

    1. Hey Jay,

      If you do a synchronized replay, then it will fire off exactly like it did for the capture so you wouldn’t need to offset each of the machines during the replay, you would just need to offset them during your initial workload generation period.

  2. 2013-10-04 11:36:03:185 Error DReplay The client ‘xxx_yyy’ is not a registered distributed replay
    client. Make sure that the SQL Server Distributed Replay Client services is running on ‘xxx_yyy’,
    and that the client is registered with the controller ‘localhost’.

    Hi Jonathan I followed your steps but got the error message above. I went into component services and added permissions for DReplay for launch and activate, access and configuration permissions. I was able to preproces my trace file and and can see from the. The log file here C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\DReplayClient\Log that the client is registered with the controller. Can you think of anything I can try?

  3. Can you leverage the TSQL or a custom Profiler template instead of the TSQL_Replay for Distributed Replay?

    Thank you.

    1. You can, but if the events are not included like they are in the TSQL_Replay profiler template, you won’t be able to perform a replay operation. Why do you need to customize the TSQL_Replay template that ships with Profiler, except for filtering on a specific database or user, which you can do in either an scripted copy of the template or when setting up the trace to begin with?

      1. Thank you Jonathan. Our existing server traces are not based on the TSQL_Replay profile. Instead of matching them, we developed a custom Replay application.

  4. Hey Johnathon,
    Great article as always!!! Excellent detail and easy to follow. My one question is I’d like to simulate what the response times would look if I doubled or tripled the workload on the server. Is that possible through Distributed Replay? Is that what the Connect Time Scale and Think Time Scale are for? Or should I be upping the threads per workstation? I’ve tried a couple things with no luck. However my problem could also be that I only have 3 workstation clients. If you could point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it.

    1. Hey Jason,

      You can drive higher volumes of load with stress mode and scaling the connect and think time, but it’s not necessarily going to be linear or predictable like you might hope. You may just have to play with the values to see where you get the double/triple TPS from the captured workload.

  5. Hi Jonathan,

    I want to read the extended events(.xel) file through distributed replay. I have used the readtrace RML utility and converted .Xel file to .TRC file. I have used the standard sample Extended event template which is part of RML utility.
    The Preproccesss phase completes successfully, but when I run the replay process I am getting some errors, I checked in the Controller log and the client log:
    In Controller Log:
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:129 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Event replay in progress. Detailed options:
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:129 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Target DB Server: [DBTestServer].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:129 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Controller Working Directory: [D:\DRDemo].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:129 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Generate Result Trace: [No].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Sequencing Mode: [STRESS].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Connect Time Scale: [100].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Think Time Scale: [100].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Healthmon Polling Interval: [60].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Query Timeout: [3600].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Data Provider Type: [ODBC].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Threads Per Client: [255].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Record Row Count: [Yes].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Record Result Set: [Yes].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Connection Pooling Enabled: [No].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Stress Scale Granularity: [SPID].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Replay Clients: [DBTestServer].
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 CRITICAL [Controller Service] [0xC821001D] Failed to assign an event with connection ID [917561] to any client.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Event dispatch in progress.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 CRITICAL [Controller Service] **** Critical Error ****
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:145 CRITICAL [Controller Service] Machine Name: DBTestServer
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:161 CRITICAL [Controller Service] Error Code: 0xC8502100
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:176 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Event replay completed.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:176 OPERATIONAL [Controller Service] Elapsed time: 0 day(s), 0 hour(s), 0 minute(s), 0 second(s).
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:223 CRITICAL [Controller Service] [0xC8210003] Event manager is not running.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:223 CRITICAL [Controller Service] **** Critical Error ****
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:223 CRITICAL [Controller Service] Machine Name: DBTestServer
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:239 CRITICAL [Controller Service] Error Code: 0xC8502100
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:239 CRITICAL [Controller Service] Unadvise callback interface – failed, invalid arguments.

    In Client Log:
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:223 CRITICAL [Client Replay] [0xC8120004] Failed to receive trace start time from controller with return code 0xC8502100.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:239 OPERATIONAL [Client Replay] Event replay completed.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:239 OPERATIONAL [Client Replay] 0 events replayed in total.
    2016-01-05 16:52:52:254 CRITICAL [Client Service] Critical Error: code=[c8503101], msg=Failed to receive replay data from controller, confirm network connectivity and restart the Distributed Replay Utility services on both client and controller computers.

    Can you please help on this.
    thanks

  6. Hi Jonathan,

    I was wondering if you always pre-generate the .trc file through profiler or trace, or if you have a way to tie this into Extended Events (i.e. is the above poster’s problem seen often?)? You assume a .trc file to pre-process — could you link to your most recent articles on how to efficiently create these?

