I received a SQL Profiler trace file from a client in order to analyze activity on their SQL Server. When I attempted to open the file, I received a helpful error message that began, “Unable to locate trace definition file Microsoft SQL Server TraceDefinition 10.50.0.xml…”. This happened because my client is running SQL Server 2008 R2 but I am running SQL Server 2008. I had the client sent the Trace Definition file mentioned to me: “D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Profiler\TraceDefinitions\Microsoft SQL Server TraceDefinition 10.50.0.xml” and I copied that file into my “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Profiler\TraceDefinitions”. Copying it to this folder required admin permissions.
I then went back and double-clicked on the trace file (.trc) that the client had sent to me and I received this error:
“Unrecognized command line argument. All command line arguments will be ignored. Please run ‘profiler.exe -?’ to see a list of valid command line arguments.” I have not resolved this error, and don’t plan to. I was able to open the trace file by first opening SQL Server Profiler, then using File Open and selecting the .trc file.