IBM Business Monitor, V8.0.1 > Install IBM Business Monitor > Plan to install

Database considerations

The main MONITOR database stores the IBM Business Monitor configuration, monitor model metadata, and monitored data. The IBM Cognos Business Intelligence configuration is stored in a separate IBM Cognos BI content store database named COGNOSCS. Profile creation assumes that both the MONITOR and COGNOSCS database are created in the same database instance. If you already have the required level of IBM Cognos BI installed and running, you do not need to create an IBM Cognos BI content store database. The existing IBM Cognos BI server will have the content store database.

You can use a common database user name for the MONITOR and COGNOSCS databases. However, you might want to use separate names because IBM Cognos BI creates its own content store tables in the schema of the provided database name when IBM Cognos BI first starts.

The MONITOR database is also used to store schemas for the following components during stand-alone profile creation:

If you are not using a stand-alone profile, you can use the same database or different databases for these components, and additionally for the CEI data store, which is not required and therefore is not created or enabled by default.

IBM Cognos BI is not supported on z/OS .

For production environments, you can choose from the following supported database products:

Only the DB2 for z/OS database is supported.

Multiple types of data are stored in the MONITOR database. When you create the IBM Business Monitor profile or run the database scripts, you create database tables that contain configuration data for IBM Business Monitor. Later, when each monitor model is installed, additional tables are created to store data for that monitor model. When events are processed, monitor model instance data is stored in these tables. The dashboards then refer to these tables.

Tip: In a ND environment, create the MONITOR and COGNOSCS databases before starting the dmgr and creating other custom profiles.

If the COGNOSCS database is remote from the IBM Cognos BI server, install a database client on the IBM Cognos BI server machine. See the details in the database-specific database consideration topics.


Create the databases

There are several ways to create the MONITOR and COGNOSCS databases.

In the MONITOR database, if you rename the table spaces for example data, then when you are creating the schema for monitor models, you must export the create schema scripts and change the table space names to match the names that were used during initial database creation.


Database size

The IBM Business Monitor database scripts for the MONITOR database create multiple table spaces to store data. The table space names and configuration can be altered depending on the enterprise standards and performance and sizing requirements. For development and test installations with minimal amounts of data, 1 GB of database storage should be sufficient. For production environments, size the database based on the amount of data that you intend to monitor.


Securing the databases

When the databases are created, the runtime database user is granted privileges to administer database objects by default, which simplifies the creation of the databases and enables the IBM Business Monitor server to automatically manage the monitor model database schema when models are deployed and removed. If you must secure the databases, see Securing the MONITOR database environment and Configure IBM Cognos BI security.

Plan to install IBM Business Monitor


Related tasks:
Securing the MONITOR database environment
Configure IBM Cognos BI security
Configure MONITOR database scripts manually
Installing the MONITOR database manually
Configure COGNOSCS database scripts manually
Installing the COGNOSCS database manually
Create the deployment environment using a pattern