I have a need to repeatedly replay workloads from QA over and over again to verify that various scripts that we have do not impact on functionality of our overall product. As part of my tests, I am not interested in anything beyond a simple pass or fail for the workload. I imagine I should be able to monitor this with EE. I just wanted to confirm which is the best tool suited for this and ideally the easiest to use. I'm aware of distribute replay though from the bits I've heard it can be a bit clunky and it is on a deprecation path.

In SQL Server 2014, dreplay.exe was available under "Management Tools – Basic" feature. However, in SQL Server 2017 that feature no longer exists (Enterprise edition) and it doesn't come with SSMS installer either. Here is what available from SQL Server 2017 installer: Did they move dreplay.exe somewhere else? Any help is much appreciated! **Update 1.** ------------- It seems there is a bit of confusion around Distributed Replay and what exactly I am looking for. So I thought to include a diagram from this article : **Administration tool** (dreplay.exe) is what I am looking for. **Controller** (DReplayController.exe) is Distributed Replay Controller from feature selection screen. It is useless without Administration tool. **Client** (DReplayClient.exe) is Distributed Replay Client from feature selection screen. It is useless without Controller. **Update 2.** ------------- OS: Windows Server 2016 Standard SQL Server Management Studio version: 18.4 ** ** (As this post suggests dreplay.exe came with SSMS 17.x, but got removed from 18.x) SQL Server version: 14.0.1000.169 *** *** (displayed at Installation Type step or can be found in MediaInfo.xml Property Id="BaselineVersion" that is located in the root of disk with SQL Server installer) Binn folder contents: Directory of C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\140\Tools\Binn 18/11/2019 15:19 . 18/11/2019 15:19 .. 18/11/2019 15:19 DQ 22/08/2017 18:39 697,528 DReplayCommon.dll 22/08/2017 18:39 20,592 DReplayServer.tlb 22/08/2017 18:40 32,952 DReplayServerPS.dll 04/11/2019 15:25 Resources 04/11/2019 15:28 schemas 15/06/2019 11:09 602,848 SqlManager.dll 22/08/2017 18:47 60,088 SQLPS.exe 22/08/2017 18:48 379 SQLPS.exe.config 15/06/2019 11:09 29,472 sqlresld.dll 15/06/2019 11:09 29,264 SqlResourceLoader.dll 15/06/2019 11:08 59,672 SQLSCM.DLL 15/06/2019 11:08 133,200 SQLSVC.DLL 10 File(s) 1,665,995 bytes 5 Dir(s) 97,550,450,688 bytes free

We have a 1TB table that gets queried a lot. I have suggested we use Data Compression to save on space as well as help put more in memory. Because of the concern of CPU overhead, I have been tasked with proving our system can handle the rise in CPU. I have got a test server that matches our memory of the production server where the 1TB resides. My plan has been to use a compressed and uncompressed version of the database on the test server to use the most active stored procedure against this 1TB table to capture Logical Reads, Physical Reads and CPU to use as comparisons for data compression efficiency. I have captured this stored procedure using an RPC Completed Extended Event and exported to a table so that I have the statements to use on the testing server. ### Questions * Should/Can I convert Extended Events data from a source into a Trace File to use with Distributed Replay? * Rather than using thousands of the sample stored proc, should I simply focus on running 1 stored procedure call say 10 or 15 times using the non-compressed db and then the compressed db and compile the results this way? If there is a better solution or recommendation to this problem, I would like any suggestions. SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition. The 1TB is all clustered and non-clustered indexes. This is a table holding all of our products within our catalog so most heavily used table within the database. The table receives a lot of reads as well as inserts and updates.

I'm a little nervous replaying a captured trace/workload for performance analysis... I'm using an isolated service account to run the SQL Services, including the Distributed Replay controller & clients....Is that all that is needed to ensure replayed transactions won't jump across to the prod database? IE, is it possible that procedures or CLR objects could reach out and connect to another database, even though no linked servers are defined? TIA!