Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for receiving a capture file, the capture file holding data representative of a workload executed in a source database system, processing the capture file to provide a replay file, the replay file being in a format that is executable by a replayer to replay the workload in a target database system, the workload including a set of requests represented within the replay file, providing a set of tags associated with the replay file, the set of tags including one or more tags, each tag associated with a request in the set of requests, and during replay of the workload in the target database system: pausing replay of the workload in response to a tag, executing a request associated with the tag, providing replay results specific to the request, and selectively resuming replay of the workload in the target database system.