The following components make up the Distributed Replay environment:

Distributed Replay administration tool: A console application, DReplay.exe, used to communicate with the distributed replay controller. Use the administration tool to control the distributed replay.

Distributed Replay controller: A computer running the Windows service named SQL Server Distributed Replay controller. The Distributed Replay controller orchestrates the actions of the distributed replay clients. There can only be one controller instance in each Distributed Replay environment.

Distributed Replay clients: One or more computers (physical or virtual) running the Windows service named SQL Server Distributed Replay client. The Distributed Replay clients work together to simulate workloads against an instance of SQL Server. There can be one or more clients in each Distributed Replay environment.

Target server: An instance of SQL Server that the Distributed Replay clients can use to replay trace data. We recommend that the target server be located in a test environment.