    Also, as far as I can see, there is no additional post on common problems… While I know this is an older series, I was wondering if you could update it for SQL 2014/2016; maybe just add a note if the basics still apply? Or point us in a new direction if there are newer features/replacements for this functionality?

    Thanks!

    1. The basics still apply the same in 2014 and 2016. Nothing has changed with Distributed Replay as far as I know since 2012 introduced it. You have to use a .trc file for input into Distributed Replay and the Trace Replay template in profiler has the correct events, but you should use a server side trace to file and not Profiler to collect the trace data. READTRACE from RML Utilities can convert a XEvent file to trc format for use with Distributed Replay but there is a current issue where it doesn’t always work for replay so Trace is still your best bet.

  7. Hi Everyone,
    my english is bad but i hope you can understand.

    I have some problem with distributed replay especially when i run : dreplay replay…
    Here is my error :

    Error DReplay Could not find any resources appropriate for the specified culture or the neutral culture. Make sure “Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.DistributedReplay.ExceptionTemplates.resources” was correctly embedded or linked into assembly “Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.DistributedReplay” at compile time, or that all the satellite assemblies required are loadable and fully signed.

    I try manytimes but i can’t resolve it.
    If you can help me, i will really appreciate.

    Thanks

  8. Hi Jonathan,

    Thanks for this great article.

    It works great for a single client but when I’m trying to register a second machine to the controller it never show up in the status.

    My setup looks like:
    SQLLab02 -> Controler, Client
    SQLLab03 -> Second client

    Executing on SQLab02 dreplay STATUS
    2018-02-22 09:06:56:567 Info DReplay Registered clients:
    2018-02-22 09:06:56:572 Info DReplay SQLLAB02(status = READY)
    2018-02-22 09:06:56:574 Info DReplay The controller “localhost” is in a ready state

    All firewall are off

    Here are my XML Config files:
    SQLLab02.DReplayClient.xml
    …sqllab02…
    SQLLab03.DReplayClient.xml
    …sqllab02…

    All Service use the same Domain account that have local admin privilege on SQLLab02 and SQLLab03.
    DCOM Security has also been set to everyone (Allow local & Remote) on both server (Computer access and Application access security)

    Here is the Client log file of SQLLab03 when the service start:
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:667 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Microsoft SQL Server Distributed Replay Client – 13.0.1601.5.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:667 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] © Microsoft Corporation.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:668 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] All rights reserved.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:671 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Current edition is: [Developer Edition].
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:671 OPERATIONAL [Common] Initializing dump support.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:672 OPERATIONAL [Common] Failed to get DmpClient. [HRESULT=0x8007007F]
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:673 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Windows service “Microsoft SQL Server Distributed Replay Client” has started under service account “XXXXXXXXXXXX”. Process ID is 7720.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:674 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Time Zone: Eastern Standard Time.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:676 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Controller name is “SQLLab02”.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:677 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Working directory is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\DReplayClient\WorkingDir”.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:677 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Result directory is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Tools\DReplayClient\ResultDir”.
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:678 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Heartbeat Frequency(ms): 3000
    2018-02-22 09:31:27:679 OPERATIONAL [Client Service] Heartbeats Before Timeout: 3

    No error shown anywhere (Real Account has been replaced here by XXXXXXXXXXX)

    Thanks to highlight anything that I could have missed.

      1. Thanks Jonathan, I can also see that restriction in the SQL Server Edition comparaison list.

        I guess the main used case for that feature (with multiple clients) is to test your production infrastructure in a maintenance windows.

        Have you blogged (or intend to blog) about how to scale the charge with distributed replay? It seems that there is not a lot of documentation on how to play with those configuration parameters. Default value already seems to be set to its maximum of 100%. in “DReplay.Exe.Replay.xml”

        SequencingMode : stress :/SequencingMode
        ConnectTimeScale: 100 :/ConnectTimeScale
        ThinkTimeScale: 100 :/ThinkTimeScale

        Thanks

  9. Hi Jonathan,

    Thanks for this article.
    I have two questions, if the trace was collected on a server which is in different domain of the replay server, and the logins which are used for the processing are domain accounts, will that cause to fail those commands which runs by those domain accounts?
    Also, I’m doing the preprocess, but the percent is going above 100% not sure if it’s a bug or if you have seen such a issue?
    2018-11-15 16:26:44:576 Info DReplay 127% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:27:14:578 Info DReplay 127% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:27:44:579 Info DReplay 128% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:28:14:580 Info DReplay 128% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:28:44:581 Info DReplay 128% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:29:14:582 Info DReplay 129% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:29:44:583 Info DReplay 129% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.
    2018-11-15 16:30:14:585 Info DReplay 129% have been prepared for replay. Estimated time remaining: 0 seconds.

    Thanks for the help.

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