How do I analyse a set of SQL Profiler-generated rolling trace files?

Question

I am trying to diagnose an issue with a production SQL Server instance. I have asked the DBA to provide a trace and have been given a set of SQL trace files (1185 files to be precise).

When I open the first file, SQL Profiler detects presence of additional trace files and prompts me to load the one by one - this approach does not scale to 1185 files.

Ultimately, what I want is to import all that trace data into SQL server so I can query it.

Can you recommend an approach or tool that would allow me to do this?

Answer 1

Laerte Junior has a nice article on how to read these using Powershell. Go down to the "Reading Multiple Trace Files and Insert into SQL table." section for the exact statement.

Answer 2

The following will insert the entire set of files into a table of your choosing. Then you can query. Please do this on a dev instance.

SELECT * 
INTO [Database].[schema].[table] 
FROM ::fn_trace_gettable('\path\to\tracefile1.trc', default)