Global configuration databases

The global configuration database contains definitions of the common set of attributes that control functional characteristics of the collection of resources and services for the FileNet® P8 domain it represents.

The global configuration database provides hierarchical object storage and contains bootstrap data and global configuration information for the FileNet P8 domain. The global configuration database defines domain resources such as object store databases, full-text index areas, fixed content storage areas, content cache areas and marking sets. The global configuration database can contain sensitive information.

Only specified users or groups, typically administrators, have read and write access to the data contained within the global configuration database.

The information that is stored in the global configuration database is essential to Content Platform Engine. When a Content Platform Engine server is started, the global configuration data is read, and the data is cached in memory. If the global configuration database becomes unavailable, the Content Platform Engine system can continue processing in a limited mode as long as the information is available in memory. The global configuration data is managed as follows:
  • When the global configuration database is available, configuration data is read from it and stored in memory. Content Platform Engine is fully functional in this mode. The in-memory copy is refreshed from the global configuration database every few minutes. A file-based copy is written on the local Content Platform Engine server when the server first starts and whenever the data is refreshed after a global configuration database update.
  • When the global configuration database is not available, an already active Content Platform Engine server can continue processing requests by using in-memory data, if the requests do not require an update to the global configuration database. Operations that require an update to the global configuration database cannot be completed and an error (E_GCD_NOT_AVAILABLE) is written to the system log. In this limited mode, most administrative and configuration changes are prohibited. After the global configuration database becomes available again, the Content Platform Engine server will automatically reconnect and resume processing in a fully functional mode.
  • If the global configuration database is not available upon startup, Content Platform Engine can start by using the local file-based copy and can process requests in the limited mode until the global configuration database becomes available again.
  • If both the global configuration database and a local file-based copy are unavailable, Content Platform Engine fails to start. In this case, access to the global configuration database must be restored.