Database connection

If you have encountered a problem trying to connect to the Hydrology+ database, there are a few common reasons why this might be:

• Flood Modeller ships with a version of Microsoft SQL Server Express which is usually installed as part of the Flood Modeller installation. You may have chosen not to install it when you were installing Flood Modeller. You can rerun the installation, making sure to install Microsoft SQL Server Express.

• Microsoft SQL Server Express could not be installed when you installed Flood Modeller. Depending on your security permissions you may need your IT department to install Flood Modeller for you in order to install Microsoft SQL Server Express.

• You already have a version of Microsoft SQL Server Express installed. Flood Modeller is designed to work with Microsoft SQL Server Express 2019. If a different version is used this could possibly cause compatibility issues.

• You have permissions to install, but Microsoft SQL Server Express failed to install as part of the Flood Modeller installation. You can install it separately by obtaining the installer from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=101064 - but particular settings are required during this install to ensure compatibility with Flood Modeller. Details are provided below or alternatively contact support for further details before carrying out the install.

Steps to setup a Flood Modeller Hydrology+ database instance:

1. After downloading the installer file for Microsoft SQL Server Express 2019, either double-click on it to start the installation process or, if available, right-click on the file and select the option “Run as Administrator”. The window shown below will initially be displayed. Now select the “Custom” installation option.

The installer will then download the selected install package. This process will take a minute or two (depending on available download speed):

2. On the first screen of the SQL Server Installation wizard, with “Installation” selected from the left menu, select the top option to add a new instance of SQL Server (“New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation”:

3. Once downloaded, the selected install package will display a new window with a series of setup options to go through listed on the left side. Cycle through the first few screens without changing anything - just click Next at the bottom of each window. When the Feature Selection screen is reached, as shown below, untick all options under Database Engine Services. Leave all other items unchanged from their default setting.

4. When the Instance Configuration screen is reached, select the “Named instance” option and enter “FMSQLEXPRESS” in the space provided (as shown below; the “Instance ID” field and “Installed instances” table will automatically be populated with the same text as soon as you click away from the “Named instance” field). Click Next to proceed to the next setup screen.

5. When the Database Engine Configuration screen is reached, the setup displays who will have access to the database. Here you have the opportunity to give extra users access to the database. This is required if they will be using this machine to run Flood Modeller and will want to access Hydrology+ features. Use the “Add” button to access a popup window that enables other users to be located. Type the required surname and use the Check Names function to find matching usernames. Select the required additional user and click OK.

6. Keep clicking Next on each screen to proceed through all remaining screens of the setup process, leaving settings on these as defaults. The installer should then progress the installation of SQL Express to completion. After this the installer window can be closed.

7. The next time the Flood Modeller user interface is run it should now be able to access and perform all Hydrology+ processes. Note that the first time the Hydrology+ tab is selected the interface may have to perform some initial updating to configure your associated database. This will happen automatically and should take less than a minute to complete.

8. If you are still experiencing accessibility issues with your Hydrology+ database after following the above steps then contact Flood Modeller support for further help.