busTRACE captures I/O activity directly to memory. The more memory you have the more I/O activity you can capture. Likewise, if you limit the number of bytes busTRACE captures per I/O, you will also be able to store even more I/O activity in memory.

What if you want to capture more I/O activity than your memory allows? That is where busTRACE's ability to capture directly to file will come in handy. You are limited by the amount of free disk space you have on your system. There are some significant limitations with this feature to be aware of.

The data is not saved to a standard busTRACE capture file (i.e. a .BTD file). Instead, we support exporting the data into a format such as a CSV file (readable by a database program such as Microsoft Access).
Imagine a situation where your system is generating a tremendous amount of I/O activity. busTRACE does not interfere with the system's ability to generate I/O. You might find yourself in a situation where the system is generating I/O faster than busTRACE can save it to file for you. If this happens, busTRACE automatically stops the capture process and notifies you why it had to stop.

To get to this feature, start by setting your Capture Settings. Then select the Capture to File option from the Tools main menu or click on from the application toolbar.

busTRACE can save the I/O activity in one of several formats. When you select a format, additional details about that format appear in the Description box.

We recommend you use the default setting of Comma Separated Values (CSV) File. Capturing I/O activity to file can generate huge files. Formats such as HTML and XML Spreadsheet are not well suited for large files. A CSV file can be read in by a database program such as Microsoft Access. Database programs are well suited to deal with large files. Alternatively, you can write your own program to parse through the data.

Click Next to move to the next option.

In this next window, you can specify which of the I/O fields you are interested in exporting to file. Click Next to move to the next option.

In this next window, you can configure busTRACE to automatically stop the capture process when the given day and time has been reached. In addition, you can configure busTRACE to stop the capture process when the specified number of I/Os have been captured. Click Next to move to the next option.

In this next window, you are now ready to start the capture to file process. Simply click on the Finish button to proceed. busTRACE will prompt you with a Save As dialog box where you can specify where you want the capture file to be saved. busTRACE then starts the capture process and provides you statistics on the Capture to File process.

Capture Start Time	This field shows you when the busTRACE capture started.
Capture Time	This field shows you how long the busTRACE capture has been active.
Stop Time	If so configured, this field shows you when busTRACE will automatically stop the capture process.
Total # of I/Os Saved	This field shows you the total number of I/Os that have been saved.
Trigger Status	This field shows you whether or not a trigger point has been hit.
Maximum I/O Count	If so configured, this field shows you the maximum number of I/Os busTRACE will capture.
Destination File	This field shows you the name of the file where the I/Os are being saved.
Current File Size	This field shows you how large the file is thus far.
Available Space Remaining	This field shows you how much free disk space is available on the volume where busTRACE is saving the capture file too.
File System	This field tells you what file system is in use on the volume. Note that some file systems have size restrictions. If you intend on saving a capture file larger than 4GBytes in size, we recommend you use the NTFS file system.

See Also: