ClearTrace for Extended Events

ClearTraceXE (Build 56)

This build doesn’t requires a specific version of SMO. The README.txt describes how to update the .config file to support the version of SMO you have installed. It’s very easy to do.
This has been tested using the SMO libraries from SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2017, and SQL Server 2019.
This build only reads extended event files. For trace files, please download the older version below.
The File Select doesn’t support wildcards. Instead you can browse (open) the directory and select multiple files. This worked much better in my testing. It also doesn’t automatically process all files in order when you select the first one. You’ll need to select all the ones you want to process.
The database format is the same as ClearTrace for Trace. Due to parsing differences in how XE presents SQL statements, the “normalized” SQL may not match up. I suggest starting with a new database.
This only handles rpc_completed and sql_batch_completed events.
The command-line version isn’t avaiable yet.

What’s Required

A recent version of SMO. This is tested with 16.2004021.0. It should support most versions.
.NET Framework 4.5.2

ClearTrace for Trace

ClearTrace (Build 51)

This build supports SQL Server 2017, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2008.

What’s New

The new ClearTrace support forums are available at https://forums.sqlteam.com/c/cleartrace. If you have any issues please report them there.
The SMO libraries are now loaded using the partial name. This means that ClearTrace should “just work” with future versions of SQL Server.
The parsing is improved for SQL that looks like: EXEC sp_executesql @statement=N’SELECT 1'.
(Introduced in Build 50)
There’s a new sort choice of “CPU & Reads”. This ranks each statement (or any item you’ve grouped by) on CPU and Reads. It then sorts based on the sum of the rankings. This should bring more interesting statements to the top. This was introduced in Build 50 but improved in Build 51.

What’s Included

This download contains the GUI and command-line versions. There is no installer. It will not create Start Menu entries or check for updates. The command-line version is still in beta. Please note that only the GUI version can create the database to store the results.

What’s Required

SMO is required for ClearTrace to read traces. One of the following versions of SQL Server must be installed on the computer where ClearTrace is running order to access the SMO libraries: SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2014, or 2016. It can be any edition except Express. (The Express Edition doesn’t install the required SMO libraries.)
This will read traces from SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2005.
The data can be stored in SQL Server 2008 through SQL Server 2014.
The .NET 4.0 Framework (specifically 4.0.30319 or later).

These are previous versions of ClearTrace. You should only use one of these if you need to read trace files generated on SQL Server 2000 or earlier.

ClearTrace (Build 47)

This build supports SQL Server 2014, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2008.

What’s New

The new ClearTrace support forums are available at https://forums.sqlteam.com/c/cleartrace.
There is a check box to to skip importing traces files that are already imported. This is helpful if your trace script generates unique file names and you want to process a few traces files before the entire trace is completed.
There is logic to track prepared SQL. It tries to capture the prepare statement and then match up the executions to the prepare. It wasn’t capturing unprepare statements properly so it was filling up memory. It now clears the prepared SQL buffer after each file. This uses less memory and doesn’t crash. The downside is you’ll see a few more sp_executes with numbers.
The trace group filter name is now much wider.
Viewing the detail for statements also shows the history. Previously the history was combining batches and statements. Or just plain throwing an exception. It works and show the proper results.