Moving the Alarm Database to a different hard drive

Problem Statement

User has created an Alarm Database, but does not want it to exist on their C: drive, which is the default storage location.

Solution Details

Solution

This solution will involve moving the physical database files, and then repointing SQL Server to the new location. Note: Some steps and menu options may differ slightly based on the version of SQL Server that is used.

Solution Steps:

• Shut down the Alarm DB Logger Manager, as well as any InTouch stations which are currently accessing the Alarm Database.
  
• Open SQL Server Management Studio (called Enterprise Manager in older versions of SQL Server), and log in using your ‘sa’ account.
• Expand the databases folder and find your Alarm Database. By default this will be named WWALMDB.
• Right click on this database and choose Tasks > Detach…. Leave the default settings and press OK. This should remove SQL Server’s mapping to the database, but it will not delete the actual database files.
  
• Now you can go to the hard drive and move the database and log file to their new drive. By default these files will be located in a path similar to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA

*Note: This path may differ based on the version of SQL Server which is installed. The two files you want to move should be named “WWALMDB.mdf”, and “WWALMDB_log.ldf”

• Once you have moved the files, go back to SQL Server and right click on the Databases folder and select Attach….
  
• Click the Add… button and browse to the WWALMDB.mdf file. Once selected, you should see the Database and the Log file added to the list.
• Press OK, and SQL Server will now recognize the database in its new location.
• You can now restart the Alarm DB Logger, and any InTouch stations which had been shut down