It is not unusual for job traces to be multiple terabytes in size, making direct operations on them inefficient and slow. A trace clip is a user-defined portion of a job trace, constrained in time and optionally using one or more packet filters, to reduce the set of packets to be examined. A trace clip has all of the properties of an ordinary trace file, and can be analyzed using all of the capabilities of Packet Analyzer Plus. Trace clips do not require any additional storage and behave exactly like ordinary trace files. There are several simple and visually oriented ways in which trace clips can be created using Packet Analyzer Plus.

Note: Unlike trace files, trace clips can expire, depending on a capture job’s retention settings. When a capture job reaches its maximum packet retention size, new packets overwrite the oldest job trace packets, expiring all trace clips for which the time interval included those overwritten packets. Expired trace clips are shown in red under a job trace in the Files panel. A trace clip that must be kept can be sent to a file (right click on the trace clip and select “Send to > File”) or locked (right click on the trace clip and select “Lock”). Lock is best used to retain a Trace clip for a short period of time, as it decreases the storage available for the capture job.