Connect to your data source

Prior to connecting to your data source, you need to set up your database (SQL Server 2014 or later). This is a prerequisite for Harmony Enterprise.

When you launch Harmony Enterprise, the startup screen opens.

Harmony startup screen

The top of the startup screen may include information about your computing environment (for example, AWS Cloud, AWS AppStream, Azure Cloud, or Citrix).

To connect to your data source:

1. Click Connect to and select from these options:

  • Harmony Enterprise Database — for Harmony Enterprise (full version). Opens the Select Data Source dialog box.
  • Existing .hldb file — Browse to your existing local database file.
  • New .hldb file — Create an empty project to bring wells into.

2. In the Select Data Source dialog box, there are two ways to connect to an existing data source. Use option 1 or option 2.

Select Data Source dialog box

Connecting using the Data Source Manager

Harmony Enterprise requires a data source that uses the ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server.

To connect to your data source using the Data Source Manager:

1. In the Select Data Source dialog box, click Select the data source to connect to.

2. To provide information on how to connect to your data source, click Data Source Manager. Select ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server when creating your DSN.

The ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box opens.

3. Click the System DSN tab (not the User DSN tab), and then click the Add button to create a new data source.

4. Select ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server from the list of drivers and click Finish.

The Create a New Data Source to SQL Server dialog box opens.

5. Type a name for your data source, select the server you want to connect to from the drop-down list, and click Next.

6. Select either Windows authentication or SQL Server authentication (the first or third options) and click Next.
(If you select an unsupported authentication mode, Harmony Enterprise cannot connect to your data source.)

Create a New Data Source to SQL Server dialog box

Tip:   On Azure, Active Directory Integrated and Active Directory Password are also valid authentication options in setting up the DSN.

7. Select the database you want to connect to from the drop-down list, and click Next.

Microsoft SQL Server DSN Configuration dialog box

8. Click Finish. Close the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box.

9. Select your data source from the drop-down list and click OK.

Select data source to connect to

Your newly added data source is added to the drop-down list.

Connecting using a .dsn file

The .dsn file is a file that describes the data source, and it can be created by a database administrator.

To connect to your data source using a .dsn file:

1. In the Select Data Source dialog box, click Path to .dsn file.

Path to dsn file

2. Type the full path to the .dsn file, or navigate to the file by clicking the Browse icon ().

Note:   By default, clicking the Browse icon () opens the Documents folder. However, you can change this default location by setting a new default path with the HARMONYDSN environment variable.

Connecting to a remote database

We recommend that the server hosting your Harmony Enterprise database is co-located with the computers running Harmony Enterprise (for example, on your local office network). For optimal performance, this reduces the communication time between Harmony Enterprise and the database. When the connection to the database is slower than recommended, a warning about performance is displayed.

Warning message

If you see this warning and find subsequent performance of Harmony Enterprise makes it difficult to complete your work, please work with your IT department to optimize your Harmony Enterprise deployment. If this is not possible, you may consider alternatives such as working on local .hldb files, or remoting into a computer with a better connection to the database.

You can continue to work on the database by dismissing the warning, but the warning is displayed or dismissed for each Harmony Enterprise database. In addition, the warning is displayed in the Status Window, even after you have dismissed the message.