Okay enough is enough, can someone anywhere provide a step by step guide screenshots encouraged of a how to example of how to use this part of the platform.
This seems like the murkiest, black box, least utilized part of the platform, while at the same time something that has the power to answers a lot of business questions. (Logfile parsing, usage tracking, telemetry of operations)
So what the heck Hamilton… where them docs at, they’re not in any of the trainings🧐
I second this.
I have shared what materials I have regarding the Vector Database here.
The database functionality was introduced way back in Vector 4.1. With Vector 4.2, Hamilton software was rebranded as VENUS one making it fun for all of us to keep track of our software revisions. Because we enjoy acronyms so much, VENUS stands for Vector NEw USer software.
I also included a brief ppt on Vector Database Plus - a separate installer that allows for more expanded functionality. Vector Database Plus is the Vector Database, which handles sample tracking and runtime actions as well as a way to insert and manage worklists. The difference is that in standard VENUS installs, every run produces its own database file accessible through the SQL Server. With Vector Database Plus, my understanding is that all information gets saved in a single database and you also get a full version of MSSQL Server. The benefit is that for IT purposes, data from all runs are saved in the same file so you can build custom run results to pull data from numerous runs or maybe go back to previous months and produce a result file from a run. All of this is done outside VENUS.
The other thing Vector Database Plus allows for is to store run information from numerous instruments in the same database. This is where the network sharing comes in. This functionality is not possible with the standard install and is moot anyway since you would end up with a network share with thousands of individual database files.
Stateside, the Vector Database Plus installer comes at an additional cost - I’m not sure how this is managed overseas. It would be best for you to work with your local representatives on such matters.
I am not aware of a more “customer-facing” guides, but I can follow up internally. The majority of our setups do not require a deeper dive into this functionality. This explains why it isn’t covered in our basic or even advanced training content. I also don’t explicitly train the applications support team on it either. As such, support will be limited.
All that being said, I hope you find what I posted to be helpful for your efforts.
But what’s the next step to not just go to the LogFiles\ to find out what’s happening on the STARs. There’s gotta be a ton of people also trying to google these get up and running questions as well but just give up quickly which is why I bet Hamilton doesn’t get a lot questions about this stuff 
VENUS stands for V ector NE w US er software.
Deep Hamilton lore.
You’ll need to enable Sample Tracking in the system configuration so there is content. Once that is On and you run some methods, you will see more entries in the Database Manager.
Okay so now I can get all the device to log their operations in a this database app and I can view it when I run the Hamilton.HxVectorDbManager.exe but this app seems to be just a viewer. Where is this structured data living? Are they one of the 3 file written to the log folder or are they somewhere else not that I have enabled this sample tracking?
For standard VENUS installs, it purges everything into a separate database export in the LogFiles directory. The *.mdf file is the real data ‘keeper’ and contains the data from the Vector database. The *.ldf is a logfile of the Microsoft SQL Server.
I’m not sure if it will contain everything you are looking for though - my understanding is that it mostly pertains to the state of the labware during the run - the materials I shared provide a broad overview of the functionality and database design.
