IBM FileNet P8, Version 5.2.1

Workflow system database size limitations

The workflow system database software sets limits on the amount of data that you can store in a workflow field. The limits are both specific to a field and cumulative for a record.

The following table describes the limitations that are set by specific versions of Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2®.

Table 1. Database limitations
	Characters^* per field of data type string	Bytes of data per database row (record)	Maximum number of columns per database table^†
Microsoft SQL Server 2012	4000 (data type `nvarchar`)	8060	1024
Oracle 11g	4000* bytes per column	No defined limit	1000
DB2	16,336 `vargraphic` double-byte characters You cannot define a DB2 table that contains more bytes than your row size.	Variable The row size is determined by the defined table space page size. For a page size of 32K, the row size is 32,677	1012

^* The workflow system uses character-based strings. When a multibyte character set such as AL32UTF8 is used, the maximum number of bytes that is listed in the table is not necessarily equivalent to the maximum number of characters. To determine an approximate maximum number of multibyte characters in a string, find the average number of bytes per character, which depends on the language that is used in your database. Then, divide the maximum number of bytes per column (4000) by the average number of bytes per character. For example, for an average number of 3 bytes per character: 4000/3, or approximately 1333.

^† The maximum number of columns per database table includes the required workflow system fields for each workflow roster, queue, and event log.

^†† The workflow system logs a warning message in the system event log when the BLOB size of a configuration object or a work item exceeds 95% of the maximum defined size.

The workflow system imposes an additional limit of 1 MB for a BLOB. This size is sufficient for most applications. The following conditions increase the amount of data that is stored in a BLOB:

A large number of workspaces. A large number of workspaces is the result of many versions of the same workflow definitions that are transferred to the workflow system in one isolated region.
A large number of steps on the main workflow map. This condition can be avoided by breaking up the workflow into submaps.
A large number of data fields.
Very large string data fields.

For BLOB columns, the data is not stored in the row itself. It is stored in another area of the database. Only the address to the data is stored in the row. The address does not significantly affect the maximum amount of actual data which can be stored in a row. Therefore, unexposed data fields can be larger in size (and total row size) than the limits suggest.