For years, Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) has used two tools—OSTRESS and Read80Trace—to simulate scenarios and analyze large SQL Server trace files for its customers. At the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) 2004 conference, PSS released these tools to the public. SQL Server DBAs and developers will find OSTRESS useful when working on complex stress-testing scenarios and Read80Trace helpful for analyzing SQL Server trace files to troubleshoot performance issues. I'll provide some detailed usage scenarios for these tools and give you pointers for using them effectively.