Guidewire database direct update policy

PolicyCenter runs on a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). You can use SQL or other query tools directly in a read-only manner to extract or view data. Such read-only queries, depending on their scope and how they are written, can negatively effect overall database performance even though they do not modify any data. Therefore, Guidewire recommends that you run SQL queries in a replica or copy of their production database, rather than the production database itself. For applications such as data warehouses and intensive reporting, Guidewire recommends that you explore mechanisms for replicating or summarizing data into a production reporting database for this purpose. This practice can help unexpected production performance issues due to intensive reporting requirements or lengthy queries.

Internal application logic, embedded in PolicyCenter application code and APIs, maintains a variety of data and metadata that relates to your application data. This might not be obvious from review of the RDBMS table structure. Examples include:

  • Calculations of summary table data for reporting
  • Caching of application data in memory for faster access
  • Tracking of state information associated with the underlying data, such as the processing state of an integration message
For this reason, never use SQL to directly update the underlying RDBMS. Any such direct SQL updates can leave the data in an inconsistent state. Guidewire can require you to restore the database to a previous state if you require support after performing such an update query. Guidewire Support is not able to assist you with diagnosing and correcting application issues caused by your database queries. It is your responsibility to restore PolicyCenter to a consistent state.
Warning: Guidewire supports the built-in automatic database upgrade process only for Guidewire InsuranceSuite products. Guidewire explicitly does not support any alternative process that executes SQL DDL commands on the database.

If you have a legitimate need to update underlying application data, Guidewire recommends that you use Guidewire APIs, either Java or Gosu, to perform the necessary updates. This ensures that you do not miss any critical side effects of the updates in the process of altering the data. Using Guidewire APIs to update application data is safer than using SQL queries with regard to consistency. However, with any programming language or API it is still possible to update data incorrectly or in ways that do not perform well. Therefore, before using the APIs, Guidewire strongly recommends that you review your intended updates with your Guidewire Support Partner and/or Guidewire Professional Services team.

In the rare case in which no API exists to correct a data corruption problem, Guidewire can advise you on the SQL queries to use to correct these problems. In these cases, the SQL queries used to update the database must be written, or approved, by Guidewire. This process ensures that all SQL queries use correct logic and that you take all potential side effects into account.

Do not apply any other SQL queries to modify data in a PolicyCenter database. Guidewire does not provide, nor review, such queries for situations in which an API or supported alternate method is available.