Extracting the contents of a trace file

In this recipe, we will extract the contents of a trace file (.trc) using PowerShell.

Getting ready

We will need to use the x86 version of PowerShell and/or PowerShell ISE for this recipe. This is unfortunate, but some of the classes we need to use are only supported in 32-bit mode.

In this recipe, we will use a previously saved trace (.trc) file. Feel free to substitute this with a trace file that you have available.

How to do it...

Let's look at how we can extract the contents of a trace file.

1. Open the PowerShell console by going to Start | Accessories | Windows PowerShell | Windows PowerShell ISE (x86).

2. Import the SQLPS module, and create a new SMO Server object:

   #import SQL Server module
   Import-Module SQLPS -DisableNameChecking

3. Import additional libraries. These are needed to use our TraceFile and TraceServer classes. We do this as follows:

   #load ConnectionInfoExtended, this contains TraceFile class
   [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft...