ClearTrace Beta Notes
If you are part of the ClearTrace beta program the application exposes the ability to store multiple traces. It also allows you to store history for those traces.
You can expose the functionality of the beta by entering the word "jayhawk" in the beta code under Tools -> Options. The only support for this is in the ClearTrace support forums.
When you load a trace file(s), ClearTrace now allows you to change the "Trace Group". This defaults to "(One Time Trace Analysis)". Everytime you load a trace with this name is completely replaces what was already loaded. This is a very easy way review a trace file without permanently saving it.
A Trace Group is simply a way to group traces together. For example if you plan to save traces for a number of different servers you might enter the server name as the Trace Group. When you query the traces later you are asked to specify which Trace Group you'd like to query. If you run multiple traces on a single server you might name them ServerName_TraceName. For example, your Trace Group for high read queries might be named Server1_Reads.
Each trace file must have a unique name. Any time a trace file is imported for a specific Trace Group it replaces what is already there. This makes it very easy to rerun traces. It also means each trace file must be named uniquely. I suggest naming trace files as TraceName_YYMMDD_HHMMSS.trc. The timestamp is based on the start date of the trace. In fact I already have a script you can use that does this. The file includes three scripts: one to run a trace, one to stop all traces and one to delete trace files older than a specified number of days.
You are also able to query traces based on the date. After you choose a trace you can select the date you'd like to query. Or you can run your query across all dates.
The beta version adds the ability to summarize by time as well as by day. For example, to group your events into 10 minute blocks enter 10 in the Time Granularity field. To group your events into 60 minute blocks enter 60 in the Time Granularity field. The default is to leave the field blank which only groups by day. The interface doesn't yet have the ability to use the time information in its queries. You an query the view CTTraceSummaryView in the database directly to use this information.
Please let us know if you have any questions.