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After installing the tool and re-starting IIS, the Recorder (recorder.dll) creates the following directory, unless the registry value has been changed:
system32\LogFiles\Replay
The Recorder records all the request traffic coming into IIS. The filter creates custom log file(s) in a directory specified in the registry. For information about configuring the registry entry for Playback, see Configurable Options.
The recorder filter logs the request at two different times, depending on the mode you select. In the validation mode the request information is recorded before IIS logs the data (during a SF_NOTIFY_LOG event). The server status code is known at this time, so during playback the client can validate this value to give some indication everything is going as expected (this isn't always accurate because of the vast number of potential responses given the server state).
In the test mode the request data is recorded during SF_NOTIFY_READ_RAW_DATA. This necessitates two files being created, since data comes in asynchronously. During playback the client will indicate that no requests can be validated. This is expected. This feature is an attempt to log any requests before IIS has had a chance to begin working on it. It will make reproducing certain types of problems easier. This mode will not be used in most cases since validation gives more useful information.
The recorder filter creates the following file(s):
Note
You must keep these two files together for playback; otherwise the client will be unable to create the request and will exit.
After you have recorded some traffic you must stop IIS. If you want to restart IIS so it continues to service requests, copy the above the log file(s) to another directory or drive for playback before restarting.
Note
The recorder captures everything that comes in on every request, so the logs generated can be very large (depending on the type of traffic and what your log configuration is, they can run about 15 times larger than the standard IIS log). Initially, try small captures and playing them back to see how things work. Expand your capture times as appropriate.
Registry entries reside in the following location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC\Replay\.
The following is a description of registry entries for the IIS Playback tool:
Caution
Be careful about using net locations as this can have a negative effect on performance.
SessionTimeout - time out of a Playback user.
Note
The SessionTimeout variable is in minutes and designates when the recorder should drop a user from its internal table. The default is 20 minutes, the same as for ASP sessions. If you do not keep track of user sessions, change this value to 0 so memory resources can be cleaned up more often. If you do keep track of user sessions, set this value to the same timeout value you use for accurate tracking.
After recording you can take the generated log file and play the requests back against any specified server that has the content of the original server mirrored. See Playback Syntax for the command-line usage.
Notes