Database Selection

adTempus stores most of its data in a relational database. For the most part, you do not need to know anything about the database beyond making the initial determination about which database to use.

By default, adTempus will install the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express database engine, and this is the recommended configuration. However, you may also choose to use your own existing database server.

Using the Default Database Engine

The default database engine, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, is included as part of adTempus and does not require an additional license purchase. When you choose to use this option, adTempus Setup will install, configure, and manage SQL Server Express for you: you will not need to interact directly with the database server. A backup of your adTempus data will be created each night.

Note that even if you already have SQL Server 2005 Express installed on the computer, adTempus will install a new SQL Server instance.

SQL Server 2005 Express requires approximately 270MB of disk space for the database program files.

This is the recommended database configuration because:

It requires no database knowledge, configuration, or management by you, the adTempus user.
It ensures that adTempus will always be able to connect to its database, because the database will be on the same computer as adTempus.
It isolates adTempus from problems such as database performance issues or database server shut downs that may be caused by other applications or other business needs.

Using Your Own Database Server

If you already have a Microsoft SQL Server database server, you may choose to host the adTempus database on this server instead of using the SQL Server Express instance available with adTempus. At this time, adTempus supports only Microsoft SQL Server, and requires SQL Server 2000 or later.

See the Using a Standalone SQL Server Instance topic for more information about using your own SQL Server instance.

As noted above, we recommend using the SQL Server Express instance because it provides isolation and reliability for adTempus. If you choose to use your own SQL Server instance, you should keep in mind that adTempus requires continuous access to the database server. If SQL Server is shut down, or the network connection between computers is lost, this will cause problems in adTempus and may lead to missed or failed jobs.