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Database System Requirements

The following components store information in a database:

• DevTest Server: The database is used for report results, which can be exported to other formats as needed. The database is also used for access control (ACL).
• VSE: The database is used for usage counts and legacy virtual service images.
• CAI: The database is used for paths, including request and response data, SQL statements, and application logs. The database is also used for tickets.
• Enterprise Dashboard: The database is used for the DevTest Solutions Usage Audit Report data, other registry information, historical event logs, and metrics.

  Important! Enterprise Dashboard requires its own unique large database. The database can reside on a different system and must have at least 50 GB of storage. IBM DB2 is not supported as the database for Enterprise Dashboard.

By default, these components use an Apache Derby database that is included with DevTest. This database is adequate only for small deployments that do not require load and performance testing, and is not supported. For all other scenarios, configure DevTest to use an external database.

To ensure correct performance when using an external database, the database server and DevTest server should have high network bandwidth and low latency.

DevTest, when run in a distributed configuration, strongly depends upon any server components having a high-bandwidth, low latency connection to a well-maintained enterprise class database.

All DevTest server components communicate directly with the database to record their actions, and any restriction to the flow of this data has adverse effects.

In order to ensure that your DevTest functions correctly, no DevTest server components should have a Round Trip Time (RTT) of greater than 20 ms to the database host. If the network latency exceeds this 20 ms value, you can expect performance problems.

Important! Use a clean database schema for any new installation. Data from the same DevTest version can be restored into the clean schema before you install. Do not use data from other versions.

The following external databases are supported:

• IBM DB2 10.1 or 10.5 (not supported for Enterprise Dashboard) - The code page of the database must be 1208. In addition, the page size must be at least 8 KB.
• MySQL 5.5 or 5.6 - The MySQL database must provide collation and characters set supporting UTF-8; double-byte characters are stored in the ACL and reporting tables. The default code page for the database must be UTF-8; it is not enough only to define your database as UTF-8.
• Oracle 11g Release 2 or 12c - The character set must be Unicode set.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 or 2012

The schema is automatically created in the external database when the registry starts for the first time. Before the schema is created, ensure that the DevTest user has DBA privileges. After the schema is created, you can remove the DBA privileges from the user.

If your security policy does not permit this approach, the database administrator can manually create the schema. The DDL files in the LISA_HOME\database directory contain SQL statements for creating the reporting tables and indexes, and for creating the agent database schema that CA Continuous Application Insight uses. Provide this information to your database administrator.

Note: For more information about the configuration of an external database, see Administering. For information about obtaining the SQL statements for the agent database schema, see Agents.

Important! Registries and Enterprise Dashboards must each have a unique schema. Do not point multiple registries at the same database schema.

For load and performance testing, tune the external database to ensure that it can support the amount of data storage that DevTest requires.

The registry, coordinator, simulators, and any virtual service environments require high-performance database access. Performance data is recorded directly to the database by these components. CA recommends that the database be present within the same data center. Databases hosted within a virtual machine are not recommended for general availability use.