Database Introduction

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ComCap allows captured data to be saved in a database table.

 

Currently only databases supported by Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC or ADO) may be used, with testing using Microsoft SQL Server, Sun MySQL 5.1 and IBM DB2 v9.7.

 

In theory Access (Jet) could be used, but since SQL Server Express is free (database limited to 4 gigs), there seems little point.

 

MDAC may be used with any database with an ODBC or OLE DB Provider driver, however not all drivers provide the same level of support and may not be usable with ComCap. Please check the help page for the specific databases for recommended drivers and data link set-up:

 

       Microsoft SQL Server

       Sun MySQL

       IBM DB2

 

ComCap also includes Sample Database SQL scripts to create empty tables and stored procedures, to illustrate database capture.

 

A database needs to be specified separately for each capture channel, on the Capture Settings, Database tab.  The columns to save and how to extract them from the captured data are defined on the Capture Settings, Data Format tab.   For problem solving, Common Settings, Log Files has an Database Diagnostics tick box that specifies that extra database diagnostic messages should be written to the information log file.

 

ComCap can write to different databases for different channels.

 

Database Performance

ComCap has been successfully tested with one network channel capturing and writing 50 records per second to a database table using SQL Server 2005 (running on a separate computer), while 20 other channels were capturing more slowly and writing to different tables.  Record are buffered in memory before being written, so if capture rate is briefly higher no records should be lost.