About the Database File Structure in Harmony Server

ForHarmony Server, the scene files as well as user and configuration files are contained within the database structure. If you want to share or archive a project, you will need to use Control Center to export your data from the database. If you receive a package from another user or studio, you will also need to use Control Center to import it in your database. Refer to the Control Center User Guide to learn how.

All Harmony Server directories are located at the root of your file system by default. On Windows, this is at the root of the C:\ drive. On macOS and GNU/Linux, this is simply referred to as the root directory, or /.

/usa_db

The usa_db directory contains the file structure of the database server. This is where all the information about the database structure is stored, including the hierarchy of environment, jobs and scenes, their various settings, user profiles and the location of the scene data on the network.

/usadata

The usadata directory is where all the scene data is actually stored. It is stored in a different directory than the database structure to allow using different machines to store the database and to store the scene data. There may be several usadata folders, each followed by a number. This occurs when the server is configured to store scene data on more than one data server, to expand its storage space.

Although the hierarchy of a database starts with environments, inside which are jobs and inside which are scenes, the environments and jobs in a Harmony Server database are stored in separate folders in /usa_db. Hence, while browsing /usa_db, you cannot navigate from an environment to one of its jobs. You must go directly to the jobs directory to find its content.

Inside a job directory, you will find one folder for each scene contained in the job. This is actually a shortcut that points to the actual scene data folder of the scene, which is located to one of the /usadata folder for the database.