Planning for databases

By default, WebSphere Portal installs and uses a Cloudscape database to store information about user identities, credentials, and permissions for accessing portal resources. Cloudscape is a built-in Java database that is well suited to basic portal environments. However, if the demands of your portal environment require database software with greater capability and scalability, you can also configure WebSphere Portal to use a more robust database, such as DB2. For example, Cloudscape does not support vertical cloning or a cluster environment, nor does it support enabling security in a database-only mode. There might also be performance gains by moving to a more robust database. If you want to use another database, transfer data from the Cloudscape database to your preferred database.

Note: If you use Cloudscape as your database, you do not need to review any of the database topics.

Before you can implement databases other than Cloudscape for WebSphere Portal, plan how you want to proceed.

• Is Cloudscape sufficient for your needs? The Cloudscape database might be sufficient in a development environment or in a production environment. If your production environment requires a more robust database with greater capability and scalability, you should not use Cloudscape as your database software. See the Cloudscape product site to learn more about using Cloudscape.
• Will your database be on a different machine than WebSphere Portal? You can install the database server on the same machine as WebSphere Portal, or you can install the database server on a remote machine. If you install the database server on a remote machine, you might be required to install database client software on the WebSphere Portal machine so that WebSphere Portal can communicate with the remote database server.

If you decide to use a database software other than Cloudscape, you must create the required databases and configure WebSphere Portal to work with the database. During configuration, export information from the Cloudscape database and import it into the new database.

If you intend to configure WebSphere Portal to use database software other than Cloudscape, it is recommended that you perform the database transfer before you use WebSphere Portal extensively. Large amounts of data in the databases can cause the database transfer to fail if your Java heap size is not large enough. Because information is added to the databases as you use WebSphere Portal, perform the database transfer as soon as it is practical to avoid problems due to the amount of data that you are transferring.

Next, refer to the Planning topic for the appropriate database to get help with specific decisions.