Project database (SQL Server)

By default Live keeps alarm, event, recipe, report and archive records in the .veri folder next to the Live file. If Record storage is set to SQL Server database in Studio, the project gets its own database. Live creates the database and its tables by itself on first start. Other programs such as Excel, reporting tools or an MES can read the records with SQL.

The local files are still written and serve as a safety copy of the records. If the database cannot be reached, records wait in the local file and are sent from where they stopped once the connection is back. The same record is never written to the database twice.

The Test connection button below the card connects to the server from the Studio computer. It reports whether the database exists and, if not, whether there is permission to create it; it writes nothing.

Each row has two time fields: UnixMs (UTC, milliseconds) and Time (local time of the Live computer). The views show names instead of IDs. Other logs go to FV_Log, and the persistent data of Live goes to FV_Store.

• The alarm, event, report and archive views in Live read from the database if it is connected and those records have been sent; otherwise they read from the local file.
• The retention settings of reports and archives still apply: when a local monthly file is deleted, the rows of the same month are deleted from the database too. Alarm and event records are not deleted automatically.
• If Daily backup is on, Live backs up the database every day at the first opportunity after 01:00. There is one file for each day of the week (FV_Demo_Projesi_1.bak … _7.bak); after a week the oldest is overwritten. The files are in the backup folder of SQL Server.
• When the connection drops, comes back or a backup fails, Live writes a system entry to the event log.

If the server is empty or .\FABYAVISION, each Live writes to the database on its own computer, giving two separate, complete copies. For one shared database, enter a computer name as the server (for example PC-A\FABYAVISION). Both Live instances then write to the same database, and the same record is not written twice. The shared server must be reachable from both computers. Setting up the pair is described on the server redundancy page.

• SQL Server 2025 Express needs 64-bit Windows 10 / 11 or Windows Server 2019 or later. On other systems the component is not installed, and Live keeps writing records to the local file.
• The installation needs administrator rights. The Windows account that runs the setup becomes the SQL Server administrator. If Live runs under another Windows account, give that account rights in SQL Server or define an SQL user.
• The instance is installed closed to the network (TCP/IP and named pipes off); only programs on the same computer connect to it.
• SQL Server Express is free; one database can be at most 50 GB. For a larger volume of records, another SQL Server can be selected.
• The trial installer does not include this component; Live can connect to an existing SQL Server.

• User accounts and project settings stay in the project file.
• Connection passwords and station settings are not sent to the database.
• Browser viewers do not connect to the database, and the database setting is not sent to them.
• Time machine recordings stay in the project’s data folder.