Introduction to sharding

Sharding separates large databases into smaller, more easily managed parts called database shards that can be spread across multiple database servers.

In IBM® Sterling Order Management System Software, a colony is a set of database shards and is determined by a configurable set of attributes.

The following diagram illustrates how sharding by enterprise works.

Additional sharding considerations

Note the following sharding considerations:

• If two enterprises share customer master data or catalog master data, they must also share the same Master shard and hence, must belong to same colony.
• If a colony has existing Master and Transaction data combined together in one shard, the colony continues to have Master and Transaction data combined, even after upgrades.
• Resharding is not supported in Sterling Order Management System Software.