Planning the number of databases

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This topic only applies to BAW, and is located in the BAW repository. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15

To edit the BPMConfig properties file as required, you must know the number of databases that must be set up for a shared or an unshared database environment, for either a new installation or a migration from IBM® Business Process Manager. The number of databases can be adjusted based on the configuration of your deployment environment.

Databases are different from database schemas. Database schemas can share the same database. Business Automation Workflow components such as Messaging, and ProcessServer are assigned to database schemas. When no name conflicts occur between database objects, components can share the same database. Components such as Process Server and Performance Data Warehouse (PDW) do not have database schema support; therefore, they cannot share the same database.

The default database configuration always uses as few databases as possible. The default configuration for Business Automation Workflow uses four databases, with the corresponding database schemas and assigned components.

Table 1. Databases, schemas, and components
Database	Schema	Components
CMNDB (the common database)	SharedDB	Messaging (Messaging Engine), FEM (Failed Event Manager), Business Process Choreographer (BPC), and Event Sequencing
CMNDB (the common database)	CellOnlyDB	Application scheduler (AppSched), Mediations (Meds), Relationship manager (Rels), Enterprise Service Bus Logger Mediation (ESBLogMed), and Customization (Business Rules and Selectors)
BPMDB (the Process database)	ProcessServerDB	Workflow Server (ProcessServer) (and BPM content store (EmbeddedECM)
PDWDB (the Performance Data Warehouse database)	PerformanceDB	Performance Data Warehouse
CPEDB (the Content database)	DosDb	Design Object Store
	TosDb	Target Object Store
	CaDb	Case Analyzer Object Store
	ChDb	Case History Object Store
	ICNDb	IBM Content Navigator

For considerations on object store configuration, see Planning for an external Content Platform Engine.

The CellOnlyDB schema exists only in the Advanced and AdvancedOnly deployment environments, and is part of the CMNDB database by default.
If you configured an Express deployment environment, the default configuration uses two databases, BPMDB and PDWDB.
If you configured an AdvancedOnly deployment environment, the default configuration uses one database, CMNDB, with the corresponding database schemas (CellOnlyDB and SharedDB) and assigned components.
For PostgreSQL, CMNDB is not needed because there is no common database.

Important: If you configure the optional Business Process Archive Manager, which allows you to move completed BPEL process instances and human tasks from the Business Process Choreographer database to a separate archive database, then you also require the BPARCDB database.